What Does A Physics Student Teacher Do To Get Ready

On Sun, Aug 7, 2011 at 2:41 PM, Luke

wrote:
Mr. Peterson,

I just came to the realization that the school year is almost here.  I remember from somewhere that you guys start on the 29th-ish, but I'm guessing you might want me to start coming in before that.  So I've got just a couple questions about that.

1.  When should I start coming in?
2.  What should I be doing (e.g. professional development) during the week before school starts?
3.  What should I be doing now to prep for the semester?

Thanks, and enjoy the rest of you summer!


Awesome letter to get from your fall student teacher. After some of the details here is what I wrote. What would you add?

As far as professional development goes take no more than 20 minutes a day (35 minutes if it is after lunch, more minutes either time if you are enjoying it) and read all posts (except 
ones about teaching calculus) from this blog. Make sure before you read any posts you watch his TED talk. That does not count towards your minutes. He is the most on fire physics teaching blog at the moment. There are other blogs to consider as well. Teacher blogs will do for you every day what these books did for me. If you really want to go overboard get a twitter account and follow this list.