I agree that student teaching is a great idea, but it would be nice if people got paid for it. It's really a full time job that you have to pay to have, which is kind of nuts, I think.

I always thought that most internships were part time, so you could still work a reasonable number of paid hours somewhere if you wanted, without being terribly over-extended.

My Occupational Therapy fieldwork was the same as student teaching. We had to do 6 months of full time work, sometimes relocated to a different state, and pay full time tuition for it. It stunk. One of mine was a home health care placement so I had gas and car expenses on top of it! They didn't even pay me mileage. Thankfully, I was living with my (then) future-in-laws free of charge. I was supposed to be 5 minutes from my parents' house for the second one, but it was cancelled two weeks before my placement. I was put in another place where they gave me a free apartment (had to pay phone and groceries only) but we had roaches and one night, a bat got in the apartment. AND, it was on the grounds of the state mental health institution which was also right next to a max security prison. Boy was that an experience. I was lucky that my parents could help me financially through those.

Dee

I agree, and think teachers should be paid more, period, but that's another thread.

Most of my friends who had internships worked 40 hours/week and either had other part-time jobs to make $$, lived off student loans or had their parents helping them out. I was lucky and able to use my on-campus job for my internship one summer. I worked around 40 hours/week and got paid my normal hourly wage (which wasn't much).

Absolutely! Prior to starting my classes for this Fall, I struggled with the whole notion of continuing my program. I had gotten so frustrated that 3 months of my life I will not be working...and I'm in a Master's program. I no longer have that luxury of living freely as I did as an undergraduate. I'm applying for a student-teaching scholarship. Fortunately, I've saved up money to hold me over that semester and during the summer, but it is ridiculous that you aren't getting paid something. Hell I've heard some teachers say they actually did the teacher's job while the teacher went out and ran errands...:confused:

Yes, I agree about the student teachers being paid issue. What I'd also like to point out is that while student teaching, we also pay for the college credits to be doing so. Thus, we are paying to have a full time job. Kind of a raw deal. :) I have worked this summer to save up enough money to live off of during my semester of student teaching - I am living at home but will still have to buy gas, go out with friends, etc.

An update on my student teaching situation: I spoke with my cooperating teacher last week and she was so NICE to me, which was a welcome change from the first time we met. She told me all about her lesson plans for the first 6 weeks, what she would like me to contribute, etc. and it all sounds completely manageable. She was impressed that I've read all the material on both classes syllabi over the summer. :)

So now I'm much more psyched. I think when I met with her before it was near the end of the year and she was probably stressed. Now she seems really excited to have me in her classroom.

And, I get to go to teacher orientation day on Thursday! I'm super excited. Also, my college requires us to do 20 hours of outside the classroom school involvement (helping with parent teacher conferences, chaperoning dances, etc.). I've spoken with the cheerleading coach about helping with the team (since coaching is what I do outside of teaching!) and I'm really psyched about that too.

Quick question: Aside from student teaching, I will be keeping 2 hours each week working at my gymnastics center coaching. It's just one night each week, and I think it'll be a nice break from teacher responsibilities on Tuesday evenings. :) Do you all think that this will be manageable?

I don't start my student teaching until the spring, but I'm already a little apprehensive. :p Don't get me wrong, I'm excited, but I'm scared I'll get stuck with some horrible teacher who hates me and of course I'll be so poor it ain't funny because my advisor says that it will be very difficult to student teach and work part-time. Yikes!

Val is right. I was friends with the head of teacher education at a college and we had extensive conversations about this.

Teacher education is more a business than a degree field per se.

When you go do your student teaching you are paying full tuition to go work for someone else full time. In this program you even had to by your mentor-teacher a present. It was specified. Including the dollar amount.

Freaking extortion.

But, thats the way game is played.

I completely agree. I think that having to pay tuition to student teach is insane. Why should I be shelling out $1500 so that my supervising teacher can sit in the back of the room all semester? I pay for my own education through scholarships and working part-time, and I have had to take out my first loan this year (something I was trying desperately to avoid) in order to do my student teaching. At my school, we do 2 internships- this semester is a 3-credit internship that consists of 2 full days a week at a school. Our second internship is full-time student teaching and is 12 credits. It is extremely frowned upon by our advisors and professors to work (even part-time) while you are interning. And anyway, its literally impossible to do so during the full-time internship.

We had the same type of set-up for the last portion of nursing school. We were still paying tuition to precept with an RN full time. It is crazy and we sill had one day a week where we had to be in class all day Tuesday and other clinicals to do on Wednesday so that made you get real creative with schedules so that you got all your preceptorship hours in on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday. Talking about not having a life that was the most hectic, busy semester of my life! After graduation, we then had to pay almost $300 to take boards and get our license....No wonder there are nursing and teaching shortages!!!

Good luck to all of you completing your student teaching. You are going to make a wonderful difference in the lives of our nation's future!

Sarah

I start student teaching tomorrow and I am so nervous! To make it all even more stressful, my internship coordinator is a little disorganized :rolleyes: and still hasn't gotten back to me about who my supervising teacher is or even what time I need to be there. Think positive thoughts for me; I have a feeling I am going to need them.