As a current student teacher with an amazing cooperating teacher, I thought I'd share some tips on how to have a positive student teaching experience!

1. Let your cooperating teacher know YOUR expectations upfront. Most student teachers feel that they don't have a say in what goes on, but you do.
2. Remind him/her (nicely) that you are there to learn a variety of teaching methods and that you are trying to develop your own teaching style not necessarily just take on his/hers.
3. Jump in right away! Even if you aren't supposed to begin teaching for a while get up and join in. You will gain respect from the teacher and the students. Offer right away to do small tasks such as grading papers or organizing morning work.
4. Treat the students as if you are the actual teacher. Many student teachers try to become friends with them first and when it comes time to teach they have no control.
5. Go with your cooperating teacher everywhere! Sit in on parent/teacher conferences and see if it's okay to observe a child study team in action. This is all part of teaching and you should have experience with this also!
6. Stay in contact with your professor or advisor on a regular basis. If you only see him/her on days they are there to observe, you will be more nervous.
7. Always try your best! I know it's scary to have people constantly observing you but if you are doing your best whether or not they are there it won't be as scary!
8. Don't be afraid to integrate some of your own teaching techniques or classroom management skills. Your cooperating teacher might just learn a new technique from you!
9. Try to get student input about your lessons. If you aren't sure how your lesson went, ask one or two students what they thought. Sometimes they have wonderful suggestions!
10. Always plan too much. Since we don't have much experience organzing lessons according to class time, it's better to have too much planned then to have the students sitting there with nothing to do.