YEA! I HAVE MY STUDENT TEACHING PLACEMENT. . .YIKES! WHAT SHOULD I PREPARE???

Congratulations, you have a wonderful placement for your student teaching internship.  You are excited about working with the cooperating teacher and learning valuable lessons.  Here are some ideas to help you prepare for student teaching:

o  Review your lesson plans from coursework at your college/institution. Fine-tune any lessons that you feel might need to be polished.

o  Read some books that will enhance what you have been learning in your college classes. Hopefully our readers can share some suggestions of good text to augment the information you have already gained in your teacher preparation courses. One suggestion I share with my students is Dan Pink’s, Whole New Mind. 

o  Assisting the cooperating teacher ‘close her art room’ for the summer would be helpful not only the physical assistance of putting supplies away, but getting a good idea about what supplies will be stored for next year, plus you can discuss supplies that she purchased for the coming year.

o  Experiment with media’s that you want more information about, try different ideas with the media . . . be creative and explore.

o  Investigate the community that you will be student teaching in for the internship. Learn about the culture, the arts and the resources that you can bring to the art class that exist in your student’s own communities.

o  Keep in touch with your classmates, and share your ideas over the summer. You will want to keep these friendships as supports during student teaching.

-Anne. L. Becker, EdD