D E P A R T M E N T O F T E A C H IN G A N D L E A R N IN G

May 27, 2014

Cooperating Teacher Evaluation:

Ms. Cheng, Lan is a Mandarin teacher at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School located in Bronx. I
met her as my cooperating teacher in March 2014 since I was assigned by NYU to work as a student
teacher.

According to the NYU Steinhardt’s office of clinical studies, a cooperating teacher is a student
teacher’s on-site mentor, who agrees to involve the student teacher in the daily classroom routine. After
introducing me as a new teacher to the students, Ms. Cheng provided me with all the necessary textbook
materials, worksheets, and lesson plans that she has created for her Mandarin classes. Then she spent
considerable amount of time every single day, giving me thorough explanation about her lessons,
students’ progress, and the school’s Mandarin program. Thanks to her help I was able to quickly
familiarize with each student’s learning style and progress to provided students with the best help I could
give, when she allowed me to involve in the daily classroom activities.

Ms. Cheng also helped me schedule an appointment with the director of the school’s learning
center, when I had to write an interview-based paper for my Teaching Students With Disabilities course at
NYU. She not only introduced me to other Mandarin teachers, who had experience of teaching students
with disabilities, but also told me stories about how school has helped students with disabilities. It was
one of the most important papers for me, and I received an A from the class. Without her help, I never
would have been able to success in the class, nor would I have understood Fieldston School and students
this much.

Throughout my student teaching experience, she was the most supportive and outstanding
cooperating teacher I’ve ever met. Unlike most of other student teachers, I have almost 3 years of
teaching experience in Korea, China, and the States, and have met various teachers and cooperating
teachers. However, there was no single cooperating teacher like Ms. Cheng, who sat through my entire
daily lessons, in order to give me sincere advices on improving my teaching methods and building better
lesson plans in the future. Working with her was an eye-opening experience, which helped me grow as a
teacher.

In sum, Ms. Cheng was a highly motivated and helpful cooperating teacher, as well as a mentor.
Ever since I met her I learned to teach students in ways that I’ve never thought of before; I learned to
teach more creatively and thoroughly, making sure that there’s no student left behind. I think very highly
of her, and consider her as my own teacher. Working with her would provide any teacher trainee the most
memorable student teaching experience.

OckKyung Jung

Student Teacher of Spring 2014

New York University Class of 2014
B.A. Foreign Language Education in Mandarin

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239 Greene Street, 6 Floor | New York, New York 10003-7599
212 998 5460 | 212 995 4198 fax | www.steinhardt.nyu.edu/teachlearn