Kate,

I wish you the best with student teaching. I am going to have a
student teacher myself this fall, and I am very excited.

As a suggestion, one thing you may really want to work on is grammar
and tone in your writing. I teach math, and I am the last person who
thought I would ever have to worry about such things... I mean, do you
really need it for factoring and calculus?

However, as teachers, the majority of our correspondence with parents,
administrators, and the public is either by email or phone. Neither of
which are forgiving when it comes to “oops”!

I realize that this is a message board, but as the former poster
stated: you will not have time to proofread and edit everything as if
it were a term paper or thesis. You will be doing well to just find
the time to reply quickly at lunch, between classes, etc. The best way
to minimize potential problems, is to practice good grammar and
spelling whenever you write or speak, then it becomes natural.

There are parents who are looking for ANY excuse to complain about
teachers, and they will print those emails and/or forward them to
anyone they can! I know teachers who have been “counseled” regarding
their communication skills and have also had a hard time with
parent “respect” as a result.

Likewise, I have found myself disgusted with administrators whose
grammar and/or spelling is appalling! You will know exactly what I
mean when you get your first evaluation that looks like a 2nd grader
wrote it! It may SAY ‘glowing things’ about your teaching, but would
you really want anyone to read it?

You will deal with enough headache from the "imagined" tone, sarcasm,
implication, etc., that is NOT there. You do not want to add any fuel
to the fire with clear grammar or spelling mistakes, derogatory tone or
sarcasm.

Again, good luck with your student teaching and I hope all goes well
for you!

Tammy

On 6/30/08, Kate wrote:
> Hi this is Kate again! Thanks to everyone who responded to my post
> and gave me advice on what to expect during student teaching. I'm
> really excited yet anxious, but I feel I'll do well. I'm new to this
> chat board, but I had no idea that the board was so concerned with
> the correct use of grammar! Especially on a "chat board!" I'm glad I
> didn't use things like "@", "omg" or "I betcha" in my previous post.
> Most of you probably would had torn my post apart. Next time I'll
> make sure that I do a draft, proof read, revise, and submit my final
> thesis for approval. -Have a great day..lol....You guys are too
> funny..loosen up.:)
>
>
> On 6/29/08, MSR wrote:
>> Sorry. I re-read your post and noted that you took typos into
>> consideration when you made your statement. However, please
>> remember that no one is perfect. Many student teachers are going
>> to make more than one mistake in many areas. The important thing
>> is how much they have improved from the beginning of the semester
>> to the end.
>>
>> We all need room to fail before we can succeed.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 6/27/08, to everyone.. wrote:
>>> 1) Advisors do not decide what classes people have to take, nor
>>> does it make sense that any advisor would either tell someone
>>> they need to take a class while student teaching or failing
>>> them as revenge for getting a waiver for a class.
>>>
>>> 2) No, an advisor can not "make" him take a class..but if she's
>>> STing why would anyone think he needs in intro class in his
>>> subject anyway?
>>>
>>> 3) I'm with the advisor that if ST performance is not up to par
>>> the ST should try to limit gigging/working to focus on this
>>> job.
>>>
>>> 4) to Kate: How to fail student teaching.. Writing how DO one..
>>> as in "How do one write formal lesson plans in this school,
>>> (or deal with a student who's been chatting all class, etc.)..
>>> is a good start. I'd forgive one mistakes/type-o like that,
>>> but the second time my ST wrote or said "how do one" I'd be
>>> telling them they are at risk for failing if they can't show
>>> they have mastered basic grammar. (I do teach Spanish so I'd
>>> cut a native Spanish speaker (who's first language is not
>>> English) some slack on grammar.. but otherwise "how do one"
>>> is totally unacceptable.) On 6/24/08, Kate wrote:
>>>> Okay, I'm about to begin student teaching soon. I would like
>>>> to know how do one fail student teaching? What should I be
>>>> on the look out for?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks!
>>>> On 5/21/08, A Wife wrote:
>>>>> My husband is currently an first-year intern in CA and
>>>> found
>>>>> out today that he is failing student teaching. His advisor
>>>>> said that he has to sign a contract saying that he will
>>>> take
>>>>> Intro To Music Ed, a class that he does not have to take
>>>>> since he passed the CSET. His advisor has been upset with
>>>>> him for passing the CSET and not having to take other
>>>>> classes, so she has been after any excuse to get him to
>>>> take
>>>>> the classes. She even told him today that he needs to quit
>>>>> gigging and teaching privately (both of which we need as
>>>>> income, as I'm currently a SAHM >>>>> teacher> to 2 babies. So, it seems as if her requests
>>>>> aren't ethical, right? But what about his rights as a
>>>>> student? Can she really make him take that class?
>>>

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