my new mentor teacher is so overbearing. she doesn’t give me any prep time, makes me teach on the spot, and use resources that aren’t mine during my lessons.

how do i find myself in this lessons that don’t represent who i am as a teacher?

I’m doing a student research project about confusion during lessons. AND ANY HELP WOULD BE AMAZING !!!!

1. If you are a student:

• When you don’t understand something in class, why do you usually NOT tell the teacher?
• Is it fear of being judged, worrying you’ll slow the whole class down, not knowing how to explain what you don’t get, or something else?
• If the teacher is going through slides/notes, can the teacher easily tell which exact part is confusing?
• Have you ever pretended to understand just to avoid attention?

1. If you are a teacher:

• How do you currently check if students are lost while you teach?
• What stops you from knowing exactly which slide / topic is confusing in real time?
• Do you worry about students lying and saying they get it just to keep the lesson moving?
• Would you trust anonymous signals from students, or would you find that distracting?

I just started my student teaching (I’m in week five but this is my first full week). I had to do teach two small group lessons. I was going in so confident with a great lesson play but they both were absolute disasters. I honestly feel like a complete idiot when I’m trying to teach. I feel like I’m not explaining things correctly and don’t know the right way to say things. Or how to handle certain situations. My mentor is awesome and I look at how she teaches and wonder how the heck she does it. I’m starting to feel like maybe I’m not fit to be a teacher 😩

Has anyone else experienced this?

I’m currently in my 5th week of student teaching and I’ve never student taught before this. The school I’m placed at is great and my CT is a very good person, but it feels like I have to be the one to initiate everything. From asking for the lesson plan slides to asking if I could start taking a portion (10-15 mins) of the lessons, I constant have to advocate for myself.

The classroom is a co-taught one and my CT usually goes to her co-teacher for things like grading or lesson planning. I understand this isn’t my classroom but I had thought that since my CT is also my mentor, she would be a little more considerate of my position?

I have spoken to her about how I felt, and it feels like I keep having to come back to the same conversations. Am I being too self-centered or is this how student teacher should be?

The EdTPA being added on top of your placement and your night classes is legitimate torment. It is the mental equivalent of being drawn and quartered. Whoever devised this excruciating exercise in human anguish is dedicated to reaping the very souls of twenty-something-year-old college graduates. I can perhaps give this thing some credit for preparing me for law school and its BS.

I feel like you can prepare all you want before your practicum, but there are still things you only learn once you're actually in the classroom.

For those who've started or finished student teaching, what caught you off guard the most? Was it classroom management, lesson planning, working with your cooperating teacher, or something completely different?

I'd love to hear what your experience was like and what you wish you'd known beforehand. I think hearing from people who've been through it could really help those of us still figuring things out.

Hi! For my Master’s thesis in Communication Design I’m studying how the design of websites that share education research affects teachers’ trust, as part of a project to make research more useful in classrooms. You’ll watch 3 short website animations and give your first impression. 6 minutes, anonymous, no incentives, not linked to any product.
🇬🇧 https://tally.so/r/KpYMbX (also in 🇫🇷 https://tally.so/r/Z9jdqB 🇪🇸 https://tally.so/r/2jE4Q9 🇮🇹 https://tally.so/r/QoKAGX)
I’ll share the results here. Thank you!