Morgan Taylors Scenario

You have just started student teaching in the fall semester & are invited to sit
in on parent teacher conferences. In these conferences, parents meet with a
full team of teachers for a brief five minute period. There is a student who
you hear has been struggling in other classes but you feel you really
connected with. During the conference, you inadvertently monopolize
conversation so that the teacher with which the student was struggling has
minimal time to speak. Your cooperating teacher discusses this with you and
you are invited again to the following day of conferences. What is the proper
etiquette to follow in this situation? How can you still share your successes
with students to parents / other teachers in a professional manner?
Notes:
Specific priority points in numerical order
Send an email or phone call for non-pressing matters
Do not over step bounds
Let the co-op lead
Lay out expectations
Know your district policies
Compare student work co-curricularly
Frank Romanos Scenario
"Principal Inconsistent"
You are a student teacher in a school with a mix of newer teachers who have
been there 1-5 years, and veterans who range from dedicated teachers, to
people just pulling in a paycheck, to graduates of this school who have called
it home for 30+ years. The principal is one of these veterans, who graduated
from the school and is highly regarded by some of the faculty. However,
there is clear favoritism by the principal toward certain groups--fellow school
graduates, people of the same gender, and people from the same age range.
The principal also is inconsistent, sometimes praising you and your
cooperating teacher, and other times demeaning you; sometimes being full
of joy and kindness in greetings but others cold and expressing
disappointment in their body language, even for minor mistakes. The
principal is also a micromanager and some teachers live in fear of a walkthrough or unannounced eval at clearly inopportune times, like on a half-day
before a holiday, a delayed opening, or the day after the Super Bowl.
This is really bothersome. You're doing your best, but it never feels enough
and it is impacting your student teaching experience. The cooperating
teacher, who is talented and in the middle of experience as a 5th year
teacher but is not one of the principal's favorites, often talks about the
principal in negative ways with colleagues who are similarly new and not
from the school. What should you do? What professional consequences are at
stake? What types of behaviors might you encounter, and how should you
handle them?

Notes:

Balancing between realities of interacting with your coworkers and not

getting caught talking about your bosses is hard! Tough choices might
need to be made.
Find a confidant (maybe two max!) to vent when you need it. Try not to
bring to much work home to your friends/family/significant other if
there is inconsistency and drama at the workplace.
Use human resources, such as guidance counselors, disciplinarians,
other administrators, CST, etc. if your principal or supervisor impedes
your progress in anyway.

Linda Biondis Scenario #1

First rule in student teachingNo favorites. But does she follow the
advice?
In this scenario, the cooperating teacher has cautioned the student teacher
to be aware of the dynamics of the classroom. When there is recess time,
several of the girls are braiding the student teachers hair and staying with
the student teacher instead of playing with the students in the classroom.
Several students have voiced to the cooperating teacher that the student
teacher is playing favorites. Unusually during lunch, the cooperating teacher
likes to meet with the student teacher to reflect on the mornings activities
and discuss the afternoon. The student teacher has invited the girls to
have a girls lunch with her but has excluded several of the other girls in
the classroom. The cooperating teacher has tried to be very diplomatic
about the situation but parents of the other students are now contacting her
about the situation.
Notes:
Not appropriate for student behavior
Student teacher directs students to establish bonds with other
students
SI directs students to get involved
SI needs t be firm if students arent listening- need to consult with
cooperating
Remember your purpose in the classroom
Establish your role as a teacher at the beginning its not appropriate
behavior at all
Direct the students to another activity during the indoor recess
SI- student teacher
Tiffany Gobacs Scenario:
Implementing your cooperating teachers classroom management plan

After a couple weeks of immersing yourself into student teaching,

your cooperating teacher notifies you that you will be teaching multiple
subjects throughout the day. Considering you have been teaching some
lessons over the course of the day, you do not feel nervous about taking over
a specific content area. However, during some lessons you have noticed that
some of the students become difficult to engage. As teaching progresses, the
students begin to speak over your instruction, lose focus and become off
task. Initially, your cooperating teacher would interject and assist in helping
the students back on task. Since your cooperating teacher would assist in
managing the classroom, you do not feel nervous about instructing daily.
Once you begin teaching the content daily, you notice your
cooperating teacher is assisting you less in managing the classroom. During
the course of the lessons, you feel as though you tend to lose control of the
classroom. You attempt to implement the classroom management plan;
however, some of the strategies are not helping. What should you do? If you
speak to your cooperating teacher and the advice is not helpful, where do
you go from there?
Notes:
Setting expectations
Discussing with your supervisor/cooperating teacher
Learning *
Concerns about trying new classroom management strategies
Suggestion include classroom management notes
Kristin Edwards Scenario
While you are student teaching, you and your cooperating teacher grade
students' writing assignments. A parent e-mails your cooperating teacher
and is unhappy with the way you have graded their child's writing
assignment. Your cooperating teacher has a meeting with you and informs
you of this concern. What would be a professional response to this scenario?
Notes:
Let cooperating lead
Listen intently during the meeting
Talk to cooperating teacher to take on the situation
Have the cooperating teacher check the grade ahead of time
Share opinion with cooperating teacher
Share with cooperating teachers how Rider teaches student teachers
to handle these types of situations
Be proactive with parent communication
Dont just tell, show the evidence
Sylwia Denko Scenario
As a student teacher, you receive a wonderful leadership opportunity. Other
teachers have a hard time understand/relating to your passion and

excitement about teaching and all of the responsibilities that go with it. They
are also frustrated because they believe the leadership opportunity should
have gone to someone with more experience and knowledge about the topic.
They have expressed their thoughts to you. How do you respond?
Notes:

Talk to that person

Be confident in yourself
Explain that you wouldnt do anything to intentionally hurt anyone
Ask for advice and collaboration
Never argue back
Dont gossip
Try to work it out with the person instead of going to an administrator