What You Can Expect from Me
What I Will Expect from You
My Student Teaching Philosophy
You have survived all the observing, reflecting, lesson-writing, and portfolio rough-drafting of student teaching levels so far, and the end is in sight. I believe that student teaching is a time to really teach or co-teach, more than observing and teaching a unit lesson or two. You are sacrificing lots of tuition and late nights for this experience, so I am thrilled to be able to work alongside you as we co-teach. I've found that being a mentor strengthens my own teaching, and I've collected some awesome projects and units I use now that were created by my former student teachers who are all now succeeding in their teaching careers. I owe my position here at EBLS to relationships developed as a student teacher mentor, so I take this responsibility very seriously. Once you get the idea of how things work here for a day or two in the beginning, you can expect to be co-teaching a LOT, and I promise to support you the best that I know how. It will mimic what it will feel like to have your own classroom your first year (because I still feel that way every day here with it being my first year at EBLS in a new grade), but with a co-pilot! Portfolios sometimes make student teaching crazy, but I have found them to be a valuable collection of ideas and reflection. I have mine and compile new ones each year; it is rewarding to see how my units and lessons have evolved and how students respond to them. I do keep a teaching reflection journal, and it has been a life-saver for remembering anecdotes to share with parents at SEP conferences and improved teaching the next year (like wow-ees that come up that through students for a loop without explicit instruction or explanation). Please let me help you meet your deadlines and requirements, and more important than that, make it a tool you will use in your teaching long after you submit it at semester's end. You will also find that I am passionate about collaboration, and you will be a part in A LOT of team discussions we cal PLCs (Professional Learning Communities). In addition to the student teacher-mentor debriefs I'd like to have semi-formally every afternoon once the carpool lane is empty, I want you to experience our faculty meetings and PLCs held after school on Fridays at 1:30 p.m. When they are offered, I will also invite you to attend with me any Arts Integration workshops; lacing visual art, music, movement, and performance in the core standards we teach is the icing on the cake for me and many of our students. Expect to go home exhausted every day!