How to Survive Student Teaching

So you’ve started student teaching. Congratulations! This is a completely exciting and utterly overwhelming time in your life. But don’t stress. Student teaching is meant to prepare you for your new job as a teacher and is a huge learning experience. There is also a huge workload, especially with EdTPA and professional development. You want to be successful. So here are five important tips for you to be your most successful.

Snacks

While you may have packed your lunch the night before or the morning of, don’t forget snacks for all the hours in between. Eat a good breakfast, but bring a second one. Bring a lunch and a snack for after. Then have your end of the day snack. You wouldn’t think it but teaching makes you hungry. Keep the snacks low in carbs and heavy in protein in order to keep yourself full and not devoid of energy. Remember your students get hungry and tired too, so try not to be too hard on them when they eat or drink in your classroom.

Coffee, Tea, Any Form of Caffeine

If you’re the type of person who needs caffeine to get going in the morning, you’ll need double for student teaching. And it’s never a bad idea to have an extra tea bag or a cold brew in the fridge for that mid afternoon slump. There are so many energy drinks out there now that have vitamins and electrolytes. Gatorade can also help keep you hydrated and keep your energy up, along with a good old glass of water. Hydration is cool kids!

Organize your life.

Find a planner that you really love and keep it with you at all times. Write down your lesson plans, your EdTPA due dates, your schedules for the week. If necessary, get an old fashioned plan book to keep all the lessons for all your classes separate and in order. Keep it all in a binder with your discipline plan, your resources from your clinical educator, your praxis scores, and anything else that is deemed important by your school of education. Keep the most basic worksheets. Label everything. Your future teacher self will thank you.

Sleep

While you are still in college and it is tempting to go join your friends at the bar on a Thursday night... resist. It’s ok to go every once in a while, but the time of partying most days needs to come to an end. You are responsible for your students education and you can’t educate anyone with a wicked hangover. So give yourself a bedtime and stick to it. Your real friends will understand and will work around your schedule to find time to be with you. A good eight hours is something you preach to your students, so make sure you follow this rule yourself.

Have something just for you.

With all the lesson planning, grading, EdTPA, and extra curriculars you attend for your students, you will need something just for you. Find something that relaxes you, that gets your mind off of teaching. Go to a coffee shop without your bag of papers to grade. Go to a park. Take a hike. Do a facemask in the bath. Find something you can do at least once a week, free from all things teachery. This will help you survive not only the student teaching, but your first year as well.

Remember why you got into this job. It wasn’t for the money or the long hours or the summers off. You’re in this for your students, even the ones that drive you up the wall. Keep them at the forefront of your mind and you’ll do just fine.