Meeting The Cooperating Teacher

Happy Tuesday! 

I'm sorry for the delayed post, but due to illness I will be getting back on schedule this week!

This is a typical work outfit for me. I like to wear a nice blouse,
dress pants, and a cardigan on my first day. It is best to over
dress on the first day! Also, ALWAYS wear identification badge!

So... I've completed over 100 clinical hours in grades second- fourth and now I have found out that my student teaching will take place in a fifth grade classroom, which means, I have met with four different teachers over the course of a year and each meeting has been completely different!

Today I am going to write about my first two clinical experiences, specifically meeting the teacher for the first time and how that teacher/ student relationship evolved over the course of the clinical.

I started all my clinicals with a similar email to the one I posted in Tuesday's, "Preparing for Student Teaching (Part 1)."

My first clinical was very short and only consisted of 10 hours in a third grade ELA/ Social Studies class. At first, the participating teacher was a bit standoffish. It could be that during our original meeting she was stressed or maybe had a bad morning. Whatever it was, the teacher did a 180 and became completely accommodating and helpful during our next meeting. (I must say that I did not have a pre-meeting with this teacher. My school had scheduled us a meet up during the middle of the day). After the first day, the teacher allowed me to walk around the room and help students. She also provided feedback on Common Core expectations and the reality of the feared third grade. 

My second clinical meeting didn't go as suspected. 

As said, I started with an introductory email to the teacher. The teacher seemed nice and asked that I come at 8:00AM, the start of the school day. Upon entering her class, I intoduced myself and asked if she would like me to introduce myself to the class. 

*It is important to note that this was a 40 hour clinical that was supposed to be broken into observation time and one-on-one student time.* 

The teacher told me that I wasn't allowed in her class and that she had already planned for me to work with a particular student outside of the classroom. The whole interaction was a complete shocker and her rudeness made me uncomfortable. I got my professor involved, which was unsuccessful. I was then instructed to work with the student from the original teacher's class and then I was to report to another teacher and complete my observation hours.

After our original meeting, I never really spoke to the teacher. I would simply go to her class and pick up my student. The student and I would work together 2 hours, 3 times a week. 

The upside to the bad experience, was  the teacher that DID allow me into her classroom was fantastic! She was super friendly and a fellow alumni to my school. She allowed me to work with her students and have free range of who and how I worked with them. 

The clinical ended on a positive note and I did receive an complimentary email, from the original participating teacher, saying what a great job I did. (This can be seen on my website along with some sample lesson plans that I taught/ worked on with the participating student missturner01.weebly.com).