When You Get the Time...
Having a student teacher has been eye opening in many ways. It has helped me take a fresh look at what I do and why I do it, as well as given me a new perspective on the job that I do. My main issue, however, has been: what do I do while I have a student teacher?
Student teachers need their mentor teacher at the school, and indeed it is required by most districts and universities. So what do you do when your mentor teacher duties are taken care of and you experience that inevitable downtime? Many teachers I spoke to said, "find a comfy place and watch movies". While I'm not against that, I have found some more ways to be productive with my time and use this time to become a better teacher myself. Below are some of the resources I have used to turn my downtime into professional development time!
1. Cult of Pedagogy
Okay, I'll say it-I'm obsessed with this blog! Jennifer Gonzalez is not only very educated, experienced, and well-read, but she knows exactly what teachers are going through, what they are looking for, and how to help them implement these things into their classrooms. She discusses everything from technology to learning strategies to caring about students. Ideas from this blog are endless and easy to use. I have read every single post (almost) and I can say with certainty that it has already made me a better teacher.
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/
2. The Strategic Teacher
The Strategic Teacher by Harvey F. Silver, Richard W. Strong, and Matthew J. Perini is a book I discovered by reading a post by Jennifer Gonzalez. Another benefit of her website is she reviews education books in detail, and I have a stack about a mile high of "to-read" books because of it. The Strategic Teacher is the first one I read. It gives you simple, evidence based strategies to improve your teaching and higher-level thinking in your classroom. Each strategy (there are 20) comes with a "snapshot" of the details. Once you have read the strategy in detail, these snapshots (located at the beginning of every chapter) make it easy for you to remember what the strategy is and where it can be best used in your lesson. If you are a mentor teacher looking for something to do...get reading!
3. PLAN!
As teachers, we never seem to have enough time to plan. One advantage of having a student teacher is that they plan their own lessons-or should-which frees you up to plan for when you take your classes back. I have been wanting to implement a project-based learning unit for a while now, and since I've had my student teacher I've had time to do research on PBL, as well as develop and prepare one for my classroom.
I have also provided a link for the rubric I use when I observe my student teacher! Please make a copy to use yourself!
Student Teacher Observation Rubric
Student teachers need their mentor teacher at the school, and indeed it is required by most districts and universities. So what do you do when your mentor teacher duties are taken care of and you experience that inevitable downtime? Many teachers I spoke to said, "find a comfy place and watch movies". While I'm not against that, I have found some more ways to be productive with my time and use this time to become a better teacher myself. Below are some of the resources I have used to turn my downtime into professional development time!
1. Cult of Pedagogy
Okay, I'll say it-I'm obsessed with this blog! Jennifer Gonzalez is not only very educated, experienced, and well-read, but she knows exactly what teachers are going through, what they are looking for, and how to help them implement these things into their classrooms. She discusses everything from technology to learning strategies to caring about students. Ideas from this blog are endless and easy to use. I have read every single post (almost) and I can say with certainty that it has already made me a better teacher.
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/
2. The Strategic Teacher
The Strategic Teacher by Harvey F. Silver, Richard W. Strong, and Matthew J. Perini is a book I discovered by reading a post by Jennifer Gonzalez. Another benefit of her website is she reviews education books in detail, and I have a stack about a mile high of "to-read" books because of it. The Strategic Teacher is the first one I read. It gives you simple, evidence based strategies to improve your teaching and higher-level thinking in your classroom. Each strategy (there are 20) comes with a "snapshot" of the details. Once you have read the strategy in detail, these snapshots (located at the beginning of every chapter) make it easy for you to remember what the strategy is and where it can be best used in your lesson. If you are a mentor teacher looking for something to do...get reading!
3. PLAN!
As teachers, we never seem to have enough time to plan. One advantage of having a student teacher is that they plan their own lessons-or should-which frees you up to plan for when you take your classes back. I have been wanting to implement a project-based learning unit for a while now, and since I've had my student teacher I've had time to do research on PBL, as well as develop and prepare one for my classroom.
I have also provided a link for the rubric I use when I observe my student teacher! Please make a copy to use yourself!
Student Teacher Observation Rubric
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