Student Teacher Shout Out!!

Happy Winter Break to everyone out for a little bit!! Happy Sunday to our Friends who will be heading back to school sooner than later :).

Cristy and I love stealing from, working with and sharing with other teachers!! We get so excited when we see and learn new things! After all teaching is the only profession where thieves are rewarded!!

Well in December, Cristy and I were fighting over who was going to get a Student Teacher! While I love Student Teachers, I am a CONTROL FREAK!! Just ask my student teacher from last year! I am pretty sure I drove her to MADNESS!!

While Cristy was more than willing to take the Student Teacher, she thought my group of kiddos may provide a student teacher with a somewhat less challenging environment (get my drift??).

So Yay! I was the winner of the Student Teacher. She started in January and well, to be honest!! Cristy and I still fight about her!! I am so happy and Cristy is sooooo sad!! Cristy wishes she would have been the winner of the Student Teacher!!

Anyway to the point!! Ms. White's college is Jacksonville State University in Alabama! When she came to my class we were required to do Pairs Training and learn about the different ways to Co-Teach!!

Now, probably friends, you already had Co-Teaching training and are already awesome working with student teachers, but for some reason, after 18 years of teaching I had never been trained on how to effectively be a mentor teacher and successfully implement Co-Teaching!

This training was awesome!!! It allowed Ms. White and I to develop a great working relationship as well as provided us with a guide for transition from me teaching to her teaching!!

Here are some tips that have made having a student teacher an even more amazing experience than ever!!!

1. 1 Teach/ 1 Observe = Week 1 I taught/ Ms. White observed, took notes and helped when asked or helped when noticed a need
2. Team Teach= After week one,  we taught together! I started the routine/ She started the routine, we took turns asking questions, telling information, giving directions!! AWESOME!!
3. Parallel / Differentiated Teaching = Ms. White and I discussed plans for small groups! We both taught similar content but different ways
4. 1 Teach / 1 observe = Now, when Ms. White takes over, we have slowly changed rolls!! COOL

Less turmoil for the kiddos!! Great practice for Ms. White!!  Ease of giving control over by the CONTROL FREAK!!

Now including my AWESOME assistant, we have 3 teachers working continuously with students!! Lots of one-on-one conferencing with Cafe! Lots of guided reading!! Lots of math and writing conferences!! Best experience ever!!

Thanks Ms. White and Jacksonville State!!

If you have any tips to share, we would love to hear them!!