Observing Student Teachers: Tips and Tricks for Mentors
Observing student teachers is an important job of the mentor teacher. Without observation and feedback, your student teacher will struggle to make progress in their placement with you.
Being a mentor for a student teacher is a very important job. You have many responsibilities when you are a mentor. If you aren’t sure where to start, you are in the right place. I have some tips and resources for you! This is the sixth in a series of posts about mentoring a student teacher. Keep checking back for more tips and resources.
Mentoring a Student Teacher Topics
- Part 1: Preparing for your Student Teacher
- Part 2: Introducing your Student Teacher
- Part 3: Releasing Responsibilities to your Student Teacher
- Part 4: Communicating with your Student Teacher
- Part 5: Planning with your Student Teacher
- Part 6: Observing your Student Teacher
- Part 7: Giving Feedback to your Student Teacher
- Part 8: Grading Tips for your Student Teacher
- Part 9: Reflecting with your Student Teacher
- Part 10: Thanking your Student Teacher
Observing Student Teachers
Your student teacher needs your support now. Keep up the momentum in order to help your student teacher become the best teacher they can be! Your student teacher needs you to observe and provide feedback. (We’ll talk about feedback in the next post, so don’t worry too much about that yet!)
Let it go!
When you are observing, it is very easy to get sucked into feeling like he/she isn’t doing it right because it is different than how you would teach the lesson. Try to let it go! I know that is easier said than done, but it will make the placement easier.
You don’t want your student teacher to feel like he/she has to be you.
There is more than one right way to do something.
Let it go and see the magic your student teacher will bring to your classroom!
Mistakes are OK!
Focus on the Positives!
When observing your student teacher, you should also make sure you make note of things that he/she does well.
Be positive with your feedback!
Don’t always make it about things to work on. Think about writing report card comments. You don’t always tell the parents about negatives. So you shouldn’t always tell your student teacher about negatives.
Different Teaching Styles
Keep in mind the fact that your student teacher might have a different teaching style than you. It is perfectly fine for him/her to do things differently than you would. Let him/her develop his/her own teaching style.
Your students will benefit from having a confident student teacher who is able to be themselves. Let the magic happen!
Observing Student Teachers
Remember, observation is a very powerful tool used to help teachers improve their teaching.
Let it go, encourage mistakes, give open-ended feedback, and be positive!
