Abstract

The University of Vlora “Ismail Qemali” takes great pride in its student teaching program. It has outstanding partnerships with schools throughout the South west region of Albania. In all cases, student teachers have the opportunity to work with outstanding experienced teachers in a cooperative relationship. The student teaching experience, in most cases, is both intense and exhilarating. After many years of learning, students get a chance to test their teaching skills in a comprehensive way, in an active classroom and with real students. During the process, students will realize their areas of teaching strengths and weaknesses, before heading out to look for a full-time school employment. Generally teacher courses often include a unit on “lesson planning”, which relates mostly to the selection of the lesson components, and how these will be ordered. So when planning the activities, for a lesson, it is important to do them in a sequence that indicates a gradual progression from simple to more complicated tasks. On the other hand, effective teachers strive for a balance among whole-class work, pair work, and individual work. But it’s important also to think about how teachers, especially student teachers or novice teachers, will “frame” the lesson with effective beginnings and endings. It is a fact that in the early years of teaching, teachers feel a bit scared of the students and they try to be tense and serious at the beginning of the lesson. Novice teachers think that being serious at the beginning, will help them gain authority later?! It may take too long to learn to relax and smile. They forget that a serious or neutral expression on teacher’s face, does not convey a neutral message to the students, it conveys a negative one, which can be easily changed by a smile, that is the first important tip for the beginning of the lesson. This paper suggests some practical piece of advice, for pre service teachers, to help them overcome emotions, establish a warm and friendly atmosphere, and begin and end clearly.