living? By that I mean my friend is very motivated to teach young children, but how to overcome a D in student teaching? The D was for making the students nervous due to her high energy and own nerves, not being concise in her directions to the class and worst of all, following a mom out of the building after a parent-teacher meeting to tell the mom something religious her kid had said in class so the mom would know her religious lessons to her child were getting through, although the teacher had told the student teacher to be a "fly on the wall" in general and just listen. Office staff saw the student teacher talking to the parent, told the supervising teacher, who was quite angry, even though nothing revealing was said to the parent, although there were other things that had happened in the classroom, and been appropriately handled, involving her child and other students that the mom would not have liked to have known, but wasn't told this. Forget teaching, or what?
If a student teacher gets a D for student teaching, should she just give up and find some other way to make a?
She needs to do her student teaching again next semester and learn from her mistakes. She will, most likely, be given a different school and a different cooperating teacher. It sounds as if she has major problems in areas that MUST be rectified before she will be successful as an educator.
1. "the D was for making the students nervous due to her high energy and own nerves" Yes, student teaching is an anxious time and "nerves" will be jangled... BUT... the actual teaching of the students is weeks after the student teacher has entered the classroom and is a gradual process. No cooperating teacher would throw an unskilled student teacher into the mix and say, "sink-or-swim". She should be mature enough to overcome her anxiousness and relieve the nervousness of her students.
2. "not being concise in her directions to the class" This is what a teacher does. I am sorry there is really no such thing as teaching, there is only presentation of information and modeling behavior. As educators, our jobs are to show students how to answer problems on their own, no matter if the problem is basic multiplication tables or how to make positive choices in their daily lives. If your friend is not able to do this consistantly then she is not going to make it as a teacher.
3. The Mom thing- Your friend demonstrated a clear lack of professionalism and inabliity to follow the most basic instructions given to her by her cooperating teacher. There are couple of ways to look at this. (A.) You could see this as a new and inexperienced person who didn't know what to do and made a poor decision. Or... (B.) this is a soon-to-be member of the teaching profession that is on their best behavior and at the top of their game because they are trying to make an outstanding impression to not only the university but also to prospective employers and references. Most people would pick (B.). It seems that this is the choice her cooperating teacher made.
If your friend can't overcome these major issues then yes, I think she should look for another profession. If she has learned from her mistakes and is mature enough to improve then she should not only be willing to do the student teaching over she would be eager to do so.
Reply:I have a friend who is did very badly in student teaching as well. She really loves kids and wants to teach, but it has been a few years and she can only find work in a daycare center.
When you apply for a job, you need transcripts and letters of recommendation. A D isn't going to look good, and I doubt her cooperating teacher will be willing to write anything nice. I'm not going to say she should give up but she has a lot of hardship to overcome.
Reply:Your friend has difficulty in following directions. In a classroom if she does teach there will be no one to advise her. She should consider another career path.
Reply:I would tell her not to give up. When I had difficulty the semester I student taught, someone gave me some great advice-they said that once you have your first job and get a good review, your grade from student teaching will not matter anymore. They were right. I toughed it out and got glowing reviews from my first job and no one ever looked at that grade again! However, I would caution her not to overstep her boundaries anymore and just lay low for the rest of her time student teaching.
Reply:sounds like the master teacher penil screwed her grade in anger. your friend could appeal the mark with the university, or do a second stretch of student teaching with a different master teacher. either way, i would not give up on a goal of teaching as a career. i would take the learning experience, figure out what i could do better next time and move forward. after all-teachers need to be life long learners!!!
Reply:I agree with the answers so far. Your friend should see about redoing student teaching. Your friend must be able to listen and learn. If the student teacher was told not to talk and they did, then there is a problem. When working with teachers and children you must be able to listen and learn. This person/friend does not have all of the answers right now but seems to carry them self as if they do. People frown upon that.
Reply:This is a humbling lesson to those of us going into the profession. I am going to make sure I follow my mentor teacher's instructions to a "t"
1) I would hope her career isn't over. I think that she needs to talk to her school about redoing a student teaching experience to gain that knowledge and learn where she went wrong. Then she can demonstrate she has learned from her mistakes, and prove she can do it.
2) She needs to focus on watching her mentor at work, and doing what is told.
Best of luck to your friend. She will get work.
Reply:It could've been worse. Everyone has a lot to learn no matter what vocation they choose. Teaching is a very rewarding profession as long as the teacher believes that they don't know everything.
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