And Here We Go -- Raggs

After 20 weeks of observing and teaching a lesson here and there, student teaching is finally here. It really didn’t dawn on me until right before I went to bed the night before my first full day. In a way, I thought, the next day would be the start of my career. After all this time in graduate school and watching so many of my classmates in undergraduate enter the work force, it was finally time for me to enter the exciting but terrifying “real world.”

I had a lot of mixed emotions as I drove to school the next morning. But the overpowering emotion was nervousness. Was I ready for this? Was I ready to take responsibility for the educational well being of my students? Would I be able to come up with interesting ways to engage my students or would I have to become “the lecturer”? This last one really made me nervous as I had hit some roadblocks trying to lesson plan the night before (which was not a good sign). I think though that nerves are natural feelings to have entering such a stressful time in the profession of teaching. There is so much to do and you are teaching in a classroom that is not yours. That is what makes me the most nervous. It is not my classroom and at least from a legal standpoint not my students. These facts make student teaching a difficult and nervous undertaking as I have never actually taught full time before.

But along with this nervousness came excitement. I cannot wait to become a teacher. I have loved every experience I have had interacting with kids, whether it be coaching the neighborhood swim team or substituting in the local middle school. It is finally time to see if I would enjoy teaching as much as I thought I would and had so far. In addition, I have put so much time into preparing for this moment that I was excited to put the skills I had learned to practical use. And I cannot wait for that moment when I make an impact on a student in academics and realizing their potential. I realize I have these students for a limited time but my goal is to help them accomplish something they did not think they could. I think many teachers enter the profession for that moment and I cannot wait for it to be my turn. As for those nerves, I know that I will be able to overcome any of the obstacles that come my way because I have an excellent support staff that includes my cooperative teacher and my fellow student teachers (as I am lucky to have four others at my high school placement). And that lesson that was giving me trouble the night before embarking on my student teaching experience: my cooperating teacher and I discussed it, and it is going to be awesome.