Any education majors quit during Fall classroom placements? What happens next?

[Anonymous]

My friend’s DD just quit her fall classroom student teaching placement. Badly burned bridge on her way out. She says the school is a bad fit and is requesting a rematch with another school. If not, she will have to repeat the current semester next fall when her sister will be a freshman. The family is unprepared for the financial load of two in college at the same time. The young lady also has a late June wedding planned. Her fiancé is military and her career plans hinge on where he is sent. My friend asked me, as a teacher, about options but I can’t think of anyone who quit their placement but stayed in the major. However, I’m a career-changer so we were all adults with prior work experience and a sense that all workplaces can be exhausting or have unpleasant coworkers, clients, etc. Maybe rematching is an established practice in undergrad Ed programs. Anyone BTDT?

[Anonymous]

Outlook not good. She needs to get used to that with teaching. Does she think she’ll have her pick of schools once she graduates? That’s not how it works and the profession may not be for her if she can’t be flexible and make the best out of a situation, especially her student teaching when she’ll have the most support she’ll ever have a as a teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friend’s DD just quit her fall classroom student teaching placement. Badly burned bridge on her way out. She says the school is a bad fit and is requesting a rematch with another school. If not, she will have to repeat the current semester next fall when her sister will be a freshman. The family is unprepared for the financial load of two in college at the same time. The young lady also has a late June wedding planned. Her fiancé is military and her career plans hinge on where he is sent. My friend asked me, as a teacher, about options but I can’t think of anyone who quit their placement but stayed in the major. However, I’m a career-changer so we were all adults with prior work experience and a sense that all workplaces can be exhausting or have unpleasant coworkers, clients, etc. Maybe rematching is an established practice in undergrad Ed programs. Anyone BTDT?

The department faculty who arranged the placement should be able to handle the alternative placement. This might be tough, depending on where they are in the semester. If they began the semester at the beginning of September, for instance, then it might be difficult for them to find a new placement so late in the semester.

During one of the earlier student teaching semesters - not the final immersion experience - another classmate and I requested a transfer to another classroom. The faculty accommodated that request, and there were no issues. It wasn't an acrimonious change, and we remained in the same school, just a different classroom.

Why did your friend's daughter burn bridges? Was there wrongdoing on the part of the cooperating teacher? That's the part that might create challenges for a new placement, if there are any.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately you don't get to choose your placement. We were always sent to challenging schools in our district so we would learn we could "teach anywhere." I hated student teaching and almost quit but when I thought about the money I would owe on my loan, I stuck with it. What did she say specifically about the school and what the problem was?

[Anonymous]

You don’t just quit a placement – you work with your department faculty to try to get a new one. And if that doesn’t work, you stick it out and learn from it. The fact that she did this while having a June wedding planned and an intended move with her military husband shows pathetic judgment and maturity on her part.

[Anonymous]

OP here:

I agree that this shows immaturity.

She disliked her placement from the start due to multiple reasons:

1) location: Friend’s DD moved back home last summer because her fiancé graduated and started his first post. It seemed a good way to save money for the wedding, but she was placed in a school an hour from home by car. She immediately had to buy a used car.

2) grade level: Her fall placement is a middle. she is not interested in teaching middle school. She only wants to teach HS. She hoped to do her fall placement in HS so she could start networking for spring interviews.

3) culture shock: the MS is a suburban school facing some typical urban PS challenges. She was appalled by the physical plant and some kid behavior (mainly cursing and fighting).

As for burning bridges, I think she came in with a set of things she liked to do as a HS English student and quickly learned they were ill-suited to this particular MS. But she thought she could bring the kids around to trying them anyway. Her CT reviewed the unit plan, didn’t like it because of those activities, and told her revise it over the weekend. She feels stymied creatively and quit that same day. By email. I haven’t seen it, but her mom said it was a bridge-burner in terms of word choice and tone.

My friend is disappointed and anxious. They’ve had a couple arguments already this weekend. I’m short on advice because I just don’t know anyone who quit and still hoped to become a teacher. I’m guessing if push comes to shove, she can just finish as a non-certified education major and do curriculum or something similar.

Likely friend’s DD will hear from her program on Monday.

[Anonymous]

Personally, I'd bring that kid home and have her get a full time job and work for awhile until she decides what she wants to do.

What year is she?

[Anonymous]

Could she work as an aide? It would give her exposure to kids, but the pay sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here:

I agree that this shows immaturity.

She disliked her placement from the start due to multiple reasons:

1) location: Friend’s DD moved back home last summer because her fiancé graduated and started his first post. It seemed a good way to save money for the wedding, but she was placed in a school an hour from home by car. She immediately had to buy a used car.

2) grade level: Her fall placement is a middle. she is not interested in teaching middle school. She only wants to teach HS. She hoped to do her fall placement in HS so she could start networking for spring interviews.

3) culture shock: the MS is a suburban school facing some typical urban PS challenges. She was appalled by the physical plant and some kid behavior (mainly cursing and fighting).

As for burning bridges, I think she came in with a set of things she liked to do as a HS English student and quickly learned they were ill-suited to this particular MS. But she thought she could bring the kids around to trying them anyway. Her CT reviewed the unit plan, didn’t like it because of those activities, and told her revise it over the weekend. She feels stymied creatively and quit that same day. By email. I haven’t seen it, but her mom said it was a bridge-burner in terms of word choice and tone.

My friend is disappointed and anxious. They’ve had a couple arguments already this weekend. I’m short on advice because I just don’t know anyone who quit and still hoped to become a teacher. I’m guessing if push comes to shove, she can just finish as a non-certified education major and do curriculum or something similar.

Likely friend’s DD will hear from her program on Monday.

None of those things are good reasons.

1) take your lumps.

2) she is asking for a license for secondary, so you get what you get.

3) this just shows she isn't mature enough to be left in a classroom.

I had a horrible placement when I student taught. One of the worst experiences of my life (my cooperating teacher's wife left him right at the start and he was angry and depressed the whole time and offered me no assistance). I stuck it out.

[Anonymous]

There is no creativity in public school. Has she spent any time in schools prior to this? Most education departments have students observing starting in their sophomore year. That gives them time to see what it is really like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personally, I'd bring that kid home and have her get a full time job and work for awhile until she decides what she wants to do.

What year is she?

She’s already home. She moved back in when her fiancé graduated. She’s a senior. I doubt they will tell her to quit this semester and start working FT. She’s too close to earning her degree. Even if she drops this major, she can probably eke out an English major from the credits she has.

[Anonymous]

If she was shocked by the conditions in a suburban school, what if she gets a job in an urban school? I work in one and it's often like working in a third world country. Last week, we didn't have any drinking water for most of the day due to late water deliveries. This happens fairly frequently. We have rats, mice and mold in our school. Not enough supplies. She sounds way too immature to be doing this anyway. Does she come from a wealthy family? I wanted to quit student teaching but I didn't have the money to pay back my student loan. I just kept reminding myself that it is temporary and it will be over soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no creativity in public school. Has she spent any time in schools prior to this? Most education departments have students observing starting in their sophomore year. That gives them time to see what it is really like.

Yes, but there was no placement so she observed suburban high schools similar to the one she attended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If she was shocked by the conditions in a suburban school, what if she gets a job in an urban school? I work in one and it's often like working in a third world country. Last week, we didn't have any drinking water for most of the day due to late water deliveries. This happens fairly frequently. We have rats, mice and mold in our school. Not enough supplies. She sounds way too immature to be doing this anyway. Does she come from a wealthy family? I wanted to quit student teaching but I didn't have the money to pay back my student loan. I just kept reminding myself that it is temporary and it will be over soon.

The school was technically in the suburban, but very similar in physical and academic conditions to a struggling urban school. I wouldn’t at all characterize my friend as wealthy. They had small bequests from a grandparent to help with college so they didn’t need loans, but the children were spaced to hypothetically avoid two in college at the same time.

[Anonymous]

Never heard of this and I have worked with many student teachers. I cried everyday of my student teaching, I was in middle school but thought I’d be placed in high School, looking back I wasn’t ready for either but everyone helped me make it. It’s only 1 semester! I would of never thought to quit, it’s only 15 weeks and your whole career depends on it and all the money and time! Teaching may not be for her, she should apologize and go back or go to a different cooperating teacher one who will support her. She also should long term sub or sub for awhile to see what she wants and if education is really what she wants.Depending on where she is going it may be very hard to get a teaching job, many people in the military are married to teachers and it may be competitive. He husband could deploy and she can stay and join him later. Teaching is not for everyone, it’s harder than many people think.