At some point in time as a student, we’ve all been under the guidance of a student teacher.

Some experiences were good, some not so much. 

But what effect do student teachers really have on their students? 

The biggest part of student teaching is teaching lessons to the class with assistance from the teacher, and eventually by themselves. 

This can be a good thing because it gives the student teacher practice and time to get used to the feel of teaching, but it isn’t always a good thing for students.

For example, if a student teacher is teaching a lesson in an honors or AP-level class, there’s a good chance the class won’t be as prepared for a test or quiz on that material because the person teaching them was inexperienced. 

Those difficult classes are already stressful enough, and it’s unfair to make those students struggle any more than they might already. 

Student teachers need to have experience in all levels of classes, but not at the detriment of student grades and learning.

The most obvious solution would be having student teachers teach in lower, non-honors classes, but that doesn’t necessarily solve the problem. 

Even though the material in those classes is easier, it’s still possible for those students to struggle just as much as honors and AP students. 

This is a difficult problem to solve because student teaching is truly the only way for future teachers to get experience in the classroom, but have we as a school even recognized how big of a problem this is becoming for students?

We must institute a checks and balances system to keep learning fair for students.

For example, if a student teacher is struggling to teach an honors class, he or she could be moved around to a different level class to see if that would solve the problem, instead of causing themselves and the class additional difficulty by staying where their instruction isn’t effective.

This doesn’t solve the whole problem, but it would definitely help both the class and the student teacher tremendously.

It seems that in many cases, the focus of student teaching is more on the experience of the student teacher, but I believe we aren’t focusing enough on the experience of the students being taught, so as a school, we need to fix this problem for the sake of our students.