Finding space for trying new things: Mentor and student teachers
As universities work harder and harder to prepare teachers who can be powerful and successful educators for/with students from increasingly diverse backgrounds, student teachers can actually find themselves in an enviable position. Sometimes mentor teachers and/or administrators and/or family members will tilt their heads and raise their eyebrows at a classroom practice that doesn’t look familiar…but the student teacher can easily “blame” the craziness on their university professors 
“I have to do it for an assignment” is one easy way out of a politically tenuous situation…but I urge you to also add, “are you interested in seeing the books/videos/articles we’ve been reading to do this?”
Teachers are busy, and mentor teachers have taken on even more responsibilities by inviting you into their classrooms. This means that many of them don’t have lots of opportunities to read the latest research, keep up with the most recent books, or even just sit for a few hours and reconsider how they’ve done things for the past year or so.
Lots of mentor teachers accept student teachers because this is an opportunity to engage with ideas promoted by local universities…so give it a try, and if your mentor teacher is receptive and enthusiastic, you may have just found a fabulous collaborator to work through some new practices.
Some “new” things students have been trying in my course this semester:
Critical literacy practices
Invitations
I’d love to hear how student teachers have been/continue to negotiate the “disconnect” between current classroom practices and their attempts to insert critically-focused practices that may not be familiar to teachers/students/families/administrators
3 responses so far ↓
stephanie jones // April 22, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Starting with a classroom in the middle of the year?
How do I use Responsive Classroom principles when I’ve missed half the year?
I’ve had two people ask about starting in a classroom in December/January and what they might do regarding setting up new classroom structures/rules/routines/rituals. My suggestion is to expect to spend about 1 week with the students revisiting and revising what they already have in place. For example, instead of starting “fresh” with new rules, pull the rules down, read them, discuss them, find out if they’re working to make the classroom safe, respectful, and a good place to learn. And then work together to make them better. The same would go for other structures (seating expectations - assigned or not; the consequences in place or the use of a “thinking chair” or “control chair” instead of a punishment system; how to do independent work time; etc.).
sarahc718 // May 1, 2008 at 11:19 pm
As per your suggestion, I’m reading Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire. 2 chapters in and I’m loving it. Have you ever tried using the Six Levels of Thinking in your own classroom? I think it sounds like such a great idea, encouraging self-regulation and deeper thought. As always, however, I’m scared of how this would turn out in an elementary classroom. Middle school, sure, I think it would work. But would a 3rd grader be able to understand and reflect on these ideas enough for it to modify behavior? Just some questions I’m considering…
stephanie jones // May 5, 2008 at 1:31 am
hi sarah! great to see you in cyberspace…
i don’t have the book near me at the moment, remind me what the “Six Levels of Thinking” is and i’ll respond as best i can.
glad you’re liking the book!
cheers,
stephanie
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