1995 Indiana University - The Center for Adolescent Studies

I taught in a rural middle school and really enjoyed working with the students. They willingly accepted me and my teaching style. My cooperating teacher gave me room to create my own lessons, although the content was already set. Since she was a lecture-based teacher, I was glad for the freedom she gave me to do a few small group activities, role plays, and computer-based projects. I think she would have preferred more lectures and I would have liked more experience with other teaching styles.

I also felt good about my work with a few students in particular. I was able to help at least one student to do better in our class. Another student told me he appreciated knowing that I was watching out for him, making sure he turned in his assignments, while one student said she felt like I was the only teacher in the school who cared about her.

Not everything went well, though. I had hoped for more concrete feedback from my cooperating teacher. I wanted to hear more about what I could do better and get suggestions for teaching the content in other ways. I also felt constrained in terms of what I could do, because most of the other teachers in the school were "traditional."

Some things were surprising about the experience. I met a number of teachers who did not enjoy teaching and just wanted to get out of the building ASAP each day. As a result, I did not get much encouragement from those teachers. I had looked forward to doing some interdisciplinary teaming, but the other eighth grade teachers were not interested in this. Also, I did not have much administrative support for the more serious discipline problems. I was responsible for discipline in my class, but I had hoped that the front office would work with me on my repeat offenders.

One piece of advice I would give to student teachers is: "Persevere - strive to make the best out of your situation." There is always something to be learned from a situation, no matter how negative it may appear at first. Be savvy. Find out how your cooperating teacher and school operate, and work within their limits. You will not be able to use all of your teaching ideas in a short period of time, so be flexible and be ready to make changes in your lesson plans to better meet the needs of your students.