College of Education Information & Resources for Mentor Teachers: Getting Your Student Teacher Started

   There are a number of ways of introducing your student teacher. If you are not sure how you want to begin, you might want to consider team-teaching as a way to introduce your student teacher to the class.

   We know that the integration of student teachers may happen differently in different buildings and differently depending on the authorization level. Below are some other suggestions for integrating your student teacher into your classroom:

  1. Have your student teacher watch you teach--get a journal for their observations and have them record your behavior management strategies and techniques in the classroom. Ask them to note specific things; for example, have them keep a list of your techniques in handling transitions.
  2. Involve your student teacher in ongoing instructional managment activities. They can work with individuals or small groups of students. Make sure that they are also being exposed to the clerical side of teaching, have them grade papers and prepare assignments. Please make sure that these activities can be done in the classroom, so that they are able to continue watching you.
  3. Include your student teacher in your planning and let the student teacher lead certain activities, or teach parts of a lesson or unit. Schedule together when, approximately, your student teachers will take over the class.
  4. Transfer more lesson planning to the student teacher--continue to include them in instructional activities.
  5. Your student will be creating and teaching a work sample. In addition to that work sample, include them in the development of other unit plans. Ask them to plan the objectives, with your supervision. Allow them to plan the individual lessons based on the unit. Make differentiation of lessons explicit to them, explain to them how you make the decisions about differentiating.
  6. As the student teacher continues to take over more of the planning and teaching, please continue to give them guidance and feedback on their planning and teaching.

   There are more suggestions on pages 17-18 of the Mentor Teacher Handbook.