How to Prepare for your First Year Student Teaching.

1. Look Professional

It kind of goes without saying. Teachers need to ‘look’ like teachers, or well, student teachers need to look like teachers.

If we dressed in our casual style or what we wear into university, students will definitely catch onto our ‘student status’. This is especially important for student teachers in second level. Many of us are only a few years older than the eldest students in the school and do not want to risk them finding out. This does not mean we need to go buy the most expensive clothing out there, or even a huge amount of clothing. While we do need to dress professionally, we can also shop smartly.

Shopping smartly means a variety of things. Only shop in sales, you would be surprised how many good quality items you can pick up during the right sales. Additionally, do not try shop in the sales two weeks before you start teaching because the odds are, you will only end up buying items for the sake of having something to wear. Keep an eye out in the sales up to a year before you start teaching if you can, and that way it should not cost an arm and a leg in one go to buy the necessary clothes.

If you find something you like, buy it in several colours. This may sound like a ‘mammy’ or ‘granny’ mindset, but trust me, it makes life a little easier in the mornings if you have clothing you like, is comfortable and know functionally works.

However, be careful not to buy random pieces of clothing because you like them. This happened to me in my first-year student teaching and guess what the result was? Nothing matched! I had several articles of clothing that I just could not wear because nothing matched with them. When shopping, try and find things that easily work together and with a variety of other types of clothes.

Finally, shoes!

You will probably be on your feet quite a lot and professionally, it is not really a good idea to wear runners into the classroom. Try and find a pair or two of shoes that are:

1. Functional,

2. Comfortable,

3. Matches most of your clothing.

I cannot stress this enough. As a female, heels or even low-heeled boots are just not functional or comfortable for me, no matter how professional they can make you look. I spent my first teaching year trying to find shoes that fit into the three categories mentioned above and honestly, I am still searching! I had tried low-heeled boots which did not work for me and I have tried several types of flats which I had also found really uncomfortable and non-durable. The only footwear I had found acceptable in my first year were flat boots. However, these were not functional during times of hotter weather. There are of course ballet flats and slip-ons if that is your style. I personally find them very uncomfortable and typically have very little support.

2. Organisation

Organisation is key to setting yourself up right for the year! There are several items I would recommend purchasing to make your life a little easier and organised when starting student teaching.

Firstly, a USB or One-Drive is a must. No arguments. You will more than likely be running from class to class and can quickly pop the USB into the class computer to load your different resources rather than logging into different accounts and sites which can take a lot of time out of your class.

Alternatively, you can use one-drive. In my second placement school, USBs were not permitted. This was because of a system they had set up on the computers in the school and pulling out a USB messed with it. The computers were also riddled with viruses which could transfer to your USB and to your own computer. I would opt for one-drive as you cannot lose it like you can with a USB.

A Teacher Diary is also quite important. For my first-year student teaching, I had two co-operating teachers. 90% of my classes were with co-operating teacher A who had always left her diary on the table so I could log the roll into. However, co-operating teacher B did not so the same and because I did not have a diary, I never adequately kept track of their attendance. Teacher diaries are also great for keeping record of exam results, minor misbehaviour, lack of homework, and many more things that you would definitely forget if you did not record them.

Buy some organising stationary. I am referring to folders, poly pockets, dividers, and laminators here. Keep a folder for each year and divide that folder in subjects. For myself, that would be first year: English/Geography.

As you continue in teaching you will more than likely have to split these and acquire larger folders. However, for the time being, any of the resources you get or make and then use will probably go missing or find themselves at the bottom of an endless pile of papers and resources. Keeping and organising all your documents organised in separate folders on a consistent basis will make life much easier when it comes to the following year teaching, sharing resources, or going through that bottomless pit of papers at the end of the year.

In addition to year and subject folders, it is also good to have a daily/weekly folder. To avoid carrying around several year and subject folders, have one folder that you bring into school organised and divided by each class you have. The night before you go into school, place all the pages and resources you need for each class into them. This way it is light, organised, and easy to follow.

A laminator is also a good investment! Not only that, many of them are relatively cheap. You can pick one up for €25. Laminating any resources and activities you make may seem a little time consuming at the start, however, it is much less time consuming in the long run. This means that you will not have to make the resource again in the following years, unless you wish to improve it, or the curriculum changes.

3. Curriculum

Research the curriculum before you start the student teaching year. If you have gone through the education system you are going to teach in, odds are you are already somewhat familiar with it. Do not let this fool you into thinking you do not really need to do this. You probably have not encountered this information since you had learned it in school, unless you are teaching a language or another subject like that. I know for me, I had not encountered the majority of the school curriculum in university and had to go relearn everything I was teaching! Relearning the school curriculum on top of university assignments, lesson plans, resources, and the 100 other things you may be doing is stressful. Do yourself a favour and get a head start on it!

If you can refresh your memory on the topics you will eventually be teaching, do make some resources or activities while you do it and laminate them for durability. This will save you a lot of time during the academic year when you are stressed and overwhelmed with your workload.

It can also be quite overwhelming to understand curriculum(s) set out in guidelines. These can include learning outcomes, success criteria, special education needs and many other things. Take the time to read about and learn about these other factors involved within the curriculum and that way, it should not be as overwhelming as it would be if it were thrown to you all at once.

4. Pick Your ‘Me Time’

Teaching is more than likely a completely new area to you. You are going to be stressed and overwhelmed with university and placement requirements.

It is important to pick an evening or two or a weekend day for yourself and do what you want, not what has to be done for the above.

Pick something you like to do to relax and do just that, whether it is swimming, hanging out with friends, watching TV, sleeping, or doing absolutely nothing at all. This is especially important for you mental and physical health and to prevent burnout. There is always going to be some work for you to do, you will never be finished the work that is required so just take some ‘me time’ for yourself. If you do not and you burnout, any work you do will be largely inefficient and ineffective anyways.

Elise-Teaches.com