Advice For Student Teachers & Their Supervisors

Here’s our response to Education Week Teacher magazine’s question about the topic of advice for student teachers and their supervisors.

“For both, I would say to set higher expectations. The basic standard of teaching programs and the level of training provided simply isn’t good enough (I know of several supervisors that are very despondent about the quality of student teachers sent to them).

Student teachers need to learn more sophisticated methods of teaching, be pushed to reach higher levels of education (i.e. masters degrees), and diversify their range of skills and knowledge.

The better prepared teachers are, the better they’ll cope in the classroom. What is more, the better ‘students’ these student-teachers are, the better teachers they’ll become.

Supervisors should do their best to be role models and mentors. This means being equally determined life-long learners.”