In Praise of Student Teachers

I'm home sick today with a raspy cough, woozy headache and achy body. I called in sick this morning at 6:00 a.m. and left word that I needed a sub. This means that a person who has never met my class will arrive at the door a few minutes before 8:00 a.m. and need to be brought up to speed as quickly as possible by my student teacher. She is in the (somewhat) awkward position of directing someone (who may be 15-20 years her senior) who is paid to orchestrate the day in spite of the fact that my student teacher is the one who is going to keep things together. As a graduate student she will not get paid for keeping it together. We chalk it up to a "learning experience," and hope that things will go well.



When you're as sick as I was this morning, you don't really want to get up at 6:00 a.m. and write a "to-do" list, so I felt very grateful that my student teacher and I had planned the next week last Friday before leaving school. Since she had planned the day and knew our routines for Monday, it wouldn't be a big deal for her to plow through the activities we'd planned together. It was also a blessing that I'd stayed late to copy a good part of Monday and Tuesday's work, even though I could feel myself deteriorating even then. At least she wouldn't have to run around early in the morning trying to figure out what to copy. When I spoke to my student teacher mid-morning, she had things well in hand, calmly assured me all was well, and told me in a nutshell, to "go back to bed and get some rest!"



This is all to say that for the past fifteen years I have been blessed with a myriad of student teachers, interns, one-day-a-week pre-practicum students and observers from a host of academic institutions in the greater Boston area. These novice educators have ranged in age from 22 to 45, mostly single but occasionally married, some beginning second (or third) careers and completing their master's in education, and some in their junior or senior years in college. One year when changing grades I refused a pre-practicum student, thinking that it was enough that it was my first year teaching first grade, and I needed to spend my time learning a new curriculum. That was the same year my class had a large sub-group of English-Language-Learners who needed a very strong dose of extra literacy. Tearing out my hair didn't produce any results, but by chance I mentioned the need for extra support for these ELL-ers to one of our special educators, who just happened to have a graduate student who needed to do extra hours with lower elementary students! Voila!



That particular grad student willingly volunteered two-three hours per day for the year -- until April when she found a job as a permanent sub. A runner and former athletic coach, she was committed to having students use their bodies to help them learn all kinds of basic skills, ergo she developed a number of games using movement, throw and catch, even the old parlor game "Twister" to make her phonics and literacy lessons engaging for the students. She purchased software targeting the skills where my ELL-ers needed support. During rainy day recesses she organized relay races. It got to the point that when she appeared at the door all the students would BEG to be picked to work with her. We had to explain that she was practicing with the ELL-ers, but they still begged. We finally gave in and let the ELL students pick a friend to accompany them, for at least a part of the lessons. When she left for her new official teaching position, we all felt the loss of her enthusiasm, expertise and passion; I felt the loss of companionship and inspiration.



One year I had a student teacher with little experience with 6 and 7-year olds -- she was enrolled in an Early Childhood Certification Program and she really wanted to work with 3 years olds. Her previous teaching experiences had been in pre-schools and pre-K camps. I remember we spent a lot of time working on management, how to speak to 1st graders, how to wait until she had their attention before giving directions. Her supervisor and I worried that she might need more time in the classroom, but somehow in the middle of the semester, she morphed, butterfly-like, into a strong speaker, someone who took charge! She loved developing curriculum and constructed a wonderful unit centered on medieval castles and castle life. We sent home a letter asking for paper goods -- I remember being unnerved by the deluge of materials brought in from home. We stockpiled barrelfuls of paper rolls, flattened cardboard , egg cartons and oatmeal boxes. I will never forget how excited the class was when we gave them time to use their imaginations and build drawbridges, trebuchets, turrets, walls, and staircases. There was an occasional squabble over materials and methods; in fact, the three days we spent building were messy and one could even say, chaotic. What quickly became clear was how each excited and highly motivated each child was by building. What also became clear is how much I had underestimated what this particular young teacher had to teach me about how to engage young learners.



Having a student teacher is a bit like a temporary arranged marriage --both sides get to "vet" the other, and if the two parties don't agree, either one can say no. The courtship begins when the educational institution sends a potential candidate to meet you (the supervising teacher) the semester before she is scheduled to begin her requisite teaching. At that meeting she will have an opportunity to look over your classroom, question you about your philosophy, see you in action and "get the lay of the land" where she'll be working for the fourteen weeks of her student teaching. During this meeting the supervising teacher gets to observe how the candidate interacts with the students, whether she is able to communicate with them, how easily she moves around classroom, what kinds of interactions she makes, notes the kinds of questions she asks (what's important to her?) and how comfortable the two parties are with each other.



I've come to believe that sometimes the magic of the student teacher/supervising teacher is just plain luck. Several years ago a local college sent a candidate beginning her second career to interview with several teachers in our building. There were opportunities in at least five classrooms, but somehow after all the interviews were over, the two of us had both selected each other.



From the beginning, this candidate was unusual. Eager, enthusiastic, excited about learning, with a great sense of humor she related easily to the students. Her previous work experience gave her a sense of purposefulness. She managed to engage students with her easy smile and her unshakable patience. I remember one day, while looking over student drawings of eyeballs (Optics was a part of the 5th grade curriculum), we came upon a picture of an eyeball that had red lines emanating from the center. It's impossible to describe now, and there's no way I can do the moment justice. All I can say is that when the two of us looked at a student's drawing of two bloodshot eyes, we dissolved into laughter that lasted for several minutes. We could not stop laughing. Twelve years later I still smile about that moment and cannot recall having had so much fun with another teacher. I remember thanking my lucky stars that she had somehow managed to land in my room.



The student/supervising teacher courtship arrangement usually works. Both sides know the liaison is temporary, lasting only fourteen weeks. There is quite a bit of pressure for the student teacher to get "up to speed" quickly in such a short time frame, and there is a need for the supervising teacher to willingly open her doors and unlock the teaching experience in a short time. The September -December practicum is valuable in that the student teacher sees the development of the class from its beginnings: how to set up the environment, how to lay out the routines, how to manage the classroom, and of course, discovery of who the students are as learners. Round Two, which begins in late January and continues through early May, may be challenging for both supervising teacher and student. The supervising teacher needs to reconstruct the history of the previous four months in order to figure out how to be in the classroom. I need to provide the backstory so that the newcomer can fully appreciate what we've learned and why we do things that we do. The best kind of arrangement is an internship which lasts from September through June for both parties; however, we have far fewer applicants for internships these days.



So this is my paean to student teachers, the most underrated and undervalued members of the education community. I have been the beneficiary of the process of their education,nudging and guiding, watching them grow, working alongside them, observing them as they take risks and take on the responsibility of teaching. Having these young teachers in my classroom has been a gift to me in my own teaching: I've learned to observe through their eyes what technique works with what kind of learner, who needs a special kind of teaching, who needs to take a break, who needs close monitoring, who needs a firm or a gentle hand. My students have benefited as a result of their teaching; even, - no maybe especially - when things didn't look neat and tidy, we were all learning.