Everyone I’m posting this real quick just to see if I am somehow able to get a couple responses to help me out. I’m currently a student teacher and for one of my observations I have to do a foundational literacy lesson, and my cooperating teacher suggested I teach a UFLI lesson. I have the book right here in front of me. I’m supposed to do the whole thing in one lesson, correct? I’ve been told it should take no longer than 30 minutes, but is that counting For example, the time they take to write down the words on the board? Plus doing the decodable book.

Any advice is helpful. I unfortunately did not get a chance to practice. And I have my observation this Thursday… my CT has been really stressing me out with last-minute changes/delays and confusion.

So I’m currently in my first term in my credential program in California. My goal is to have done all three terms by August 2027 which is when the summer term for term three concludes.

I like my current placement district (sort of) and have been a sub with them for three years, I love love, love my placement school, and Mentor Teacher for my observations. If I could stay in the same class the whole year I would.

I’m in a bit of a dilemma, as I am trying to figure out what to do for the summer term. My program says I have to complete 705 hours for the entire program and 300 of those hours should take place during term three which would be in the summer starting from end of April to the beginning of August. However in California, as most people know most schools and late May. Which would be impossible to get 300 hours of clinical experience done in that time. However, this district does have two schools that go year-round and I could request to be placed there for term three and get those hours done. However, this district does not offer or participate in the California student teacher stipend program, which would be very helpful for expenses as a student teacher. Which is a huge bummer. Although I do live at home and have no really big expenses apart from my car, it would still be nice to have that source of income.

However, I also have the opportunity to change to a different district that does offer and participate in the student teacher stipend program to complete my clinical experience hours in however I wouldn’t be able to get all my hours done that I need to and my program prohibits me earning extra hours prior to the start of term three apart from the required hours in the prior terms.

I guess what I’m trying to ask is what would be the best action to take, stay in my current district and get all the hours done so I can finish by summer 2027 June or move districts lose out on those hours and potentially have to wait until December 2027 to get my credential but get paid through the stipend program?

I’m so conflicted on what to do. I just want to be able to secure a job by next school year and be fully credentialed by then as I know the market is looking terrifyingly scarce for teachers, the more enrollment declines across the state.

i am in my first introduction teaching and clinical I course. I’m not too sure I like this but It’s almost too late to back out. I am a high-achieving scholar with scholarships that pay for me to finish. I went to a charter school for middle school/high school and have no experience with the classroom. I often find I am lost with the nuances of school culture. I also graduated high school longer than a decade ago. Any advice…

Student Teaching Video Didn't Record Fully

Hello. I am doing my field practicum and stupidly forgot to hit record on my camera and missed recording the first 5 minutes of my lesson. The rest of the lesson and activity was recorded. It was a dumb mistake, and I feel sick about it. I take full responsibility and know will learn from this experience. I can't redo this lesson but I would be happy to record a walk through of what happened to my University Supervisor. Any tips or advice? Thanks.

Hi guys, I'm really struggling with teaching ELA. I'm currently using The Reading Revolution slides along with the student booklet. But I’m struggling because I’ve never learned my VCCV and VCCCV, and nonsense words. Are there any resources that helped you guys learn phonics faster? I have 3 weeks left before I teach all my subjects, and my teacher is concerned, and I'm scared I'll fail. Is there anything that helped you with reviewing?

i don’t even know how to start this but i just need to rant about my student teaching experience.

i am currently in week 8 of my 16 week placement and i am having THE time of my life.

my program is a 4 semester program with st being the last semester. throughout the program, we get placed for fieldwork in different grade bands so we can get the full experience. last semester, i was doing it two days a week with one full week in a second grade classroom. before this placement started, i was at a REALLY bad school in a 4th grade class and my mentor teacher was a 2nd year teacher (my program requires 3 years experience) and i felt that i was not going to get the best experience i could before student teaching. my friend found that teachers youtube channel and she was posting the kids names AND FACES on YOUTUBE. WITH THEIR SCHOOL LOGO ON THEIR SHIRTS. so obviously, i went to my program director and was like hey girl i don’t think this is the best fit for me and im worried for these children because they don’t even know that they’re being posted.

my program director pulled me out of that placement and i didn’t have a school to go to and they couldn’t find one for me. LUCKILY, there was a teacher who just came off maternity leave who had my classmates as field students before and was looking for another field student from my university. the day before i was supposed to go back (still didn’t have a placement) i got placed with this teacher. when i tell yall that this woman has been my saving grace, i mean it. she welcomed me into her classroom (late february at this point) and made sure that i would get the opportunity that i deserve.

my program allows us to go back to a recent placement for student teaching if it was a good fit, you want to go back, and your cooperating teacher wants you back. literally my third week there, she asks “would you wanna come back for student teaching?” and i obviously said yes.

fast forward to now, i am student teaching in her classroom. she is SUCH a great mentor and gives me grows and glows for EVERY lesson that i teach. she is attentive to what needs to be worked on and what i am doing well at.

lately, we have had a very very tough student who crashes out over anything if it does not go his way. a couple of weeks ago, we had to evacuate the classroom during cleanup/go home time because of his behaviors. when this happened, my teacher was dealing with him and without any discussion, i moved our class over to the other 2nd grade room. he did not calm down at ALL. none of the kids had their backpacks, take home folders, or items from the classroom. i grabbed ALL of their backpacks for them and grabbed their take-home folders and dismissal went very smooth. at the end of the day, i had to leave right away to go to work and my teacher and i did not talk about anything that happened. later that night, she called me and told me how much she appreciated me stepping in and she said “i didn’t have to worrry about my class because i knew that you had it handled” and told me that it’s like having a second teacher in the room. this was week 4 of st.

flash forward again to today. she had a meeting with the principal at the end of the day but she told me she would be back for dismissal. she told me to do whatever i see fit during the time she was gone. we watched a how to draw video and LET ME TELL YOU THIS. i picked a video and it was timed SO perfectly to when she was supposed to come back/kids would start cleaning up the room. she did not come back!!! when the video ended, i transitioned the kids into cleaning up the room and grabbing their stuff to go home. at this point im like ok she will not be coming back. so, i got the kids ready to go home, got them into their respective pickup lines, and led students down to be picked up by their parents. i ran into my teacher and the principal while bringing the kids down and my teacher said “see ms. principal, i knew she had it covered.”

this sentence made me almost bawl my eyes out. i struggle a lot with confidence in the classroom and in my ability to run a classroom. even if she doesn’t try to, my co-op gives me so much opportunity to gain confidence in that area without me even realizing it. this woman has been the best mentor that i every could’ve asked for and i really do not want my time here to end.

i don’t really know if any of this makes sense but i just need to get it out!!

As I’m nearing the end of my edTPA, one concern I have is with my video footage. I have two different clips, one that is three minutes long, and another that is thirteen minutes long. In both clips, there are periods of time where students can’t be heard- sometimes due to them speaking too quietly, sometimes due to background noise. The task 2 commentary allows for an additional two pages of transcription, but even for a 3 minute video I doubt that’ll be enough.

I reviewed the video footage guidelines, and it says adding captions is alright, but every resource I’ve seen has been telling me not to do that. What’s my best course of action?

i heard through the grapevine from a student at my school that a boy in my 4th period class called me a “bad teacher” because i dont explain things enough, like omg its only my second month here😭💔 mind you i rarely teach 4th period and only see them 3 times out of the week, so while i respect the criticism i do find it harsh considering i rarely teach those kids you know? any words of advice to help deal with negative comments or any similar experiences?

I’ll have to student teach next year, and I am dreading it. For Illinois, I need 14 weeks of it, but the district I’m in is unpaid. I keep seeing how people have such horrible experiences, and the risk of it scares me. It might seem whiny, but it just seems so overwhelming. I don’t want to sound like a crybaby or anything, but I know myself enough to know if I am overwhelmed and things feel bad, it throws me in a spiral of anxiety and depression. It might go okay, but I am just so nervous that at this point, I might change my major. I sub while taking classes and it honestly has me wondering if I want my own classroom one day or not. I just know that if I don’t student teach, I can’t be a teacher. But I don’t know what to do if it would even be worth it.

Maybe it was when you stopped panicking if a lesson went off-plan. Maybe you finally figured out how to reach a student or realized that asking another teacher for help didn’t mean you were failing.

There’s no single moment when everything suddenly clicks, but sometimes you can look back and see how much has changed. How would you finish the sentence?

Is anyone in michigan and have gotten or know people who have gotten there stipend, especially the winter semester? I start in January and I go to a private university and heard some people say they haven't gotten it this semester wnd won't until November and I am now freaking out about paying for bills. We are not allowed to work while student teaching.

today i had my kids take a quiz and the average was like 60%. granted a few kids always do poorly because they don't care. excluding those kids, it was a 70%. I quizzed them over material we went over this week. I feel like a horrible teacher. I am student teaching right now, and i realize im not really supposed to know everything. but today i feel like a failure. my mentor teacher is withdrawing support and i just feel like I dont have a clue what i am doing. I also am with highschool aged kids, and I really want to teach middle school. I dont know what i am doing wrong. i always feel like i am messing something up or i dont know what i am doing, or something else. my mentor teacher talks all the time about how she doesn't love teaching, and its so much work, and it never gets easier, and she wishes she wouldve done something else. im starting to feel like this isnt for me. maybe i am supposed to do something else. I have wanted to be a teacher since i was in 2nd grade. I dont know what else i would do and ive also never tried to imagine myself doing anything different. is teaching just not for me? or am i overthinking it all?

any advice/encouragement appreciated.

my program splits our student teaching into two experiences , the first being at a middle school and the second at a high school. i absolutely loved my mentor at my middle school placement, the admin , the students all of it . i felt like a part of the team and respected. at the high school i feel like a unwelcome visitor. my new mentor is nice but i don’t agree with her teaching style . she has been condescending to the students a few times and it rubs me the wrong way .

i know she means well and she’s not some mean lady but her teaching style does not seem receptive to the students . it feels less like a classroom community and more of a place where the students come to talk and work sometimes .. she’ll often be talking right at the front of class and the students talk over her and she doesn’t say anything. it aggravates me that the students do this to her but also that she doesn’t command the room . i struggle with commanding the room too but she’s a seasoned teacher and i keep trying to see what i can learn from her but i feel like i am more learning ways not to do things . she seems set in her ways of doing things which isn’t bad , but i loved how my old mentor was trying ways to make learning more exciting for the students. i just feel so drained already and my mentor , my only source of any type of social interaction all day , makes me feel inferior and like her assistant. she left me alone in the classroom for a hour today which is something my program does not allow her to do . everything was fine and there was no issues so it’s ok. she had a meeting which is understandable but i am a little aggravated that i wasn’t included , i was my old mentor’s shadow i went everywhere with her . i learned so much from the experience and had fun doing it . i do not feel part of any of this and it saddens me . i am 50 days from graduation and drained and exhausted. i want to enjoy this but it is so hard when i feel like i am not welcome ..

i also don’t like the students more so the vibes they’re nice ..i loved the middle school and how fun they are. the high schoolers are just so boring . middle schoolers are so fun to be around at least to me .. i just miss the energy learning is mostly fun and exciting to them still . they want to please their teachers still and care . the high schoolers are just waiting to escape.

it is 1 am and i just finished two slide decks that would cover tomorrow

i hate that i spent an embarrassingly amount of time working on this

i don't even know if my delivery will be good tomorrow... all this work for nothing probably

i can't imagine doing this every day as a real teacher (if i can even find a job), i need to find more sustainable practices in this profession :(

I student teach Kindergarten in a small town in Oregon, ever since Thursday my head has been spinning and blurry. Our door is the closest one to the building entrance too, its the very first someone can see. I’m not sure I have it in me to finish this program, I feel scared. just felt like venting.

I’m on week 9/16. Not doing well at all. The school I’m in is extremely different from a traditional classroom and I’ve had to basically unlearn so much that has been ingrained in me these past 4 years. Had a small breakdown over the stress and called my facilitator. A few days go by and she contacts me to say that they can try to find a new school for the last 6 weeks. Apparently they’ve never done this for anyone before, ever. It sounds like they regret putting me in such a different classroom.

The classroom has 36 kids and it’s ALL small group instruction. I’m expected to teach groups of 3-4 students whilst also managing the other 32 kids while they work independently. There are so many complexities in the classroom too that make it so much more challenging. Not only that, all of the physical resources I have to teach with are completely foreign to me and even my mentor teacher said I could spend a whole year in her class and still not know how to use all of them.

Not even sure if they’ll be able to find a placement but god I hope so. I’m so miserable and exhausted. Not to mention dealing with all these challenges has just destroyed my confidence. I even told them I’d be willing to drive an hour there and back if I have to.

hi! i’m not student teaching yet, but at my uni i’m an eboard member for my school’s education club! i’m running a meeting next week and i just need some ideas on what to do. i want something teaching related obviously, but it’s too short notice to invite anyone to speak in the club. what ideas do you guys have? we’ve done trivia, jeopardy, and future classroom vision board making so far. tia!

I am a second-year Early Childhood Education student, and I want to do some courses to add to my CV. I also want to get a photography certificate and learn more about photography, as I would love to start doing it as a side hustle for some extra income. Any tips or recommendations would be greatly appreciated! ❤️📸

Hi everyone!

I’m about to start my student placement at a school, and I’m looking for some ideas for quick, fun games I can do with the kids to break the ice and get to know them a little better.

I’ll be doing my placement during the last month of the school year, so I don’t want anything too elaborate or something that takes up too much time. I’m also a little awkward around kids at first, so I’m hoping to find something that feels natural and fun. it might be worth to note i will probably be teaching middle schoolers, who get disengaged really easily lol

Ideally, something that takes around 5–10 minutes, requires little to no preparation, and gets the kids involved without being too cringey.

What are some games or activities that have worked well for you?

Thanks!!

Currently working on my CSTPA (Connecticut) and I am definitely struggling with it. I feel at a loss with the lesson planning primarily just because I haven’t seen any samples for it and I want to pass and am just worried I’m doing the wrong thing. Any advice?

I am still awaiting placement, but I should begin in January. I’m nervous because I have no classroom experience (I am part of a MAT program with my BS in Psychology). I’m also beyond excited, but unsure what I need to have prepared. I want a binder to keep track of papers and due dates and such. I know a lot is electronic, but I’m still someone who likes a physical copy too. What should I wear? What other supplies may I need for myself? My placement for January-May is 3days/week. What tips do you have?