YES! -- Beth

"Yes," such a commonplace expression, but a word I feel has described my first few days of student teaching in a way that has made me feel like "the" teacher.

Do I have a great cooperating teacher? Yes! I have to say I have the best cooperating teacher / mentor in that she is creative, integrates technology at any chance she can within the classroom, and I admire her flexibility as a teacher. At the start of my student teaching, she challenged me to take over the class I felt the least ready to take over. This class was the largest of our classes, contained the liveliest students, and was also the class I had been in the least due to my graduate course scheduling so the students did not know me as well. What did I answer to that challenge? “Yes,” of course I’ll do it! I would have to say the student teachers in our program are all “YES” people when it comes to immersing ourselves in our school experiences (just read all the other blog posts).

Probably the best thing my cooperating teacher did to get me feeling like a teacher was to leave the room. Over the past few days, I have seen a slight progression by the students as they begin to ask for my assistance instead of seeking out their regular teacher. At first the students asked for their teacher, but by Friday when we did a lab in class, the students (when they needed assistance) were calling my name. At one point, I found myself answering “yes?” to students who needed help with calculations, to students who needed help with a lab step, to a student that was absent the day before and needed help with the notes. Though every class will not be as free flowing as Friday’s lab day, I feel that the students are seeing me as their teacher. As I settle into student teaching, I find I am loving being in the school and around the students. The day flies by when I am interacting with the students and enjoying what I do. I have been in the work force previously where I watched the clock tick slowly by until I could leave. It is not like that at all now. For this, I exclaim “Yessss,” being a teacher is awesome!

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.

Está Sobre La Magia - -Sara

On my first Friday of student teaching, we have an assembly to promote the student’s participation in the PTA fundraiser. They are going to sell magazines! There is a guest speaker from the company who is showing the students a bunch of different laser beams and stuffed pigs that walk around and oink which they can win for prizes. However, the ultimate prize is that if the students sell at least three magazine subscriptions they get to attend a magic show!

I am sitting next to a student during this assembly who is originally from the Dominican Republic. He and his mother moved to the United States just two years ago. The guest speaker plays a clip showing the magician throw a playing card that slices a carrot. Amidst all of the oohs and ahs of the student crowd, the boy sitting next to me grabs my arm. His eyes are wide open and a smile stretches from cheek to cheek! “A magic show!” he exclaims. “I have never been to a magic show!” He is so excited, and it seems like his dream has come true.

On the way back to the classroom, I see my Dominican student softly crying. I ask him what is wrong. He replies, “Last year, I couldn’t do the fundraiser because my Mom did not know what to do. I won’t get to the go to the magic show.” I did not have to ask that she would not know what to do because the directions are in English. She only speaks Spanish. It broke my heart to see his good spirits fall as he moped like a lost puppy down the hall. During my lunch break, I wrote out directions for his Mom in my best Spanish. I sought him out in the hallway and gave them to him. He was so happy and the light filled his eyes again! This magic show meant the world to him.

This experience was my own personal magic show. In school we learn about curriculum, instruction, and assessment as essential parts of a good instruction. I got so caught up in the important technicalities of teaching that I forgot why I wanted to become a teacher in the first place. It is the wonder and fascination that light up a student’s eyes that thrill me. It is moments like these that remind me why I wanted to be a teacher.

This is my calling! -- Sam

It is here! After nine months of courses, hours upon hours of observations, and many cups of tea while lesson planning, student teaching is here! I walked into the first day with warnings still ringing fresh in my ears. “Don’t dive in too quickly!” “Pace yourself!” “Be prepared to feel exhausted!” Yet, these warnings seem to have fallen on deaf ears. I am swimming in the deep end!

Although I had spent hours in the classroom, I felt as though my eyes were open to a whole new reality. I saw needs all around me: children getting suspended, disorganized closets of math materials, low benchmark scores, and an unfilled position for a head of the Intramural soccer program. No longer was I a sporadic visitor to a largely unfamiliar community: I was a helper, a mentor, and a problem solver. I was a teacher!

The first few days were rife with activity. I was asked to fill the IM soccer position, volunteered to organize the closet, agreed to take on three periods starting this coming Wednesday, and had to give several heartfelt lectures on lessons in life in an attempt to quell the rising disciplinary problems that characterize the third quarter. Yet it seems the more I take on, the more need I see. It is easy to see how one can become consumed by this profession, or, dare I say, this lifestyle.

Yet, the days have seemed to fly by! When I hear the 3:05 bell ring signaling the end of the day, it is not excitement that floods my soul; it is what I will describe as sorrow for lack of a better term. Sorrow that the students are leaving. Sorrow that the hallways, which moments before rang loudly with middle school drama, are now silent. Sorrow that my job is done. Truly, this is a profession like none other! Truly, this is my calling!

Those oh-so-anticipated “teachable moments” -- Kare

I am excited to say that I am now an official “student teacher.” While the first few days were challenging, they were also exciting, motivating, and, of course, insightful learning opportunities. I have learned about the challenge that is co-teacher collaboration and how to be flexible in the classroom.

Day 1: I introduced The Great Gatsby, our main unit text, by way of discussing the parallels between Fitzgerald’s life and his fiction. Lesson 1: students care far less about Fitzgerald’s college literary magazine and football dreams than I do! As a teacher, it is challenging to balance your personal love and interest in literature and learning with what your students are reasonably inspired and capable of exploring.

Day 2: I used the universal appeal of $$$ to attract student attention. The students discussed money and high/low society in The Great Gatsby…and they really got into it! I was so pleased to see every student talking and finding what I considered “slippery” quotations from the text to explore the concept of money and class. I am, however, in a unique situation in that my class is not all mine. In fact, it is not even shared by me and my cooperating teacher. No, I share a class with another student teacher and two cooperating teachers. Lesson 2: be open and flexible. To make a long story short, I felt like I had to stop my first-ever teachable moment because the clock told me to hand over the reigns to my history student teacher counterpart. I understand that teaching is being flexible, but I wish that this flexibility was driven by the STUDENTS and not by scheduling and a shared classroom. My goal now is to somehow figure out ways to develop these “teachable moments” in finite scheduled-ahead time blocks. More to come on this…