Student teaching is where theory meets reality. Everything you have read in textbooks, discussed in seminars, and debated with classmates suddenly has to work in a real classroom, with real students who have their own moods, questions, and distractions. These are the lessons I took away from that experience.
The Importance of Communication
Of all the things I learned during my teaching practice, the power of communication stands out the most. It sounds obvious, but the way a teacher communicates shapes everything that happens in a classroom.
Eye contact is where it starts. When you look a student in the eye while speaking to them, you are telling them that they matter, that you see them. It is a small thing, but students notice immediately when a teacher avoids their gaze or only looks at certain parts of the room.
Voice tone and word choice are just as important. The right tone can draw a distracted student back into the lesson without embarrassing them. The wrong tone can shut a student down entirely. I learned to vary my pitch, to slow down for emphasis, and to choose my words carefully — especially when giving feedback or correcting mistakes.
Body language carries its own message. A genuine smile puts students at ease. Expressive gestures help illustrate a point. But dismissive gestures, crossed arms, or a condescending look can do real damage. One of the hardest lessons I learned is this: if you belittle a student, even once, even unintentionally, it is incredibly difficult to earn their respect back. Students remember how you made them feel long after they have forgotten what you said.
The Importance of Classroom Management
Good classroom management is invisible. When it works, the class flows smoothly and students stay engaged. When it fails, chaos takes over and no amount of good content can save the lesson.
One of the most practical things I learned is the importance of physical positioning. A teacher should not spend the entire class at the front of the room. Moving through the classroom, positioning yourself equally close to all students, sends a clear message: everyone is included, and the teacher is paying attention to everyone. Students should feel the teacher's presence at all times — not in an intimidating way, but in a way that says "I am here, and I care about what you are doing."
In computer labs, this becomes especially important. Students sitting behind screens have endless opportunities for distraction. I found that monitoring software is essential in these settings — being able to see what is on every screen from the teacher's desk changes the dynamic entirely. When necessary, freezing all screens to regain attention is a simple but effective technique. It brings every student back to the same moment, ready to listen.
Time Management
A forty-minute class period is a strange paradox. It is long enough for a student's attention to wander multiple times, yet far too short to cover everything in the curriculum. Managing that window well is one of the most underrated skills a teacher can have.
I learned to keep my explanations concise. Long lectures lose students quickly. Instead, I would give a brief, focused explanation and then move into an interactive activity — a discussion, a hands-on exercise, or a quick problem to solve. This kept the energy in the room high and gave students a chance to process what they had just heard.
One technique that surprised me with its effectiveness was pausing. After making a point, I would wait four or five seconds before continuing. Those few seconds of silence give students time for cognitive processing — to absorb what was just said before the next idea arrives. After particularly important concepts, I would pause even longer. It felt awkward at first, but I noticed that students retained information better when they were given that breathing room.
I also learned to budget time for the unexpected. Students ask off-topic questions, side discussions break out, and technical problems happen. If your lesson plan is packed wall-to-wall with content, any deviation throws you off completely. Leaving a small buffer for these moments makes the entire class feel more relaxed and natural.
Evaluating Students and Their Learning
This is perhaps the most important and most sensitive topic in education. How we assess students shapes how they see themselves as learners, and getting it wrong can have lasting consequences.
Real assessment should be continuous, individual, and fair. It should not be a single exam at the end of a term that determines a student's worth. It should happen every day, in small ways — through observation, through conversation, through the work students produce over time. Each student should be evaluated on their own progress, not in comparison to their classmates.
I feel strongly that letter grades, especially for young students, do more harm than good. When a child receives a "C" or a "D," they do not see it as feedback on a specific assignment. They see it as a judgment of who they are. For younger learners, I believe the assessment should be simple: either a student has demonstrated understanding, or they need more time and support. "Pass" or "needs review" — nothing more.
It is also important to distinguish between genuine assessment and the kind of behavioral marks teachers sometimes give in class — the plus signs and minus signs on the board. Those are useful as immediate, in-the-moment tools for managing behavior. A student talks out of turn, they get a minus. A student helps a classmate, they get a plus. But these should never be confused with real learning assessment. They serve a different purpose entirely: short-term behavior correction, not long-term evaluation of understanding.
A Personal Commitment
As a graduate of the Computer Education and Instructional Technology (BÖTE) program, I carry these lessons with me not as abstract principles but as commitments. Communication, classroom management, time management, and fair assessment are not things you learn once and move on from. They are practices you refine for the rest of your career. My time as a student teacher showed me that the gap between knowing these ideas and actually living them in a classroom is wide — and that crossing it requires patience, humility, and a genuine desire to help students learn.