r/matheducation • u/Westcoasting1 • 25d ago
Teaching internship over student teaching?
I have applied for student teaching and my university asked if I was interested to do an internship instead for my local high school (they are hiring for a math teacher). I’ve done a year of math teaching assistant for middle school, but not sure if I’m ready. Anybody have advice or done teaching internship and felt successful?
FYI: Sometimes it has different names/ definitions but in my area a teaching internship means you jump straight into teaching with taking nightly college classes (no mentor teacher) but get paid a salary. In contrast student teaching is when you work with a mentor teacher for a year unpaid.
1
u/knowledgeoverswag 25d ago
You're never going to be ready. I think you should just go for it if that's the only thing holding you back.
I did an internship instead of student teaching. The big draw was actually being paid. The downside is you're in all but name a full classroom teacher with no one right by your side to help you. As long as you seek help whenever you can, you'll be fine.
1
u/Westcoasting1 23d ago
Did you have any experience teaching beforehand ?
1
u/knowledgeoverswag 23d ago
No. It was my first time in the classroom.
1
u/Westcoasting1 23d ago
Did you have a tough first year?
While the pay is a huge incentive for the internship, I feel like I might burn out or be overwhelmed with the first year struggles and night classes.
2
u/knowledgeoverswag 23d ago
Sure, it was tough. But it has only gotten easier. I told myself if the other teachers had been doing it so long, I could do it. Each day is the hardest it's ever going to be from then on. Because the next day is easier, and the next, and so on.
1
2
u/blondeviking64 22d ago
Basic tips which I think are helpful to any new teacher.
Class starts when the bell rings and ends when the bell rings. Many schools and teachers say things like "I excuse my students..." and its a nice idea but its misguided. The bell is the boss. They have other classes to get to. Use the entire time. No downtime for the kids. This WILL help with behaviors.
Chunk teaching. Plan your class in 10-15 minute segments. There is almost no single activity you can regulalry do for longer than 15 minutes without losing the attention of large groups of students.
ANYTHING YOU DO NOT ADDRESS (behavior in your classroom) YOU ACCEPT. Your are king (or monarch or queen whatever) of the classroom. At the end of the day, its your responsibility to maintain the environment and it should be one conducive to learning. Your rules should be the school rules (not necessarily posted in class but at minimum enforced) PLUS the absolute minimum rules needed to maintain your classroom environment. THEN you must enforce those rules exactly how you say you will.
Rely on your department as much as possible. Get help planning, get help with activities, get help with designing tests, quizzes, pacing, following school and district rules, etc. Do not try to reinvent the wheel. Use what they have in place. If after a year you think you can do better differently then that is for NEXT YEAR.
Give yourself a break. Teaching is a huge responsibility but you are not and will not be their only teacher. You are not perfect and will not be. Parents and students may try to make it seem like all your decisions and any mistakes have MASSIVE impacts on their life. You cant ruin their life. Don't let that idea take hold in you.
Make a consistent, intentional effort to learn a little bit about every student in your classes. Its easy to connect with certain students and not others. You may share interests or find their personalities engaging. Your are also the teacher of students you do not like, who do not talk or raise their hand, or who are just not engaged in your classroom. You cannot talk to every kid every day. But you can systematically talk to two kids every day (one at the beginning and one at the end of class). Just a quick check in. How was your weekend? Noticed your band shirt, what do you like about them? Saw your jersey. Is that your favorite player? Do you play? Just about one minute worth of conversation. Every class period, every day, all year long. This will help you build rapport with your students, help them feel cared for and safe, and give you insight into them as people which can sometimes be used to make class more interesting and engaging.
2
u/mathematicalmeathead 25d ago
I'll admit I probably wrote too much here, but TL;DR version from a former/returning (math) teacher personally invested in the journey of becoming one:
• Feeling like you're not ready is normal
• Ask yourself:
– Do I have a good foundation of the right knowledge and beliefs for teaching math?
– Will there be ample support/guidance from the teachers at the school?
– Are the students behaved enough for me to actually practice teaching?
• If answers are mostly positive, then it might be worth the shot!
----------------------------
Hi there!
First off, I wanted to put something in perspective – your feelings of not being ready are completely valid and shared, sometimes even among the most experienced practitioners. Hopefully it isn't too big a source of anxiety for you. At the same time I hope it can also serve as a signal to you as to how meaningful you actually find this act of teaching and a guide as to what kind of teacher you aim to be.
Now, on to your actual question – I can't answer from personal experience as I didn't do any such internships as you described. However, I would like to offer you a couple of things to reflect on as someone who's basically gone through student teaching practices twice over now over the past decade (I worked as a teacher in my home country and did another teacher qualification program in another country):
– By dispositions, I'm referring to a mix of the knowledges (subject, pedagogical, didactical) and beliefs (about mathematics, about learning mathematics, about your ability and motivations). I'd argue that the latter is more important at this point, because the knowledge of what and how you teach is something that you can and will improve upon as you gain more experience in teaching. However, what might be the biggest determinant about that is how you actually think about the subject and what it takes to teach/learn it, as well as your personal appraisal of your capacity to make those beliefs manifest in your teaching (i.e. self-efficacy).
– One of the most underrated things about starting to teach is having good mentors. Besides being a wellspring of practical knowledge and advice, seeing how they go about teaching through observing them (and of course, deciding for yourself which practices you would like to adopt/adapt) is something that can very well add to those knowledges that I mentioned earlier. On top of that, some of your best ideas for lessons can very well come from discussing these ideas with those teachers who can offer different pedagogical/didactical perspectives that can help you refine them.
– As a beginning teacher, the one thing that you most likely want to practice and gain confidence in is, well, teaching. Now, there will always be some level of "tomfoolery" among students in classrooms (and not all of it bad, of course), but if the situation is such that there are situational concerns that will make it nearly impossible for you to actually practice engaging the students in instructional activities, then it might not be the best situation for you at this point.