Support Materials for Mentors

High quality associate teachers and professional supervisors share their strategies and resources that ensure an effective practicum for our student teachers in the videos below.

Fostering a sense of belonging at Onehunga Kindergarten – Ways Associate Teachers can foster a Student Teachers sense of belonging within the Practicum Centre

Building relationships and communicating with parents/whanau at Onehunga Kindergarten – supporting student teachers to connect, build relationships and communicate with parents and whanau

Providing feedback and feedforward at Onehunga Kindergarten – how to go about providing student teachers feedback to support their developing teaching practice  (both in practice and in weekly meetings)

Identifying and raising concerns at Onehunga Kindergarten – how to go about raising a concern about an aspect of a student teachers practice or concerns related to progression toward the practicum outcomes

How to challenge student teachers thinking by ‘questioning’ and ‘prompting’ beliefs in order to effectively reflect on their practice. 

Effective ways to work with student teachers in Innovative Learning Environments.

How to use ‘co-observation’ alongside your student teacher. In this case the associate teacher and student teacher observe together. The associate teacher directs the student teacher to develop effective observation skills. 

How to use ‘co-observation’ with a professional supervisor during practicum. In this case co-observation is between both the professional supervisor and the associate teacher, where they observe the student teacher at the same time.

How to use ‘co-observation’ using a shared document. In this case the professional supervisor (or associate teacher) observes a lesson alongside the student teacher and they both record their observation notes on a collaborative document. 

How to use ‘co-observation’ with a group of student teachers that have a shared observation goal. 

Using ‘think alouds’ in order to explain to student teachers the reason why you (the associate teacher) do what you do within that moment in time.

An effective focussed observation of a reading group. 

How to construct a detailed focussed observation, give effective feedback and constructive feedforward by referring to the Deliberate Acts of Teaching. 

A useful template for focussed observations.