<p>My S is trying to decide between schools. We still waiting for some (hopefully) fat envelopes, but it's really come down to 2 schools where he's already been accepted. He wants to major in music education, and I am concerned about the semester of student teaching. Has anyone already completed it or know much about the process? Both schools are out of state, several hours away from home. One school said that they place students anywhere within a 100 mile radius of the university and the other one said that students can be placed anywhere in their state. I am worried about him being placed in a school somewhere with no local friends/contacts/ or support system in an emergency. How do you find a place to live for just 4 months? Do colleges usually try to keep them close by and is there an option to continue to live on campus? I really wish he had considered some in-state schools, but he wasn't exited about any of the local music programs. How has it worked out for others? He has a safety school which is about 1 hour from home, but there's no way we are going to convince him to go there with the other options on the table.</p>
<p>My son's music ed program placed students within a 50 mile radius, although often much less of the campus. Students were expected to provide their own transportation to and from their place of residence (which for most at Hartt was either their dorm, or off campus housing).</p>
<p>You have not mentioned which schools/states your son has been considering. Based on what you describe, and how the particular student teaching parameters are arranged at those partuicular schools, there MAY be a system already in place to provide alternative housing or "host" families for those students assigned to schools in the geographic outregions. </p>
<p>You may need to address the housing and transportation directly to the music ed departments of those schools under consideration.</p>
<p>Our son will be doing his student teaching semester this fall.
His advisor told him there were options at schools anywhere in our state (NJ). Son could have chosen school near campus, continued to live in dorm and used his own car for transportation to/from assigned school.
Since it's his last semester before graduation, he'll commute from home to a school near us instead. He's at our state U(Rutger's) so I don't know if other schools/states do things similarly.</p>
<p>Student teachers (in all disciplines that I know of) in this state...in ALL education programs including music, do their student teaching within a commuting distance of the university they are attending. For some, this could mean a commute of an hour or so, but it's still within driving distance. The faculty from the colleges provide onsite supervision periodically for all student teachers so this is a drivable commute for them as well.</p>
<p>Now....when I did my student teaching (back when the dinos roamed), I went to a more rural school with a large education program. They had a regional campus arrangement in one of the metro areas of the state, and all student teachers were placed in that area for student teaching (including the music teachers). And yes...students DID have to find housing for one term during their student teaching. BUT the school kept an active list of folks renting rooms etc. To be honest, during MY student teaching, I didn't have TIME for much socializing or visiting with friends during the week. AND on weekends I was usually busy too. BUT if I wasn't I could drive to see my friends. Plus, all of the student teachers DID meet weekly so it wasn't like I was isolated from my peers.</p>
<p>I tend to think any kid of college age is mature enough to deal with mostly anything, including slow social life, for four months, in the interest of attaining a goal.</p>