Moving from being a student to becoming a teacher may require a significant change in your life style.  The campus student who is presently concerned with the stresses of reading textbooks, attending classes, passing tests and earning grades, will now become concerned with the stresses of interpreting curriculum guides, creating lessons, and assessing student learning.  This transition is an exciting one, but one which may require modification of how you use your time and your energy.  In the following sections we have incorporated some thoughts to be  considered as you engage in the process of preparing for this important transition. The decisions you make about how you will modify your life-style, and how you will change the ways in which you  manage your time and information can potentially make the difference between an adequate student teaching experience and an exceptional one.

As a teacher intern you will have many demands on your time.  Planning for daily instruction, attending after-school or evening meetings, and being available for unexpected parent conferences makes student teaching a full-time commitment.  As a novice you will have to spend significant amounts of time in the planning, delivery, and evaluation of your instruction.  Time which used to be available evenings and weekends may no longer exist.  You will need to make decisions about how to order your priorities, and manage your time based on what is critical and essential in learning how to teach.  This will allow you to obtain maximum benefits from the student teaching experience.  You will need to consider:

• the effects of working during student teaching.
• the consequences of taking time off for vacations or personal events.
• how to schedule travel time and transportation arrangements.
• how to balance personal and professional responsibilities.

Using the Teacher's Planning Book to Manage your Time

A teacher's planning book can be purchased at most office supply or bookstores which cater to college students or teachers.  Ask  your mentor teacher to show you how he or she has used the plan book.  The purpose of a teacher's planning book is to:

• quickly summarize your daily/weekly lesson plans.
• jot down reminders (e.g. equipment or materials you must have on hand for a particular lesson) or changes in schedules that can be expected to affect your instructional day.
• keep track of personal obligations to assure they do not interfere with your professional obligations.

Using a Loose Leaf Notebook to Organize Information

• plans for the gradual assumption of responsibility for total classroom takeover.
• detailed lesson plans which follow the takeover schedule and include resources needed for your instruction.
• journaling or reflective entries which include your thoughts about what worked, what didn't.
• to do list - for short reminders (phone calls to parents, materials to duplicate).
• to do list - the long-range planning list which consists of the things you must do over time or within the semester.
• resources and ideas for your present and future instructional needs (bulletin board ideas, lesson modification strategies, lesson ideas, materials or films) you want as a resource for the future.
• record-keeping that relates to student performance (comments, grades, behavioral data, individual student information) that will help guide your decisions for effective instruction.
• classroom policies and procedures (fire drill procedure, sending students to the health room, discipline policies, hall passes, dealing with tardiness and  absences both at the teacher and student level.)

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Last updated on November 20, 2002