I just finished hosting a student teacher, and it was such a great experience for both of us! When you're getting ready to host a student teacher, it's so helpful to have some basic information prepared to share with them to help them get started on the right foot. Today I'm sharing what I gave my student teacher before their first day and what I did to help them feel prepared.
1. Things to print/ save
I actually gave my student teacher digital and hard copies of all of the things on this list, because you never know if they will end up working better having a piece of paper to look at, or being able to look it up on their computer. Mine ended up using both pretty frequently, so I was glad to have them both set up- I made a folder in google drive called "student teacher" to house all of the documents and files related to their placement, and put a folder in there called "reference materials" and "curriculum materials".
The reference materials included:
-building calendar that lists all of the events/ field trips/ drills/ etc happening within the school during their placement
-district calendar with all of the early dismissal/ holidays and the letter days for our rotational schedule
-my class schedule
-seating charts/ class lists for each class
-staff meeting schedule
The curriculum materials included:
-yearly outline of what is covered in each month of the school year for each grade
-lesson plans and materials for the months of their placement
-sheet music for chorus classes
-materials I use for lesson warmups
2. Things to discuss
Because my student teacher started right after December break, we were able to meet over break before their placement to talk, which was really helpful. If you can make it work with your schedules, I highly recommend meeting with the student teacher before their placement starts so you can give them the documents you've prepared and have a chance to talk beforehand and get to know them a little bit!
Of course there will be different specific things to discuss with each person, but I think the most important things to go over with student teachers before they start include:
-explanation of the documents I shared with them
-brief overview of my management systems/ how I run my classes
-basic idea of when I tend to arrive and leave from work each day
-general idea of how teachers in my building tend to dress
-when, how, and where duties work
-where and how I eat lunch
-where to park when they get to school
Some of these may seem trivial but they are all things that will help a student teacher be more comfortable and confident coming into school the first day. Of course it's also important to ask them what questions they might have and give them time to talk through anything else they're wondering about!
3. Things to show
I was lucky enough this time to be able to meet my student teacher in the school building over break when nobody else was around so I could show them around the school a little bit when things were quiet. I highly recommend doing this if you can!
Besides a general tour of the building, here are some specific things I think are important to show them:
-my classroom and a basic idea of where things are in the room/ what things are used for
-my teacher desk area, and where their teacher desk area will be
-my closet/ storage and where I keep my purse during the school day
-the closest teacher bathroom
-how the classroom phone works
-where the emergency exits are when we have a drill
-the staff lounge/ fridge and microwave for lunch
I definitely don't expect anyone to absorb all this information in one sitting, but I think it's helpful to go over all of this before their placement starts so they have some time to process everything, and when they come in the first day they aren't starting completely from scratch. If you've hosted a student teacher before, I'd love to hear what you shared with them in the beginning to help them get started on the right foot! I'm hoping to share more about my experiences hosting a student teacher in the future, so if you have any questions please leave them in the comments as well.
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