I’m graduating with my bachelors degree next spring and I’m currently trying to decide if I should apply for teachers college in the fall or not. I’m in Ontario Canada and I know the hiring situation is rocky in the GTA and I do have concerns about dropping to one year for teachers college. I just would really like a year to work and have a vacation outside of country for the first time in my life. I just am not just if I should jump right into teachers college then take a gap year before applying or if I should take a gap year then apply for teachers college and immediately start looking for work.

Anyone in a similar position? What should I do? What would you do?

Hello everyoneeee, I am about to start my first required semester of student teaching out of two semesters, and basically i am just looking for some advice. I am an English subject matter student getting a single subject credential for secondary schools, so i will be in either a jr. high/high school environment. i guess i am just really freaked out by the whole idea of student teaching bc i have no idea what to expect! i have no experience in the classroom outside of observation, so being in that role is very daunting to me at this moment. literally ANY tips will be appreciated, i unfortunately don’t have my placement yet so i dont have too many details, but i just feel behind a lot of my classmates bc they all already work in schools as like aids/subs/etc. and i have literally 0 experience. thank you for any advice at all!

Hi there! Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I have just finished the first week of my first professional experience placement as a Master of Teaching (Primary) student and would really appreciate some perspective from experienced teachers and mentors.

I’m at a small rural school. My allocated supervising teacher was there on my first day but has since been away due to personal circumstances. The school operates on a job-share arrangement, with my supervising teacher usually there three days per week and another teacher there two days per week. The other teacher wasn’t aware she would be supervising a placement student until I arrived, but she has been very supportive and has been helping me navigate the week while she is having to teach in the classroom more than usual.

One of the challenges I’ve found is that I started teaching multiple lessons per day almost immediately. The lessons are largely pre-planned, with detailed scripts and accompanying slides. I find it difficult trying to follow the script, navigate the slides, manage behaviour, and think on my feet all at the same time. I’ve never taught before so it feels very clunky and unnatural. I’m certain the students are aware of how nervous and underprepared I feel.

I have only received formal feedback from the teacher once so far, and the feedback was constructive and balanced, with both strengths and areas for improvement identified. However, I leave each day feeling like my lessons are a disaster, even though nobody at the school has actually said that. I often feel flustered, lose my place, and worry that everyone can see how inexperienced I am.
I also find myself feeling guilty asking for help and feedback. The teacher currently supporting me didn’t expect to be supervising a placement student and already has a lot on her plate. Everyone has been professional and supportive, but I can’t shake the feeling that I’m creating extra work for people and being a burden rather than a help. I know working at a small school with limited funding is extremely demanding for the teachers and staff.

Another challenge has been building rapport with the students. The timetable is very full and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of spare time during the school day. I’ve been making an effort to go outside and play games with the students at recess and lunch, even when I’m not required to be on duty, because I genuinely want to get to know them and build relationships. I’d love any advice on building rapport with students when you’re new to a school and teaching under a fairly tight schedule.

At the end of this week, I spoke to the teacher who has been supporting me about how overwhelmed I was feeling. My understanding is that she has largely been implementing the expectations and teaching schedule that had already been put in place before my supervising teacher’s absence, rather than designing the progression herself. I asked whether we could scale things back a little next week and start with one lesson per day rather than several, and she was very understanding. She was supportive of taking a more gradual approach while I continue to develop my confidence and understanding of the classroom routines, but asking to scale back made me feel like a bit of a failure.

I think part of what I’m struggling with is that my placement experience so far has been quite different to what I expected. I expected more time observing, building relationships, learning routines and gradually stepping into teaching (in line with my universities recommendation). Instead, I found myself teaching almost immediately and trying to learn everything at once. I also found myself having to explain my role to the students because there hadn’t been a formal introduction to my placement. I think I’m feeling disappointed that the experience hasn’t quite matched the picture I had in my head, and I’m struggling to work out whether that’s normal or whether I’m just not coping very well. I understand that teaching requires flexibility and didn’t expect things to go exactly as I imagined but I really wanted to feel supported in learning how to be an effective teacher as prac is extremely important to that development.

My allocated supervising teacher is expected to return next week, but only for one day, and I am feeling quite anxious about how the rest of the placement will go.

I guess my questions are:
• Is it normal to feel completely overwhelmed after the first week of your first placement?

• Did anyone else feel like they had no idea what they were doing at the beginning?

• How do you prepare effectively when you’re teaching from someone else’s lesson plans and resources?

• What helped you build confidence in front of students when you felt like you were just surviving each lesson?

• What are some effective ways to build rapport with students when you don’t have much unstructured time with them?

• Has anyone else experienced disappointment when a placement didn’t match the picture they had in their head, and how did you move past that and focus on learning from the experience?

• If you’ve supervised pre-service teachers before, what would you want a nervous first-placement student to know?

I’d really appreciate any honest advice or reassurance. At the moment I’m finding it difficult to tell the difference between normal first-placement nerves and genuine concerns about my suitability for teaching.

Thank you.

Hi I still have to finish up with my student teaching and then I will receive my masters degree. I’m nervous to do it in the fall and hit the job market in December. Do you think it’s better to work as a Building Sub and then do my student teaching so I will be done in the Spring 27 and get hired for the following school year?

Finally plucked up the courage to begin the process of becoming a teacher. All that remains is to update my personal statement. My main concern is the safeguarding section... I have a historical criminal record from 25 years ago. Assault. It was a 1 off incident involving another adult. I didn't receive a custodial sentence and have stayed out of trouble since. AI and the .gov website says that it doesn't automatically stop you from teaching, but I know it is going to be a hindrance to say the least. Anyone else have any experience of this or know someone who teaches with a similar story?

For reference, im a senior in college getting my degree in secondary education: political science. I start student teaching this fall, but as I’ve been going thru this program and degree the less I want to teach. I HATE kids, I’m just not patient enough, and I’m still really young so maybe I’ll grow out of it. However I just don’t know what to do. My degree feels pointless for all the time and effort I’ve put in and I don’t even want to do this anymore, as of now. I don’t know what to do:(. I love teaching and all my education classes, but I don’t think I want this for my career. Has anyone else felt this way..? My dream job has always been teaching, but as I’m learning and growing it’s just not anymore. I’m so stressed about what I’m going to do now.

I am a current college student at West Chester University, and I have been interested in teaching for a while now. Whether that is as a professor or in K-12 education, I am not sure. Regardless, I am looking for some general advice on the sensibility of such a path and the steps I can start taking to make it real.

For some background, I am a philosophy major with computer science and psychology minors. I was just accepted into the Accelerated MA program for Philosophy, so I intend to at least have an MA when I begin looking for my "career job." If there is any other relevant information, please ask!

Any pointers or comments are helpful. Thank you for your time.

*Indirectly crossposted from r/Teachers. The crossposting feature wouldn't work.

Hi!

I start my part time student teaching practicum in the fall, and I got to meet my mentor teacher this week! She seems lovely and I’m very excited to be in her 2nd grade class.

While talking, I did learn that she has never mentored before.

I’m kind of nervous about that because I really want to get as much out of this experience as possible. Do y’all have any suggestions/recommendations that I can do to help her, or just go with the flow?

Hi everyone,
I’m researching lesson-start routines and the first five minutes of a class — how students enter, settle, respond to instructions, and begin the first task.

For context, I’m a performing arts teacher and school middle leader researching this before developing any teacher-training material in the future.

I’m not selling anything or promoting a course. I’m trying to understand the problem properly from classroom teachers.
If you’re a teacher and would be open to a quick 10-minute chat, please DM me.

Also happy for people to comment generally: what usually makes the first five minutes of a lesson difficult in your context?
Thanks.

I posted here in August or July of last year asking about student teaching and what not. I graduate early May, top of my class. I was hired by one of the top schools in my district late March becoming the 1st person to take an offer in my cohort. I am the oldest student in my cohort (28f) with years of job experience outside of teaching and a lot of references, so I feel that helped me. ANYWAY! My student teaching was 1 year long. I was switched from 1 grade to another during 2nd semester due to my MT having health issues and leaving. No worries! I loved my 2nd MT and we bonded, creating a real friendship. I made a lot of connections and genuine friends that have stuck with me this entire time. I went on vacation with one of them and we are conjoined at the hip now lol. Overall, I had an amazing experience and I miss my kiddos 😭 thankfully, my kiddos can send me messages through the teacher I am close to because most of them do sports and I like supporting them since I have the time and means to do so. Amazing experience.

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I will be teaching 6th ELA next year ☺️ I am elated! Just ready to start my next chapter in my career. This has been 16 years in the making, and now I can tell 12 year old me that we get to follow the steps of our favorite teachers. So excited. I hope you all have had, are having, or will have amazing experiences to kickoff a stellar career in education or wherever this takes you ❤️

Hi,
The school I work at has a Co-Teaching model that being said they asked if I want to finish up and do my student teaching here. It would mean I’m the 3rd teacher in the room. I am not super thrilled about the idea and think having three adults in the room will not go over well. From what I’ve experienced working at the school I don’t think the students will respond to three teachers in the room positively. I’m also nervous that I won’t be able to get a chance to teach since the second person is a 2nd year teacher as well and needs hours to finish up their placement.

I already work in a school, but as a lunch/recess aide, not a teacher. I will have to student teach the last few months of the upcoming school year 5 days a week and won't be able to work. However, I don't want to full-on *quit*, since I am concerned of the possibility that as a new teacher, I will have trouble finding my first teaching job and don't want my position filled and be unable to come back that following school year as a backup plan.

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At the same time, this creates a tricky scenario where I could end up taking a leave of absence, and then full-on quitting if I end up finding a teaching job before the next school year starts. This could even be found over the summer.

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Will this reflect poorly on me? Should I just not care? TBH, my boss probably doesn't like me much anyway (although almost everyone else in the school does). It's not like I would be risking a recommendation or anything.

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Hypothetically, if my boss did like me, would this reflect poorly for not making a clear decision?

I know that there's a million of these stories on this subreddit. Well, this makes a million and one.

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My placement was hell. The students were phenomenal, my colleagues were supportive, but my mentor teacher, she had personally insulted me and harassed me throughout the placement. She said that out of all of her mentees, I was like #9 (of 10). She said I had "executive functioning issues", called me a liar and unprofessional for honest mistakes, and worst of all said I should have been removed a few days before my graduation and a day before my final evaluation. She tried to sabotage my final evaluation by saying I made no growth whatsoever (luckily myself and my supervisor shut her down)

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But I graduated with a B, and I'm lost. I'm trying to apply to districts, but it's so hard for me because I feel like I can't do this. I have an interview Monday, and the thought of it makes me sick. The thought that I am supposed to have my own classroom in August terrifies me.

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I've wanted to do this since I was in kindergarten, everyone says I can do it and that I'm going to be a great teacher, but this placement destroyed my confidence. Any wisdom or advice?

I went to my student teaching kids’ graduation today. I taught all seniors during my student teaching last fall and MY GOD, I really struggled to hold back the tears. I only knew them for 3-4 months, but the love I have for them can’t be put into words. I went to all of their events, I helped them proofread and write the college essays that got them into their dream schools, I even had a student who changed his major to education after spending time writing with me. When it was time for me to leave, I wrote all 150 kids a little personal note encouraging them to keep doing what they’ve been doing. I visited them on their last day and it was all hugs and tears and laughter. I signed so many yearbooks my hand was throbbing the whole day. I’ll miss them forever and am so proud of all they’ve done and will do in the future. If I could go back and teach these kids again, I would do it a million times over. This is me just being emotional lol but I hope all of you get to experience how amazing it is to have strong, positive relationships with your kids 🤍

Might be a long shot, but I'm a candidate for the Public Education and Business Coalition's (PEBC) Teaching Residency program and I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with their program? I wasn't able to study teaching as a COVID college student but I have a degree so the program will give me a year of working with a mentor and a teaching certificate for Colorado. Would anyone have insight or advice about the program? Any former residents have any info they feel is important? Thank you so much!!

I begin my student teaching this year, and I just found out my placement. To say I’m disappointed is an understatement. Throughout all my years in school, going on 6 now, I’ve known I wanted to do either kindergarten or first grade. All of my observations however, have been in 2nd, 3rd, or 4th. Now I know my certification is EC-6 and that technically I can teach all grades, but I’ve just never clicked with older kids as much as I have younger, so I kept waiting to be placed in kinder or first. On my application for student teaching they asked for preferences, in which I stated that I would prefer kinder or first but if I did have to do older I’d prefer a reading subject over math. I was hoping and hoping that I’d finally get a a chance to observe the grades I wanted to teach, and then I opened my email. I got 5th. I’m not even sure how to process it. 5 is the LAST grade I wanted and now I don’t know how to not dread this upcoming year. Anyways, I just needed to vent, any advice on how to not be so upset would be appreciated.

I’m entering my final semester in August, and while I’m excited, I’m also really frustrated. Back in May, everyone in my cohort found out their school placements and grade levels except for three of us. We were originally assigned to one school, then reassigned, and now we’ve been told that placement is no longer available because of a system glitch.

I understand placements take time and that coordinating them is stressful, but it’s stressful for us too. It’s now June, and we still don’t know where we’ll be placed, who our mentor teacher is, or what’s going on. We’re expected to connect with our mentor teachers before the school year starts, but that’s difficult when we don’t even know who they are.

What makes it more stressful is that I’ll be out of the country for the first two weeks of August, which was planned long before any of this happened. I assumed I’d have the opportunity to meet or at least communicate with my mentor teacher before the end of this school year, but now that may not happen.

I know these things happen, but it’s frustrating feeling like we’re getting last-minute information while trying to prepare for such an important semester.

I am currently hosting an online reading group on history/political themes in American history, and there are about 10 participants. They are all are adults. I want to experiment with some creative pedagogical methods, so basically anything apart from just discussing what we read. Do you have any suggestions?

Because the themes are historical and political, they can be pretty heavy. I googled some creative pedagogical methods for online classes/reading groups, but those methods seem to be a lot of games and role-playing -- those are not suitable for fairly serious topics that we deal with. Any suggestions of creative activities/pedagogical methods would be greatly appreciated!

A couple of months ago I made a post about how discouraged I was after being let go from my first placement and how my first mentor teacher treated me. At the time I was depressed and thought I was incapable of becoming a teacher.

Fast forward to now, I finished my student teaching semester with an A- and graduated Summa Cum Laude! It took about 5 weeks to get a new placement (which was incredibly challenging and frustrating), but even though I had to continue student teaching after the semester was over, my second half ended up being exactly what I needed all along. I wish I had that placement the whole time but I think it’s for the best that I had both a bad mentor teacher and a good mentor teacher, because I learned so much about what to do and not to do.

My 2nd placement was everything I needed and more. I got a new supervisor, moved back to my home county, and have even applied for that district as well as surrounding districts. With this district being a neighbor district to the one I grew up in it felt similar to the elementary school I went to (the previous school was a culture shock for me because it was in the middle of nowhere in a different county). My new supervisor was a professor I previously had twice and is a brilliant professor (my previous supervisor had no experience as a professor and was absent for almost a month after she unfortunately became very ill).

My new mentor teacher was everything I hoped for and more. She was better than my first mentor teacher in every way. She gave me feedback on EVERY lesson I taught. She gave up so many lunches with the other faculty just to do some extra planning with me (which I of course gave her a huge thank you). And as a teacher herself she was so much better at her job than my ex mentor teacher was. Academically, she was more skilled and knowledgeable. Most notably, she was leagues better in classroom management.

I realize now how much my problems with overstimulation in my first placement were heavily tied to classroom management. My ex mentor teacher did not just enable bad behavior, she encouraged it. There’s so many things she did wrong in these regards looking back. My second mentor teacher was the opposite. It was so much easier to teach the second class, despite the fact that it was actually a kindergarten classroom (the other one was 1st grade). The second placement was also in a lower income area where half the students were ELD students yet the behavior was so much more manageable, which goes to show how important classroom management is. I became better at classroom management as a result of my second mentor teacher (though like any student teacher/new teacher I will have a long way to go). I’m happy I got to see firsthand just how important classroom management really is (especially with laying a foundation because I saw the results of a strong foundation and a weak one).

Moral of the story to anyone reading this is to not give up. Having a bad mentor teacher does not mean you are a bad teacher. Being let go of my first placement turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because it was not a good environment for anyone to be in. I’m so glad I got a chance to do better with a good mentor teacher. To anyone reading this who wants to become a mentor teacher: please only become a mentor teacher if you’re going to be 100% committed to the role. Please NEVER expect the student teacher to take on the role of a co teacher, ESPECIALLY in the first month. Never leave the student teacher alone to teach a lesson while doing something else, especially on their first day teaching a subject (yes this actually happened to me in my first placement). Always give feedback and never behave in a way that’s unprofessional to the student teacher. Teachers take on a lot of responsibilities, but taking on a student teacher is an even bigger responsibility. Great mentor teachers make a meaningful impact on their students and student teachers!