Thread: Student teaching in the spring!

I think it's great that you get a choice! When I did my student teaching I was assigned someone I'd never met at a school I'd never visited; the university automatically made assignments without student input.

In the classroom, I've had several student teachers. I would get a call from a university supervisor requesting a placement in my room, and if I agreed, a few weeks later I'd get a call from who ever they assigned to my room. I never knew ahead of time who it would be.

Is this now a common way to place student teachers?

I think that it's more commonly still done the way that way, but at my university and a few colleges in the area, they want to make sure that the students and teachers have input on the placements.

Before observing teachers, I had to fill out an information sheet talking about my educational philosophy and experience and what I hoped to gain from student teaching. We essentially get to pick the grade level and setting of our student teaching, as well. Then the cooperating teachers make choices if they have more than one student request them as their first choice, and end up approving any student teachers that they will get.

I think it's a really good system-- it's really designed for a successful semester in mind. The only real downside of it is the time aspect: it's really one person's job at the university to make these placements, and ends up being very time consuming. I'm still a fan, though.

Dawn, that sounds like a system I would have loved to have student taught in, or been a master teacher in!

I have turned down student teaching the last few years. Having moved to another state, another system, etc., I've been busy integrating what I bring in the way of professional knowledge and experience into something new.