A Student Teacher's Guide to Primary School Placement

Book excerpt: School experience is the most significant part of learning to be a teacher. It can also be the most confusing, stressful and challenging. Initially, it can be very daunting to walk into someone else's classroom and try to prepare and teach effective lessons to someone else's class. It helps to have a clear idea of what to expect and to know how other people have coped, and in this book, Denis Hayes looks at what life is like for the student-teacher in the classroom. With plenty of down-to-earth and practical advice, he offers strategies for dealing with challenging situations and positive encouragement to help them succeed. The book covers four main areas: principles - summarises the fundamentals of successful teaching placement - provides detailed advice about preparing for, and prospering in, school placements, including case studies of trainee teachers' experiences practice - looks at practical issues in the classroom, including lesson planning, teaching skills, assessment and evaluation, and managing the classroom environment progress - covers applying for jobs and interview strategies, with newly qualified teachers talking about how they managed in their first few months. This text will be invaluable to anyone training to be a primary teacher and about to embark on his or her teaching experience. It will also be a useful resource for teacher mentors and course leaders of BEd, BA (Ed) and PGCE programmes.