Suggested tips from EESP
Supervisor-Mentors include:
¨
The student teacher should
be a partner in the teaching-learning process.
¨
The plan should identify and
incorporate state standards and subskills.
¨
The planning process should
foster thinking about objectives and selecting the appropriate teaching
techniques as applied to IEP.
¨
The plan should provide new
areas of growth for working with a class.
¨
The plan should offer the supervising
teacher an opportunity to make suggestions before a class is taught.
¨
The plan should be a guide
that can be used in the analysis of a lesson.
¨
The plan should include
aspects of the management system of the IEP.
¨
The plan should be
coordinated with information from the regular education teacher/s.
¨
The master teacher should
provide guidance and support for the innovative ideas of the prospective
teacher.
·
Challenge: Late Planning
The student
teacher turns in lesson plans “late” and what is turned in is not detailed
enough for the classroom teacher to determine whether or not the lesson has a
good chance of being successful.
Comment: The
teacher may want to see lesson plans early for several reasons. The teacher is
ultimately responsible for the learning as well as the safety of students in
the classroom. When the teacher does not see the plans ahead of time, there is
no opportunity to make modifications that might ensure a better lesson. On the
other hand, when a teacher is consistently critical of lesson plans, the
student teacher may associate the writing of lesson plans with failure and
embarrassment. Yet another possibility is that the student teacher may be
someone who simply prefers to do things at the last minute as opposed to a supervising
teacher who values more structure in the planning process.
Suggested
Course of Action:
Give the
student a specific outline of planning you expect.
Take care not
to underplay the importance of detailed planning. Remember that an experienced
teacher has taught hundreds of lessons and planning is second nature. On the
other hand, a student teacher may have presented only a handful of lessons and
may need extensive practice of methodically including all components of good
teaching into a written format before quality teaching is achieved.
Give student
teachers positive reinforcement for the components of the plans that are of the
highest quality. Tell the student that there are several areas that appear weak
but that they will be worked on one at a time until all pieces are in plan.
Develop a plan and tackle the task, one step at a time.
Specify when
lesson plans are to be turned in to ensure that the teacher will have an
opportunity to provide feedback to the student teacher prior to teaching the
lesson. Indicate in a positive fashion that teaching will only be turned over
to the student teacher after plans have been approved by the supervising
teacher and then be sure to follow-through.
When there is
concern regarding planning, be sure to document this in formal written
evaluations so that both parties have documentation regarding this issue.
·
Challenge: Imitation
The student
teacher is imitating the supervising teacher to the point of wanting to use the
supervising teacher’s lesson plans from previous semesters.
Comment:
Some teachers
find it unsettling when a student teacher imitates their teaching while others
are flattered. Imitating can occur for a number of reasons. The student teacher
may believe that the teaching strategies used by the supervising teacher are
excellent. However, the supervising teacher may also be communicating subtle
messages to the student that there should be no major changes in how the class
is conducted. Supervisors often suspect that the student teacher has other
commitments that are taking away from the creative and reflective planning
needed for effective teaching. Regardless of the reason, the student teacher is
in need of more encouragement to stretch to try new approaches.
Suggested
Course of Action:
Tell the student
teacher that you enjoy seeing new teaching strategies that have been taught at
the university and that you expect to see these strategies in the lessons
taught.
Keep the lines
of communication open so that the student teacher will feel comfortable talking
about differences and similarities between teaching styles and techniques.
Allow the
student teacher to use the STs lesson plans for a week or two with the idea
that after a set period of time, the student teacher will develop his/her own
plans.