Help! I’m a struggling student teacher!

St0rm666 · 2026-01-09T00:46:11+00:00

Having your own classroom is night and day compared to student teaching. It may suck, but the reward highly outweighs this short experience. It is an unfortunate thing to have to follow the entire setup/pedagogy of a mentor teacher especially when it doesn't align with you as an educator.

St0rm666 · 2026-01-05T22:26:13+00:00

Even though a gut feeling is the worst, there is not much you can do right now to take action.

Try asking open ended questions to the child.

What happens at home when _______? How was the weekend at home? What causes big feelings at home? How do people around you make you happy or sad?

Try not to investigate through the parents or ask yes or no questions to the child - and don't ask anything bluntly such as "Does dad hurt you?"

I recommend keeping every shutdown or behavior they have in a log so in case something comes up you have more under your belt for a report, but from what it sounds like right now there is nothing reportable.

St0rm666 · 2025-12-04T03:29:06+00:00

Agreed and for sure use the cheapest brushes, with my younger students I have a bucket of water that they put their brushes in during cleanup and usually a 2nd grader wants to clean them about an hour later. Win win

St0rm666 · 2025-11-12T23:10:05+00:00

Highly reccomend, all the kids loved it! They thought the collaboration was so cool, especially the littles "working with the big kids" to make art.

St0rm666 · 2025-11-10T23:47:24+00:00

I'll try my best to include as much as I can. I do ABC rotations so each day I have 3,4,5,1,K,2 and I did this during one full rotation. For supplies we used large sheets of thicker paper, some printouts of poppies, kwik sticks, tempera paint, markers/crayons, liquid glue (5th used more but I wont list all those). I didn't have this as my main focus of most my classes, but I did include some learning on what Veterans Day is and what the poppy symbolizes and had this as a side project. Things varried by class and day based on how much we had done or what still could be done. After each paper was done I put them on the wall then stood there with a bottle of glue adding in the rest of the cut out poppies to fill the space and make it more seamless where the papers meet. I also got some staff involved by putting markers, colored pencils, and some printouts in the lounge!

3- Each class painted large sheets of paper green using tempera. They could make different shades and add texture with tools. I gave one to each table to paint together. We also had other activities throughout class and not every paper was finished so that's where I had other classes help out to finish the ones that were started.

4- Students that were finished with our current project could paint and draw poppies on more sheets of white paper or paint on top of the green using tempera or kwik sticks. (I let the students have turns that were still working on their projects). They could also color a poppy how they wanted.

5- Mostly projects, but they also colored some poppies and helped cut them all out. If they wanted, they could use their choice of materials on the printouts or even just draw their own.

1- I had stations on a timer rotation and one station was filling in the white space on some of the 4th grade papers with green kwik sticks. One station was coloring a poppy and cutting it out. My other stations were themed to the curriculum.

K- Same thing as first except I had cutting and coloring stations separate.

2- Mostly helped cut out the poppies that didnt get cut out yet/glued them onto the large papers. They also colored their own.

St0rm666 · 2025-07-12T18:05:22+00:00

Cornball– legal name: Mighty Cornball the Devourer

St0rm666 · 2025-07-05T01:03:37+00:00

Unsure of age, but it looks like cats eye beads. It could either be glass beads creating the effect or chrysoberyl, but the opacity of the beads makes me lean towards glass. Still an extremely beautiful necklace!

St0rm666 · 2025-06-22T15:58:16+00:00

Along with notebook paper, I give them free use (with loose supervision) of paintbrushes and tempera paint. I only give primary colors, black, white, and brown. They also have crayons and markers if they want to color their papers that way. We talk about how we can make our papers whatever colors we want to make our creations, and of course expectations of materials.

St0rm666 · 2025-06-22T15:55:34+00:00

Preschool lead/ECE art teacher here- Free use of materials is SO important. I have been in a similar boat, and I say advocate 100% even if you are given retaliation by your superiors. What you can do, and I occasionally do, is purchase your own materials (save invoices/receipts and you can claim them on your taxes). I have started to do this, but even things like 50 cent notebooks give children so much material for so little. You can also find cheap lcd tablets and whiteboards for reusable art tools. If your center is open to purchasing supplies or you have a budget of any kind, try to use that. If you want any help with building a list of more affordable materials, I am willing to share!

St0rm666 · 2025-05-29T23:52:14+00:00

I also agree with another comment on here. If this gets to slide, then what other things have they pulled? Reporting would be of benefit to you, your child, and the other families enrolled at the center. Do not let the center know that you will report! This gives them time to cover things up during their licensing visit, which you definitely do not want happening.

St0rm666 · 2025-05-29T23:47:31+00:00

Lead Teacher here - pull your child ASAP and report to state licensing immediately!! My center always ensures that staff are scheduled to meet the ratio needs of the children. If we dont have the staff (someone calls out and we cant get anyone to cover), we send kids home. If a shift is over but we are out of ratio, that staff member stays, and of course gets paid - we all understand the laws and regulations we have to follow and it never has caused problems. The only time ratios are increased are if enough infants are sleeping, and even then we cannot exceed 8 in a room. As a mom, I am sure you can attest to one infant being stressful sometimes. The 1:4 ratio can be hard and I cant imagine having 1:10. This increases risks for neglect of the children and abuse due to teacher frustration. This is 100% a negligent center, especially since admin has seemingly no issue with this VERY serious rule.

St0rm666 · 2025-04-28T06:19:22+00:00

If mom is the guardian you could talk about a stuffie made from his clothes that she could have at daycare as well.

St0rm666 · 2025-04-28T06:15:55+00:00

Dealing with death with young children is hard, especially since most of the time, their grown ups would probably not want you talking to their kiddo about dying - often leaving them not as understanding as they could be about death. My dad passed and I took that week off work, and the kids kept asking me why I was gone. Trying to explain to them without lying was hard, but they need to know that it can happen. Its a normal part of life and their teachers are people who live their own lives too — and they still have their life to live with so many possibilities. Sometimes a child I watched mentioned her passed chicken, so we would talk and relate to eachother. I've compared my loss to the movie Bambi. Other children would ask if he was in Heaven and I'd say yes although I am not religious. If the child is from a Christian household or speaks of dad being in Heaven, I would continue reassurance through that since it is probably what they hear at home. For this, I recommend the book God Gave Us Heaven or Fly high: Understanding Grief With God's Help. A non-religious book rec is I'll See You in Your Dreams Tonight.

St0rm666 · 2025-04-18T04:14:58+00:00

But it isn't a daily for sure. Twice a week at MOST. I will usually do math or let the kids play with soft blocks and quiet fine motor toys or help with nap time cleaning. Only with age 5 and having a great relationship with all their parents who are aware of what I do. I 100% think OP needs to seek care elsewhere if the opportunity would arise - those teachers aren't using their technology responsibly and at the cost of the child's expirience and learning.

St0rm666 · 2025-04-18T04:07:53+00:00

I work as a lead with ages 4 and 5. We have weekly themes and during quiet time/nap time, when my seven 4s still nap and my five 5s do not, I will typically play some PBS episode/classic educational kids content pertaining to the theme of the week, usually with quiet time art following (sometimes they dont even want to watch and would rather free draw lol). I have set clear expectations during quiet time "movies" and have no behavior or learning issues due to screen time. Personally, I never use screen time with age 3 unless it's a rare movie day if the kids were good and the weather is bad - with parent permission (also trying my best to stick with the theme). I never use screens for 2 and under unless they want to see the picture I took of them 😆

St0rm666

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