Dear Preservice Teacher:
For nearly 25 years now, by mid-August, I fall asleep and wake up with gnawing little
anxieties about the school year to come. Will my plans fall into place? Will a workable,
energized classroom climate emerge? Can I juggle what I know to be a staggering load
of preparation, papers, extracurricular responsibilities and professional duties? Why
haven't I completed all the preparation and planning for the new units I have committed
to teach? Will this be the year when I finally encounter the intractable student whose will
and wiles are stronger than mine?
Frankly, the only teaching seasons I didn't have these feelings were my semester of
student teaching and my first year on the job. Armed with that transcript of As, a student
resume of successes, and tons of experiences as camp counselor, youth group leader, and
chaperone, I was prepared. I knew what teaching was all about. I had no reason to be
anxious. Yeah, right!
If you, however, feel inadequate, unprepared, a bit intimidated, or even actually scared as
you approach student teaching, good for you! You'll be teachable, impressionable, open,
adrenaline-charged, eager to discover what works and what doesn't, determined to learn
more than you need to know. You'll watch not only your mentor teacher, but also every
other teacher as you continually build that repertoire of teaching skills. And if you go on
to be a truly fine teacher, you'll experience that little twinge of anxiety every August
throughout your career. Please don't approach student teaching to show what you know;
approach student teaching to learn whatever you can.
How have you prepared to be a language arts teacher? Do you read, read, read as
personal choice? Do you write, write, write as a way of processing, reflecting,
organizing, and communicating. Do you watch and listen with depth and intensity? Do
you speak clearly, vibrantly, purposefully? Have you mastered the basics of grammar
and usage to the point that you can evaluate and edit the writing of others? Have you read
widely enough to be familiar with the literature of the English canon as well as the
multicultural traditions of the United States and the world? Have you a fair sense of
historical and cultural frameworks on which "to hang" these literary works? Are you
fairly fluent in computer use including preparing web pages, creating Power Point
presentations, researching and evaluating Internet resources? Can you use and teach the
resources of a print library with speed and efficiency? Whew…stop! Of course not!
Such content /skills preparation is life-long! When you think you're ready to stop soaking
up and reshaping content /skills, quit teaching. You have little to offer learners.
What expectations might your mentor teacher have of you? That you will intensely and
passionately care first about the welfare of his or her students. Those students, frankly,
are more important to your mentor than you are. They come first!
Your mentor teacher may interrupt, intervene, restructure, even dictate how the classroom
will work—if your mentor teacher truly cares more about your learning to teach than
about his or her getting a lounge break. Live with it! Be respectful, attentive, observant,
and flexible. You DO NOT know more than your mentor teacher does, although you may
have more natural teaching gifts. No, you may not teach whatever you're “interested in.”
You will be able to do things "your way" all too soon. Your mentor teacher has invited
you, as a guest, onto the most precious turf there is—his or her classroom. Honor the turf,
please.
The kids will try making you believe you're "way cool" compared to your mentor teacher.
But you have the task of switching, perhaps for the first time in your life, from the role of
labor to management. You are NOT one of the students. You are a "real" teacher. That
the kids like you is irrelevant That you like the kids is essential. Your behavior, attitude
and knowledge affect lives in ways you can't imagine. Your loyalty, always, must be to
the CEO of the classroom, the mentor teacher, except in those rare cases in which you
might observe what you judge to be physical or mental abuse of a student. In those cases,
call your college supervisor for advice on procedure. Yikes, isn't this whole discussion
way too heavy—way too serious? You'd better believe it's serious!
This veteran suggests you get to know and observe as many teachers as you can in your
school. But here's a caveat—schools are political territory. Lounge gossip, cliches, and
cabals operate there. Take in each conversation with wary ears and listen more than you
talk. Oddly enough, the initially friendly and confiding teachers may be the least reliable
and the least loyal. Learn who the truly respected teachers are and follow their lead.
Your mentor teacher can expect that you prepare lessons thoroughly, that you understand
the context of the lesson within the unit and the scope and sequence of the whole course.
Expect to do the "grunt work" of room arrangement, bulletin board, materials collection,
cleanup, media previewing, as well as scoring of papers and projects, recording of grades
and supervising extra-curricular activities. Student teaching IS your job. Nothing else—
save family emergencies—may interfere. All work schedules, vacation plans, recreation
needs, etc. take second place to this critical vocational preparation. If your student
teaching is to be valuable, then you will work harder and longer than you have in any
academic class to this point.
What can you expect of your mentor teacher? Passion about a vocation; a body of skills
and knowledge to be tapped; detailed observation and descriptive feedback. Your mentor
may be flexible and humorous or anal and intense. Live with it! Your mentor may
micromanage one week and then throw you into deep water the next. Trust the process.
Ask for rationale—but do your own homework. Offer ideas and check signals before you
implement.
As you begin to feel more comfortable and as your classroom management skills
increase, your mentor teacher will encourage you to take risks in method. Ask and hope
for establishing a personal relationship of honesty, friendship, and vulnerability. The
collegial journal (See "When Coaching is Teacher to Teacher: the Collegial Journal" by
Teresa Berndt and Donna Fisher in Winning Ways of Coaching Writing: A Practical
Guide for Teaching Writing in Grades 6-12 edited by Dr. Mary Warner, Western
Carolina University, Boston: Allyn and Bacon: 2001) is a practical way to enable that
kind of conversation even during the hectic schedule of student teaching.
Here's what we wrote in Winning Ways:
While the early years of teaching writing can be both exciting and intimidating times,
veteran teachers continue to struggle with fears and questions. Because writing with one's
students and the intimacy of the writing process in general are so risky, perhaps such fears
and questions are natural for both veteran or novice teachers. Being able to place those
fears and questions on the page allows us the opportunity to know where we need to focus.
The daily rush of teaching becomes a fierce reality for us. The journal forces us to slow the
pace long enough to use this reflective tool.
Jim Burke, in The English Teacher's Companion, calls writing
an activity that forces thought: You cannot write without thinking, for to arrange language
into meaningful units…is to use the mind. True, we might not be conscious of our
thinking…however one reason for using writing to think is precisely to bring the
unconscious more to the surface, where we can ‘see what we have to say’ (140).
In journaling each teacher captures both the triumphs and the disappointments so
often lost in the daily rush of teaching writing. The trust between journal partners
allows each teacher to examine the feeling of the moment by telling her journaling
partner.
. If you're lucky, the two of you will move from student/mentor to colleague/colleague.
Then the fun begins!
Till now, I've talked lots about respect for the mentor teacher. You, dear, student teacher,
will be receiving a great gift in these next weeks. But you'll also be giving one, believe me. Parker
Palmer writes in The Courage to Teach:
Mentors and apprentices are partners in an ancient human dance, and one of
teaching’s great rewards is the daily chance it gives us to get back on the dance
floor. It is the dance of the spiraling generations, in which the old empower the
young with their experience and the young empower the old with new life,
reweaving the fabric of the human community as they touch and turn” (25).
Here's more from our chapter in Winning Ways:
On the opening pages of a little journal I gave Teresa when she began
student teaching, I wrote these words: Will I be able to show you what you need
to know, to offer just the right mix of counsel, challenge, and comfort? For you:
question, search, push, try, and especially fail now and then so you'll know that's
OK too. For me: watch, listen, and let go—and especially, take the opportunity to
reflect and study. For us: let's keep a record in this journal; you get to keep it
when the journey's ended. Welcome to my precious turf, Teresa. I'm opening my
hand and offering to share what I love—my kids and my vocation.
With trust, dedication and commitment, something special can happen between and
preservice teacher and a mentor teacher. I wrote this in our journal a month or two into
her student teaching experience with me:
So few take time to reflect with each other. And so rarely do our supervisors
genuinely remind us of the incredible difference we can make in a child's life. I've
got you, girl! Am I glad! How blessed I am at this stage in my teaching career to
have an energetic colleague I respect and admire as a partner in this venture of
praxis [practice and reflection].
At the end of your student teaching experience, you'll have a decision to make. Will you
As I write these words for you, my former student teacher Teresa, now a veteran
beginning her eighth year, is sitting on my deck waiting to share a weekend of recreation
before she heads back to school next week. She's a marvelous, energetic, gifted teacher.
Just retired, I'll face my first September in more than 25 years without a classroom of
kids-but I'll be teaching in consulting and volunteer contexts.
Teresa’s early questions in our journal reflect student teacher angst:
I’m trying to decide whether to apply for a teaching job or try for another English
career? What do I really want to do? What can I handle? One day I love to
teach, the next day—never! This personal struggle weighs heavily on me at times.
Can I do the job I want to do as a teacher? There is so much I don’t know.
I wrote this response and I still believe it. I'll share it with you to re-read near the end of
your student teaching experience:
I'm glad that you're wrestling with these feelings now. You'll make a good decision if you
choose teaching. All those gifts and graces—determination, stamina, enthusiasm,
courage—you have already. Both skills and knowledge will continue to grow from
experience. But there is one key question to ask yourself: Is the act of teaching, the
interaction with kids, basically nourishing—"feeding" for your spirit or is it strengthsapping, draining? I don't mean whether you get tired or discouraged or even angry or
just plain bummed. You've surely seen me in all those circumstances. But somehow being
with the kids is energizing and exciting and worth it all. If this isn't true, don't teach.
Dr. Warner and I teach because we love our students. It's as simple as that.
---------------------Books I wish I'd seen as a beginning teacher:
Burke, Jim. The English Teacher's Companion. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1999.
Jam-crammed with tons of practical tips on everything from rubrics to unit design.
Palmer, Parker J. The Courage to Teach. New York: San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998.
Palmer put into words the mystery and power of teaching.