I will be student teaching this fall, should I take a part-time babysitting job?

Question

I am nervous about working while student teaching this fall, and would like advice from a teacher. I don't live at home, so it's some what necessary for me to make some income. But, is it ill-advised?

Is 10 hours a week too much??

Answer 1

You should be able to manage ten hours each week on top of student teaching. Just try to have a flexible schedule worked out with the family, if possible.

Good luck!

Answer 2

I worked about 10 hours a week in my school writing center while I was student teaching. The good thing about that job though was that I was able to work on lesson plans if nobody came in for help on papers. I wouldn't work more than 10 hours if I were you. Student teaching is stressful and it makes for long days and you won't have much of a life. But if you need an income (which I did too), then there isn't a whole lot you can do about that. It might be a rough semester but it is just one semester and once you get into teaching it will be worth it because teaching is a very hard but very rewarding job. Good luck! Make sure to schedule some time for yourself on the weekends or you'll go crazy!

Answer 3

I can speak as someone who supervises student teachers at a college.  I do think 10 hours a week is too much.  I think an occasional babysitting job is perfectly fine, but I would not lock into anything where a regular committment is expected.

This is because you want to devote all of your energies to your student teaching.  I find the hardest adjustment for students is just how long the day is.  You will be up early and than will have grading and other school functions in the evenings.  Plus, you still want some time with your friends, family, dating, etc.

So I would encourage you to wait at least until mid-term before making such a committment.

Answer 4

no, i think u can handle it. it won't be too demanding outside of school hours.

Answer 5

Student teaching can become very consuming, so your adviser might recommend against taking even a part-time job.  It depends not only how MUCH baby sitting you do but the nature of the job (it's easier to grade papers while watching one kid than it is while watching three), how flexible the sitting hours (student teaching gets more intense as the weeks progress), how responsible you are and adapt to the many demands of student teaching, and how demanding the student teaching job could actually become, which depends on your cooperating teacher, his/her schedule and the types of students he/she has.  The rule of thumb in student teaching is that, even when you know a great deal going into it, it is still a challenge.  You probably know that, but it's still worth mentioning with your question.  So, you have a lot of variables to consider while making your decision.  It does not seem impossible, but you want to be very careful about endangering your success in the student teaching experience.  Good luck.