This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at SAU chapter.
Ever since I was seven years old it has been my dream to become a teacher. Four years of education classes, hundreds of practicum hours, and a ton of lesson plans later, I have finally made it to my student teaching semester. This has been one of the greatest learning experiences that I have had and I’m not even a month in! These past few weeks have been nothing like I expected them to be. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way.
- Getting up super early every day is not as bad as I anticipated.
- Student teaching has done the impossible and made me a morning person! I used to struggle to get up in time for my 9am classes but now I’m out the door by 7 every day and kind of enjoy it! Drinking my first coffee of the day while getting ready before the sun comes up is surprisingly my favorite part of my day.
- Classroom management is REALLY hard.
- In a perfect world, I would just start teaching and my students would be perfect angels who sat quietly in their seats and listened. But anyone who has ever met a 3rd grader knows that that is simply impossible. Every day it is a struggle to get my kids to listen to me but luckily, I have my amazing cooperating teacher to help me out and give me some ideas.
- Teacher outfits are the best!
- My uniform these days consist of colorful sweaters and cute accessories, and I am loving it! The hardest part of my morning is deciding which pair of fun earrings to put on. I have a feeling that by the end of the semester I will own every cute cardigan that Target sells.
- You’re going to make mistakes in front of the kids and that’s ok!
- My biggest fear going into student teaching was making mistakes in front of the kids and somehow corrupting their lives forever or something dramatic like that. Spoiler alert- that is not the case at all. The kids know that I’m human and I make mistakes just like them. If anything, having a perfect teacher who never made any mistakes ever would probably negatively affect them more than seeing me trip up a few times during a lesson does.
- I am much more prepared than I thought I was.
- One of my favorite quotes is, “It always seems impossible until it’s done” and it is so relevant to student teaching. Before I started, student teaching seemed like this Mt. Everest sized mountain that was impossible to get over. But that couldn’t be further for the truth. Sure, it’s still hard and there are some bad days, but it is not impossible. I just have to remind myself that I would not have made it this far if I wasn’t prepared. I’ve passed every class that was required, and this is just one last step!
I still can’t believe that I am already a month into student teaching. I have had so much fun so far and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the semester holds!