Student Teaching at "S-School"

     I’m almost done, five years done, ONE to go! In a short two weeks I am going to be starting my second year of my Bachelor of Education degree which will be the LAST year before I am officially graduated and certified as a teacher in Manitoba!

     In my first year of my Bachelor of Education I took part in two student teaching placements. My first one was five weeks long running from October through November and my second one, at “C-School“, was seven weeks long (eight if you count spring break) running from March through May.

     In my second year, however, our first student teaching placement is broken up between one week at the very start of September and five weeks in the fall running from October through November again. This way, we are given an opportunity to see how a teacher sets up their classroom, first introduces themselves to their students and begins the school year (which starts in September in Manitoba). So we will spend the first week of school student teaching, return to the university for classes and then return back to that same school for our student teaching placements in the fall.

     I am so excited to learn that my fiance and I will both be placed with teachers at “S-School” which is only a ten minute drive from our home!! (You may remember that I was able to substitute teach here this past spring as well) This is so perfect because this is an area where we would love to get teaching positions one day. I am hoping that having an opportunity to be in the school as a student teacher will provide us with an opportunity to showcase our skills and meet both teachers and administration.

     One thing I am wondering about is how do I effectively introduce my expectations and routines to the students? I understand that the first week at the beginning of September will very much be observation and learning how my cooperating teacher interacts with his students but I can imagine there will be times where he will need to be out of the classroom or may have me distribute an assignment. If this happens, do I introduce some preliminary WBT strategies like “Class-Yes” or do I follow what my cooperating teacher has introduced?

     I know that the first week is very important for students in regards to setting up a classroom’s expectations and culture. As such, it may be detrimental to introduce different strategies as I will be leaving for five weeks and they won’t use them again until I return for the second portion of the placement. What are your thoughts? I will be using WBT when I am teaching later in the fall so do I introduce it early if I have the opportunity or should I wait and start fresh when I return?