r/StudentTeaching

I am a cooperating teacher for a practicum student. We have it set so that she comes on Wednesdays, but one time she messaged me the night before saying that she had too much homework to do so she couldn't come. The most recent time, she messaged me the morning of and said she overslept. I told her she is welcome any time during the day, and she said she was just going to help her mom clean the house instead. She usually just observes when she comes in, despite me telling her she can jump in when a student needs help and I'm working with another student.

I messaged her professor about it, and she has concerns about my ST too. She does not seem engaged in class, and she was not participating in this community event they did. She is going to talk with the director of the program, and they are going to have a conversation with her and make a plan.

I have to fill out my ST's midterm evaluation, and I know i have to mark her low on some of the "professional dispositions". Obviously she can see that and I need to talk to her about it. I'm just nervous because I want to see if she's okay first, but i want her to know that in order to be a teacher, you have to show up, even on days you feel like you can't. I want to come across as empathetic and also professional.

Any advice from other CTs? I've only ever had one other practicum student before, and he was fantastic.

I hate that it took me so long to realize this, but how else would I have known? My college doesn’t even let us into the classroom until we’re 3.5 years into our degree.

Every teacher at the school I’m placed in hates their job. Every. Single. One.

I’m in a grade 1 classroom. Every single day the other primary teachers come into my co-op teacher’s classroom and talk about how they just can’t do this anymore. The kids are out of control, the parents don’t care, they receive no support from admin, and they’re not even making enough money to stay afloat. There have been over 10 full mornings now where we haven’t even been able to teach anything because a kid has a meltdown that we have to deal with and there’s no one else who can step in to help us (the school only has 5 EAs and 350 students).

My co-op teacher works 60 hours a week!!! And only 30 of those are paid!! The teachers in this school district get 40 minutes of paid prep time per week and hers is almost always spent emailing parents because their kid threw a tantrum and broke something. She’s constantly exhausted, overwhelmed, and stressed. She talks about wanting to leave the teaching profession but doesn’t know what else she’d do.

I cannot willingly put myself through this. I’m absolutely gonna finish my practicum and get my degree, but I don’t think my place is in the classroom anymore.

Last week, I was released from my internship with my mentor. This was a complete shock. I have worked with special ed kids for over 3 years. I wanted to pursue teaching. My supervisor told me that my mentor said I was always late and my outfits were inappropriate. I told my supervisor I have proof of my check in and check out times on my phone, from the school’s main office. My outfits I work as a para and my school has a strict dress code. I even checked the dress code policy and matched my outfits. I would ask my mentor what can I do better on or how can I improve my skills. He was a brick wall and said nothing to me on my skills. Even when I asked… How am I suppose to improve on my challenges. If the mentor doesn’t give me feedback? I can’t read his mind? I would communicate through email and he would ignore my messages. I am starting to think it was out of spite on a personal level. Has anyone been through this? Have a negative experience during student teaching or internship? In a way it was a blessing in disguise. I will be pursuing a different career path.

Hi! I am currently in my 7th week of student teaching and I am trying to find a balance because I feel the burnout already. I have kids too and I just feel like I spend every weekend planning and updating slides. I do all of this just for my mentor teacher to approve my lesson plans then scrap them the night before the new week. I told myself I am not doing that anymore. I don’t have a full classroom take over for another 4 weeks. I will not allow myself to burnout. I will just follow my mentor teachers lesson plans and the slides/curriculum that the school has given to me. No more adding updates or anything fancy, or I’ll read from the curriculum. Any advice for any student teachers or experienced teachers?

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for advice (and maybe a bit of reassurance). I got a 1 ("Needs Improvement") on my last formal observation, and my next observation is coming up on October 22nd. I really want to turn things around and hit at least a 2 ("Proficient") this time.

Right now, I don't know what specific topic/standard I'll be teaching on Oct 22 yet. My plan for Monday morning is to check in with my co-teacher/mentor teacher to look at our pacing map and see what unit we’ll be covering that week, plus ask what co-teaching structures or routines they recommend.

A few specific questions I have:

Practicing scripted delivery vs. student focus: The night before my last observation, I practiced everything I was going to say—transitions, attention-getters, and explanations—until late. I felt like my delivery was smooth, but I still got a 1. For those who improved their scores, how did you shift your focus from what the teacher is saying to what the students are doing during the lesson?

Using 7th period tomorrow to practice: Is it a good idea to use my class periods tomorrow (like my 7th period) as a low-stakes lab to test out quick attention-getters, call-and-responses, and whiteboard checks?

Key quick-fixes for evaluators: What are 2–3 non-negotiables that evaluators always look for when moving a student teacher from "Needs Improvement" to "Proficient"? (E.g., visible learning objectives, clipboard tracking during independent work, etc.)

Any tips, feedback, or encouragement from people who went from a rough first observation to a solid second one would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

I (26 male), am teaching 11th grade English and I’m been having trouble with this group of students since my second week of school. It always happens whenever my mentor teacher leaves the room (which is a lot) and they are supposed to do group work.

First, it started when they asked about my love life and I kindly told them that’s private information. They laughed and explicitly speculated about my bedroom activities. I get that they were trying to test me and tried brushing it off, but it was deeply unsettling. We never had spoken about their teacher like that when I was their age.

Afterwards, the next day I caught them cursing and saying racial slurs every in every sentence. When I calmly and directly told them we don’t do that in class, they got upset for me butting their conversation. But I can literally hear them from across the room. Their leader really took it personally as afterwards threatens accusations and called me racist (they’re Hispanic & I’m white passing). When I was literally making common sense corrections.

I eventually talked to my mentor teacher about it and he gave me the choice to either ignore it or have her speak with a counselor. He was leaning towards the former and made it seem like it’s something you just have to ignore but the behavior was getting awkward looks from students who weren’t acting out and so I thought it was best to clamp down on the issue.

Ever since then air has been pretty tense. The behavior has stopped and I’ve just handed them work, but going beyond that with offering help or looking it I fear they’ll just erupt. Making it quite noticeable when compared to the rest of the class.

I am student teaching in a SPED classroom. I really like my cooperating teacher, but I'm sure, as you all know, she is very busy and is pulled out of the classroom all of the time. I feel like she hasn't been mentoring me at all! I know how to teach since I have been a para, but I really would like to know the legistics of SPED since I basically didn't learn anything in school. For example, how to write an IEP, how to run a meeting, how to take data, etc etc. I unfortunately have been googling/using AI for a lot of my questions, which I don't want to do since my mentor has over 20 years of experience.

Are there online tutors out there somewhere? Online mentors? I don't want to hold out in the hopes that I'll get a good mentor when I become a first-year teacher. The whole thing really stresses me out, especially since I have ADHD, so I have to be taught and told things multiple times.