The purpose of student teaching is to provide a safe and supervised environment in which the student teacher slowly assumes more and more teaching duties until they are is responsible for theentire day. We would like student teachers to teach full days for 4-5 weeks, if possible, so thatthey get a real feel for what teaching is like and experience the classroom after the effects ofbeing new have worn off. We do want to ease students in gradually, but we also believe thatstudent teachers will benefit from having as much experience as possible. Student teaching is an important time in the development of a teacher.In the Department of Education at Grinnell College we, who supervise student teachers, want to provide them and their cooperating teacher with the necessary support during this exciting but sometimes exhausting time.