Home just a little annoyed

[phoenixgirl]

I''m coming on here to vent about my student teacher because I''m afraid that doing so on a teaching forum might be discovered by her.

My student teacher joined me (high school English teacher) this week, and her attitude regarding the experience is a let down.

The first day she told me (didn''t ask, told) that she would need to leave school early once a week (granted, not during a class, but during my assigned duty which she is responsible for assuming when it is time for her to teach) due to having her student teaching seminar that afternoon. I couldn''t believe that the university would be so boneheaded as to plan the seminar too close to the end of the school day so that she''d be forced to leave her placement early. And our contract is to stay fifteen minutes after the final bell, not leave before it on a whim. I checked the student teacher handbook and it says to adhere strictly to the teacher''s contractual hours.

As I questioned the university''s timing of the seminar, I discovered that she actually had sufficient time to get from one to the other but wanted to have leisurely time to go home in between and let out her dog.

So when I told her that I didn''t feel comfortable saying she could do this and that she''d need to clear it with the university and the administrator I''d have to ask to leave early, she was very argumentative, saying things like student teaching wasn''t her "real job" and she wished the university would make it clear which was the priority, the student teaching or the seminar (seems pretty obvious to me). She even said that she couldn''t afford to put her dog in a kennel which I think was a last ditch effort to guilt me into agreeing. But what if I had a class instead of a duty at that time? Would she still have asked to leave? If her reasons for leaving early were so compelling, then on the flip side the university would forgive her being a little late, right?

Then her university supervisor came to visit midweek. He is a congenial older man but quite the talker (which I knew as he was my supervisor when I student taught 7 years ago). He spent 50 minutes saying things like, "Student teaching is more important than working at Burger King" and telling anecdotes about whether male student teachers wear a coat and tie (in other words, not very relevant). I came to work 45 minutes early for this meeting, but once the bell rang and students came into my room, I got up and started writing my objectives on the board as required. He then suddenly remembered to question whether she should teach the elective class that I teach as well as my four English classes since she has not studied the other area (neither have I, but that doesn''t stop a school from thrusting those electives on you). I student taught two electives, so it didn''t occur to me that she would be given this option.

Since there was no time to discuss this in private, I said, well, it''s up to her. And she, feeling that she has been given an oh so difficult decision between teaching 4 or 5 classes, has opted for 4. I guess that any rational peson would go for the fewer classes, but I am worried that she will not fulfill the state or university requirements this way. The book clearly says that you need to teach x full days at each placement and that state dept. of education says you need to student teach for y hours full time, so I told student teacher that I was pretty sure she would then need to teach 4 classes for x days plus a few extra to make up for one fewer class. Student teacher claims to have already earned 25% more hours than she needed to at her middle school placement (which I know is a lie; it''s mathematically impossible without having added extra days which I know she didn''t do, and I heard her and the other student teacher laughing about how they made up their hour logs at the end of the placement), so she refuses to add extra days. OK, then, you are uncomfortable adding extra days or teaching this elective (I am sure this is only because the supervisor appeared to give her this option as I really couldn''t leave the planning/teaching of that class entirely up to her and would basically do everything for her anyway), so I came up with another teacher''s class that period that would not be a new prep for her that she could teach. But again, no, she is sure that she can just do 80% of the requirement. The problem is that university supervisor has been out of town and has not answered this question for us, and she does not have time to start early if needed.

But what bothers me is not that she''ll be teaching 80% instead of 100% of my classes as I couldn''t have really left the elective up to her anyway. What bothers me is her attitude and the way she always acts like I''m wrong about everything, so then I wind up having to argue with her about these things. I was so committed to doing a good job when I student taught but she seems to feel it is a burden that should receive as little effort as possible. My dept. head said maybe it is because I am younger, but this isn''t a great excuse. I''m actually a year older and two years more experienced that my cooperating teacher was, and I would have never questioned what she told me, left early, cooked the books, etc.

I guess I was hoping to have a student teacher who was excited about the opportunity and committed to doing her best with integrity. When I told my department head about her "it''s not my real job" comment, the dept. head said, "Yeah, but it''s her real grade!" I fear that I will be unable to write a positive letter of recommendation when this is all said and done. (That''s another issue. This is less of an actual gripe, but her middle school teacher apparently gave her rave reviews. Student teacher has several times mentioned that I can just evaluate her like her middle school teacher and actually brought them in to show me what she wrote. Does she think I am not as qualified as her previous teacher or that I can''t figure out from the handbook how and when to evaluate her? It seems a little premature to make me think about her evaluations before she has even begun teaching.)

After requesting to leave early the very first day, she then came 25 minutes late the second day. If she had been a student, I would have had to mark her tardy if she''d been one minute later. When I asked what had happened, she said that traffic is worse when you leave 20 minutes later. Well, she had been exactly on time the day before, so it wasn''t a very good plan to add an extra 20 minutes. After a few comments about adjusting from being a college student who is used to being hung over and sleeping late (yes, she really said that!), she finally seemed to get it and has been on time since and has been very careful to stay those extra 15 minutes at the end of the day, so I guess she is learning. I know that she needs a little grace on my part as she has never had a real job before (but again, I was a year or two younger than she is when I student taught and equally inexperienced job-wise, and I would have never done these things).

I guess I was expecting her to be bumbling when it came to classroom management or lesson planning (and she still may, she hasn''t started yet) but not when it came to integrity, attitude, or work ethic. I''m tired of all of my well-meaning advice and concern being misconstrued and rejected and it''s only been one week!

 

[phoenixgirl]

OK, if I''m going to gripe, I might as well get it all out, right?

I sent her some emails earlier in the year asking her what she wanted to teach. I needed to know what to teach then and what books to grab from the English office, which is often difficult to coordinate. For example, a first year teacher announced this week that she would need all of a certain novel for the rest of the year, and after I grabbed the student teacher''s novels for her, another teacher came looking for them. So anyway, student teacher wrote back something like, "I appreciate your concern but am too busy with my middle school placement to think about this lol. You know how it is ha ha. OK ttyl [name]."

I mentioned I''m an English teacher, right? ''Nuff said.

So during the supervisor''s visit, he said, "Well, knowing you Ms. Phoenixgirl, I am sure you are very organized and plan ahead a lot, but in some cases, I''m not speaking from anything I know, but in some cases that can be overwhelming for someone who is still teaching middle school to have to think about her next placement." So obviously she complained about me trying to give her leeway in what to teach to him. I can''t say that it was very useful for him to bring this up when she was done with her first placement and actually did need to think about my classes. But it gives me the sense that part of the problem is that first impression she got of me. She has mentioned several times how much she loved middle school, how little she knows of literature, how the big kids intimidate her, etc. So I think part of the problem stems from the fact that she panicked when she got my email and channeled her frustration into thinking I was some crazy overorganized woman with a stick up her butt (or something).

It sort of makes me wish I had just picked the crappiest book for her teach lol haha. OK ttyl . . . (I know, I know, I''m a terrible person.)

 

[jas]

OMG PG, TMI (JK)

Wow does this bring back baaaad memories. I actually had to get RID of one student teacher (which I feel terrible about to this day.) He came in late, did NOT know the material, actually talked "text speak" to the students (literally said, "JK" to kids, who rolled their eyes), never checked with me about what he was doing, never ever ever took advice from me about planning lessons, never took advice from the PRINCIPAL (who was active in all student teaching experiences), never wanted to do more than the minimum. One time, my across-the-hall neighbor came running in, 1 minute before school, and begged him to run to the Xerox machine to help her out as she''d forgotten to run something off and she had a class THAT minute. I was teaching the first class, he had nothing to do. He refused. Oh, and the times he would start conversations about nothing-school-related with kids WHEN I WAS TEACHING. Ugh. Even his university supervisor wanted to pull him out. So she did.

As I have mentioned in another thread...there seems to be a new breed of teachers (again, not all, but a few in every bunch) that don''t understand professionalism, collegiality, working hard, effort, responsibility. (Again, I am not an old fogey! I''m in my 30''s!) They want to come in, do a few razzle-dazzle "games" and "projects" with little relevance and unclear outcomes, and generally want to be LIKED and the "cool teacher" they never had (or the "cool teacher" they did have!) They dream of teaching to be the one person in some kid''s life who that kid will bond with. And that''s fine. That''s a part of the job...an important part. But there is so much more to it.

My guess, sadly, is that you have one of those.

Start documenting everything. My guess is that when it comes time to evaluate (and you''ll have a couple of these, yes?) you will have some sort of rubric provided by the University. Professionalism is usually way up there. Bring up the "inconsistent" explanations, lack of professional communication, etc.
I hate to be a grump meister, but I take the job so darned seriously.

Oh, and the whole "I don''t know literature" thing? Are you kidding me? Intimidated by the "big kids"? Sounds like she is trying to play the victim with her supervisor. We were told, over and over in my program, to suck it up and DEAL and say YES to as much as humanly possible...that we would be watched in EVERYTHING.

Keep your standards high. I''m so glad we have PROFESSIONALS like you in the classroom! I''m so sorry I don''t have advice, but I really really feel for you. Come here, share your stories, vent, and then you''ll have a pretty good record when this continues forth, so that when you meet with her (daily? Weekly?) and/or you meet with her supervisor, you can professionally, rationally, point out certain behaviors that may be detrimental TO YOUR STUDENTS and to the LEARNING environment you''ve worked hard to establish.

Best, (and grumpily),
Jackie (who was trained as an English teacher and was put in a self-contained classroom and had to teach math, science, social studies, English, reading and SEX ED from pretty much my second week.)

 

[phoenixgirl]

Best, (and grumpily),

Jackie (who was trained as an English teacher and was put in a self-contained classroom and had to teach math, science, social studies, English, reading and SEX ED from pretty much my second week.)

Holy Moly, Jackie! That would be so hard.

I will definitely document. And I will most certainly keep my own record of her hours.

Although she is going through the teacher licensure program (designed for career switchers) at the fairly competitive private university I attended, she originally came from out of state on an athletic scholarship to go to a state school that is not one of our best. She has mentioned how she was given special treatment in college and didn''t learn as much as she could have. I honestly think that she is just not an academic. Knowing that she was recruited heavily (and that athletes usually use their recruitment to go to a more selective school than they would have gotten into based on grades alone), I''m guessing that she''s just not that, well, smart.

And to top it all off, she has made some uncomfortable racial comments. We are the most diverse school in the county, and I think it''s appropriate to consider race as a professional issue and maybe ask if there are any racial concerns at the school. But student teacher commented to me (in the hall where anyone could have heard us) that she suspected that a lot of the black students were actually "mixed" race, and what did I think about such and such student of mine . . . is she mixed? Because her complexion is so interesting, etc. etc. I know, I know. Aaah! (And she''s not even from some southern or conservative part of the country.) She also made some comments at lunch about how she found going from private school to public school so horrible because public school was filled with Jews, not knowing the religion of anyone at the table (not that it''s ok to say as long as there are no Jewish people around, but you know what I mean). Ironically, the book I chose for her to teach is a Holocaust memoir.

She just appears to be completely clueless. She doesn''t understand how to be professional and she can''t tell when she is saying offensive things.

I''ve spent all week trying to be encouraging and receptive and not really allowing myself to realize how bad it was, and I feel like I''m taking all the little situations that were odd or unprofessional and putting together a puzzle that reveals a big old mess. Sigh.

All I can say is . . . thank goodness they split the placement between middle school and high school so I only have to put up with her for a couple of months.

I''m sad because I care so much about my students. I believe in the student teaching process and was willing to step back and let a newbie experiment with them for the sake of the future of our profession. But I don''t want those weeks when she is teaching full time (hey, maybe we can cut those short too based on her "record" of how much she taught at the other school) to just be a total waste when it comes to my students'' education. I never feel like I have enough time with them as it is.

 

[mimzy]

is there any way you could let her supervisor know of her ''inconsistencies'' before the first evaluation? if so, ask/let him know (whichever is more appropriate) to do a ''pre-evaluation'', where you fill out the whole evaluation form for her and go over your concerns before they can affect her grade. let her know that she needs to step it up in these _____ areas, before the next (real) evaluation or else her grade will be affected. if she does, great! if she doesn''t, she won''t be "blindsided" by a bad review, which she will likely complain to the supervisor about. whatever you do, don''t go soft on her. if she is really going to be a teacher, then it really is for her own good.

when i did my student teaching we were told that we were required to think of it as a full-time job...and we didn''t really have much choice. although i will say that we constantly had seminars booked during school hours, and they always trumped being in the classroom, so in retrospect i imagine that i ''told'' my CT that i would be leaving instead of ''asked''....

hmm..another thought. maybe her CT at the middle school is really laid back and she''s assuming that you are also? maybe she is assuming she can take those liberties with you because she has with her CT over there.

 

[mimzy]

also, if she continues to be bad, and worse, isn''t teaching the students effectively, let her know that you think she needs a little more ''modeling'', and take back control of the class, and just let the grade reflect that. if she gets a bad grade it''s her fault, not yours and your first responsibility is to your students, not her.

 

[strmrdr]

From the student side......

You really need too put your foot down and take charge, she is there for you too teach her real world teaching and not making her put out her best is letting her and your students down.
The absolutely worst class I had was one with a student teacher.
She absolutely sucked and argued with the teacher in front of us and wasted our school time which meant more homework, our teacher would plan 8 to10 min to start homework each day so if anyone had a question she could help out.
The student teacher messed around so much that we never got that time and often would have to rush thru everything instead of doing a good job teaching it.
I did ok in it but the ummm more average students didn''t learn much of anything and struggled for the rest of the year because they didn''t have the building blocks from the time the student teacher was there.

 

[jas]

Storm and Mimzy make really good points. I had forgotten all the student AND PARENT complaints that started trickling in. The kids were beyond frustrated, the parents were displeased. I only heard the beginnings of rumblings, but that''s when I took the bull by the horns.

I would also give a heads up to the administration ALONG WITH the "Here''s what I''m going to do about it" -- I may be overreacting here, but I worked in a "high maintenance" district.

Hang in there...a job as CT is tough!

 

[lisa1.01fvs1]

Having been a student teacher (in 1993) & multiple subjects, so not totally on target here, I agree whole heartedly with your complaints!

I would NEVER have knowingly defied or been argumentative with my Master Teacher.

However, I was already 23 yrs. old and had had heinous jobs.

That said, I have been in a situation (different program, Masters) where a field instructor and placement was innapropriate and had to do something about it.

This was resolved by the University and they never used the placement again.

Sounds like you all need to have a sit down to clarify what''s been going on as you are harboring some resentment and that will effect both of you in the classroom.

Its too bad she''s so immature

Student teaching is a litmus test for the "real" thing - & she''s making a very bad reputation for herself already!

 

[isaku5]

As a retired teacher, hearing that kind of nonsense from a student teacher, would make my blood boil!

Over the 19 years that I taught, none of the student teachers acted or spoke like that.

Have a well-worded chat with her explaining why you are dissatisfied with her behavoiur and warn her that if she doesn''t teach to standard she will not get any positive comments from your feedback. Everytime she steps over the line, take her aside and tell her why that''s unacceptable.

Make it clear to her that your evaluation will be honest and truthful as you have your reputation to protect as well.

From what you write, she''s on the wrong career path and should consider other options.

 

[Fancy605]

I''m sorry your student teacher is not working out very well. She sounds immature. Actually this story reminds me of a LOT of college students. A lot of student teachers have trouble suddenly transitioning from college party-girl (or guy) lifestyles to responsible, role-model-esque teaching lifestyles. It is unfortunate because in the end they are only hurting themselves by not taking full advantage of every opportunity they have to learn about teaching because it is very different and comes with a very different set of conditions than any other job in the whole world. Missing out on experiences will adversely affect her when it comes time for her to take the reigns in her own classroom. People don''t coddle first year teachers. The principal basically says, "here''s your room and your keys" and you are own your own. She''s going to be in for a horrible shock if she isn''t careful. My first year was difficult (all though it was fun too), and I took my student teaching very seriously, so I can only imagine what it would be like for someone who didn''t take it seriously.

That being said, there may be some reasoning behind her feeling as if it is okay to leave early and arrive late and make up hours. That''s because a lot of supervising teachers don''t take the student teaching experience seriously and think it''s okay to let the student teacher do all of those things. I bet your student teacher knows lots of other student teachers who are getting away with every bit of that and then some.

I personally had a supervising teacher who took a little bit of advantage of my presence. He left me in charge of all classes for 4 weeks longer than I was supposed to be in charge. He never observed my teaching unless he came to the room to get something he''d forgotten. He often left campus completely. He said he basically would just ask the kids how I was doing and write his recommendations based on that. Now, he did let me leave early for that tale-tell education seminar I had, and I was glad for that b/c traffic/trains were unpredictable. Sometimes I''d arrive 15 min early, sometimes right on time. Our professors took that class really seriously despite the fact that we basically just sat there and listened to them talk about trivial odds and ends for an hour (like shirts and ties as you mentioned) As it turns out, I ended up being glad that he left me with so much more responsibility that I was supposed to take on because it allowed me to use trial and error rather than relying on him to bail me out of everything. But, during the actual experience I felt like it was completely unfair that I spent my days and evenings working on all this extra stuff when my friends had supervising teachers who didn''t mind when they didn''t show up and were only signed on to be supervising teachers for the stipend.

Anyway, this girl has probably experienced a lot of slack in the system and expects it from you now. Honestly, you''d be doing her a disservice to give it to her.

You''ll have to let us know how she does with the actual instruction.

 

[fire&ice]

Geez, this student teacher could have been me for a couple of days. I was immature and fully dazed by having to fit a schedule of a "real job". Though I never argued with and totally respected my master teacher, I was a bit of a screw up that first week. It was a difficult adjustment from going to class at specific times with no set daily schedule to going to "work" at a set time, staying the entire day & staying after to plan for the next day. After the first week, my master teacher sat me down and stated the facts as she saw them. She gave me a wake up call with specifics to work on (and stated positives to accenuate). I did a complete 180 and ended up with a stellar recommendation.

Though I can understand your frustration, I would sit her down and read her the riot act with some positives to work on. It may not work; but, I think you owe it to her to act swiftly.

Best of luck.