The "Nuts & Bolts" of Student Teaching

As many of you have already read, I did begin my student teaching yesterday.  However, a few details about student teaching that will help all of you understand the process of student teaching and what it all entails will be explained through this blog post.  These details include but are not limited to deciding which schools I student teach at, how long I student teach, what grades I'll be student teaching in, etc.  These details were all determined and decided by May 2012, so now I will share them with you :)!

I graduated with a major in Elementary Education and a major in Early Childhood.  This means that I will be a certified teacher for infants-6th grade students.  As stated by the state of Iowa, a teacher pursuing their Bachelor's Degree must complete 16 weeks in a classroom according to their majors/minors they have studied.  This means that according to the state of Iowa and its regulations, I must complete an 8-week student teaching experience in one grade, ranging from Kindergarten-6th grade to fulfill my Elementary Education major.  I also must complete an 8-week student teaching experience in one grade, ranging from Infants-Preschool to fulfill my Early Childhood major.  One important thing to note is that I cannot make my own student teaching placements; therefore, each UNI student is placed with a student teaching coordinator/supervisor to assign us our placements in the schools and supervise us throughout our student teaching experience.  Below will be information on both of my student teaching placements and I am very excited to complete each of them!

My first placement will be at Fred Becker Elementary, as stated in my blog post from yesterday.  It will be in a Kindergarten classroom with my cooperating teacher being Mrs. Hammar.  Fred Becker Elementary is located in the Waterloo Community School District in Waterloo, Iowa.  In this school, there are four different Kindergarten classrooms and I cannot wait to get started with the kids as well as my cooperating teacher and coworkers.  I will be at Fred Becker Elementary for 8 weeks, and then move onto my second placement.

My second placement is one that I absolutely cannot wait for!  My second placement will be located in Chicago, Illinois at William H. Brown School of Technology.  I will be in a preschool classroom and my cooperating teacher will be Jessica Thoresen.  A fun fact about Jessica is that she also graduated from the University of Northern Iowa so we are both originally from Iowa and that will be exciting to know that I will be student teaching with a girl just like me :)!  I am so excited to move to Chicago, where I will be living with my sister, Brie.  We absolutely cannot wait to live together because it has been five years since we've been in a house together and it's so exciting to know that I will have my best friend literally seconds away from me!  I could not be more excited.  

So these are the basic nuts and bolts of my student teaching process and I hope that writing this has helped you understand the process of a student teacher as well as the schools I will be student teaching in!  Keep reading in order to learn more about my student teaching process along the way!  I can't wait to share it with all of you!