When student teachers learn to work within the team, they will feel that they have an extended family that supports each student and teacher. David Buie is a Social Studies teacher at Screven County Middle School. He is supervising his 26th student teacher. The time following completion of all-day teaching responsibilities is an important part of the student teaching experience. The amount of teaching is reduced.
Several considerations are significant.
First, non-teaching activities that are selected must be viewed as positively contributing to student teaching. Therefore, these non-teaching activities will need to be presented so that the student teacher sees them as an important part of the experience. Second, the student teacher must have clear understanding of these expectancies. Arriving at this understanding is best achieved in a conference setting. By taking time to discuss expectancies with the student teacher, areas of possible misunderstanding are easily clarified.