Once I hit five years of teaching experience, I have always agreed to take on a student teacher. In the past three years, I have had 3 student teachers and each time, I have found that having a student teacher makes me a better teacher overall. There are several benefits to having a student teacher, and ultimately, hosting and mentoring a student teacher makes me a better teacher overall.
1. Explaining the “how” and “why” of teaching
When hosting and mentoring a student teacher, I’ve found that I have to explain the how and why I make the choices that I do when I’m teaching. When designing lessons, asking certain questions, planning, everything I do – I have to explain the thought process of why I’m making those choices. Teachers make over 1,000 decisions a day – it’s why it’s such a mentally draining job – so it’s important to prepare student teachers for decision fatigue and be able to understand why they will make the decisions that they do.
Not only does it help prepare student teachers with their own decision-making in the classroom, but, as someone working on their National Boards, it leads to a lot of reflection into why I do the things I do in the classroom. How do I know that the strategy or assignment that I’m using supports the learning target that I have in mind? Reflecting on the how and why of the choices I make in the classroom makes me a better teacher overall.
2. Staying up-to-date on teaching practices
As a teacher in the field, it is hard to keep up with teaching practices and pedagogies that are introduced in the education programs. However, having a student teacher who shares about the strategies and ideas that they have gotten from their teacher preparation programs allows me to learn ideas from them as well. All of my student teachers have come from different programs, so I’ve been able to learn from different programs and different focuses through the programs as well.
3. Collaboration opportunities
When I have a student teacher and they are building their lesson plans, I have found that I am so much more creative with lesson planning when I get to collaborate with another teacher. They always say that two minds are better than one, and I feel that certainly applies to teaching and lesson planning.
4. More flexibility and time
Once your student teacher takes over full-time, you have way more flexibility and time to work on things that you need to. With my most recent student teacher, I was able to finalize my National Boards portfolio submission and complete several clock hour courses to move myself up on the pay scale. Plus, with the extra flexibility, I can go pee whenever I need to as well 😉
Another thing that you can do if you don’t have big projects like I did, is reflect on your curriculum and start planning for the start of next year. Being able to prepare for the first week or two of the school year is a great thing to get done before going on summer break!
5. Reminder that I love my job
When my student teachers take over full-time, I’m so excited for them and often look forward to the break. However, I find that after a couple of weeks, I MISS teaching my students. By getting a break during the school year, I have found that having a student teacher reminds me that I love my job as a teacher and reignites my passion for the profession. Having that reminder results in me being a better teacher once I get back to taking over the classroom.
6. Building the profession
I often ask myself how I can help the teaching profession. We’re in a teacher shortage, but I know that by mentoring and hosting student teachers, I am helping build up the profession with solid young teachers that are passionate about learning. I had a wonderful mentor teacher and whenever I have a student teacher, I want to make sure that they have a positive learning experience, even when it’s one of the hardest internships to go through!
In the end, having a student teacher is some of the best professional development an experienced teacher can go through and makes you become a better teacher through the process.
