Teacher Candidates experience positive attitudes toward the school, the students, and teaching when all school staff let them know they are welcome in the school. It is essential that schools create a welcoming environment.
Teacher Candidates thrive on the opportunity to observe, participate and assist in different classrooms, programs and teaching styles. These opportunities allow the Candidate to observe and explore different methods and styles of teaching. Discussing these varied experiences with the Mentor Teacher and others is a powerful learning experience for Candidates that allow them to reflect upon and develop their own teaching styles and practices.
The practicum placement is a time for Teacher Candidates to try different approaches, and explore these approaches through reflective discussions with other teachers. Mentor Teachers can encourage Candidates to try a variety of methods that are available in current instructional discussion, often using methods that are not in the usual repertoire of the Mentor Teacher or in the school generally. Support given by the Mentor Teacher in this leads to the reciprocal development of new ways of teaching and learning. Both Teacher Candidates and Mentor Teachers learn and grow together in this mutual effort, demonstrating the life long learning of teachers.