30 Hours: Thoughts about having a pre-prac student

I have a student in my room from a local college doing observations for her intro to special education class. This is an observation- based field assignment for her before she does her full time student teaching next semester. I was excited to have a college student in my classroom for a variety of reasons. First of all, its an extra pair of hands and eyes, lowering the student to adult ration in the class. Secondly, they say that you learn something best when you have to teach it. So I think I get to further my own learning and development by trying to explain the classroom and all of its goings-on to someone new. Finally, hooray, someone else wants to enter the profession, and I am in a position to help this person.

Then I got nervous. I thought about all of my field placements during college and graduate school. I thought about teaching related employment experiences that I had before my current position. I started remembering some of the high and low lights of these various experiences when a thought occured to me: Am I responsible for this person's learning?

I know that I am responsible for my students' learning and progress. I also know that I am responsible for supervising and supporting Ms. S (a.k.a para of the year) and her interactions with the kids in the classroom. Am I also responsible for learning and development of this college student? Or am I just responsible for supervising her in the classroom? I mean its a big thing to be responsible for someone else's learning and development. Then I started questioning myself: can I really teach someone how to do what I do each day? Do I really know enough to teach someone who is just starting out in the field?

After a few days of thinking about this, I have come to several other thoughts and possible conclusions. First of all this college student is an adult and she is ultimately responsible for her own learning. That's the thing about adults. My role is to provide an environment that fosters and supports her learning. I can set up certain experiences for her and provide feedback. I can create opportunities for her to observe me and work successfully with students. I can answer her questions and encourage her to ask questions.

I am thinking of KW, whose class I student taught in my senior year in college. KW taught me so much about this age and continues to serve as an inspiration to me. I was amazed as a student in her classroom with her engaging and far reaching curriculum. KW let me take as much responsibility as I was comfortable taking. I am also thinking of Mr BR who provided a lot of feed back to me in graduate school. Under his supervision I really felt like I was able to sharpen and refine some very specific teaching skills that I continue to use today. Thank you to these wonderful cooperating teachers who later became mentors and friends. Your work continues to motivate and inspire me and I strive to provide as high quality of a learning experience for the college student in my classroom as you both provided for me.