The value of student teachers

It’s suppertime. Somehow you’ve managed to have everyone home for this weekday meal.

“So, what happened in school today?” you ask.

“It was so cool! We played with Yodas today. Mr. LaPointe brought in a whole bunch of [the Star Wars character] Yodas and it was so much fun!” replies child No. 2.

“Well, my day was funnier. Mr. Brown danced with the overhead projector just like on ‘Dancing with the Stars,'” answers child No. 1.

First off, none of these activities sounds particularly academic, and second, none of these names sounds familiar. Who are these people? They aren’t listed in the school directory nor are they on the school Web page. Like any appropriately curious parent, you proceed to ask questions:

“OK, why did you play with Yodas?” you ask.

“‘Cause Mr. LaPointe brought them in and so did Mrs. White.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“What did you do with the Yodas?” you try again.

“Oh, we measured them and there was a backpack one and a Lego one and a bank one and one on the board and a cutout one and there were more.”

“And what does ‘Dancing with the Stars’ have to do with your schoolwork?”

“Oh, Mr. Brown is just goofy. He danced with the projector every time we answered a question correctly.”

Now you’ve learned the academic potential of these activities but you still don’t recognize the adult names. That’s because they are student teachers. Student teachers are the unsung heroes of classrooms. Student teachers are in your child’s class to have the opportunity to observe and practice what they’ve learned in their own classrooms. It is one of the last and most important steps they take in the process of becoming certified teachers.

In my classroom, student teachers serve three main purposes:

1. Complete a certain amount of grunt work.

Every job and career has a certain amount of this work that needs to be done. Student teachers, along with every novice worker, need to experience this and accept this. The grunt work in education includes using the copying machine, sitting through staff meetings, correcting papers, teaching basic lessons and lunch and early morning or late dismissal bus duties. Grunt work isn’t glamorous, but it’s the nitty gritty that gets things done. In this case, it allows learning to progress in an organized manner.

2. Energize the classroom.

Student teachers also tend to add energy to a classroom. For the most part, they are eager to add pizzazz to basic lessons. The Yoda lesson evolved from an second-grade math lesson on measurement. My student teacher last year – Brian LaPointe, now teaching fourth grade at the Captain Albert W. Stevens School in Belfast – took the objectives and activities of this ordinary lesson and transformed them into a lesson involving measuring Yodas of different sizes. Mastering the measurement skills became much easier for this group of students.

Another way student teachers bring energy to the classroom is when supervising teachers allow them to use different methods of classroom management. Some supervising teachers worry about losing control of their classroom if they let a student teacher try a different classroom management strategy or tool. In my opinion, effective teachers never lose control of their classroom when they share the control with the students and with student teachers.

Mr. Brown (a made-up name since my daughter couldn’t remember his name from her eighth-grade social studies class) danced with the overhead projector. His antics were so memorable that the students not only could recount his every dance step, they could also easily recall every answer of the study session when they took the test the next week. This was a very different strategy than the one used by the supervising teacher. And that’s OK. In fact, it’s more than OK. It’s good for students and for teachers to see that there is more than one way to learn.

3. Provide another set of adult eyes, ears and a heart for students.

Student teachers can also be that extension of the teacher, providing another source of instruction, guidance and, most importantly, wholesome adult attention to the students in the classroom. This is accomplished when student teachers take the time to develop relationships with students. For some student teachers, this is tricky because being a teacher is not the same as being a camp counselor or baby sitter or older cousin or day-care provider. Developing appropriate teacher-student relationships is key to providing effective instruction. This relationship requires mutual respect, humor and patience.

Learning to be a teacher involves learning the science of teaching methods, acquiring the knowledge base of several different subject areas, and practicing the art of education. Most come to the student teaching process having mastered the science or acquired the knowledge and skills of teaching. They need the student teaching time to develop the art of education. The art of education takes time to mature; teachers, administrators, students, college supervisors and parents need to give student teachers our respect, humor and patience. After all, student teachers are the immediate future of the classroom.

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