My Life as a Student Teacher

This is part one of a two part series (sounds all sorts of professional doesn't it). This will be published in the University paper this Wednesday.

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My Life as a Student Teacher

On March 1^st, student teachers were finally sent off into the classrooms of their cooperating school districts. The weeks leading up to this release were long; I couldn’t wait to get back into the classroom. I hadn’t had a classroom experience since last Spring when I participated in my Junior Field. That field experience was a complete success; it sparked a passion and drive for teaching that I didn’t know was possible.

For education majors, student teaching is something to look forward too and something to get you through the hours of education classes. Student teaching for me was a realization that “this is it.” Upon entering my cooperating school for the first time, I couldn’t help but feel excited, anxious, nervous, and over all … ready. I had been waiting for this moment for three years, ever since I transferred at the beginning of my sophomore year. This is what all the hours of lesson planning and studying were for.  This is what all the time and money for the several Praxis exams were preparing me for.

“This is it.” I remember thinking that while walking into the school. “This is where I succeed or where I fail.”

Now the classes that education majors take do a great job preparing you to teach, but because most of what is taught is theoretical, take it from me – you’ll need this information.

First of all, student teaching is absolutely exhausting. You go from taking a couple classes sporadically throughout the day and evening (hardly ever in the morning) to taking classes from 8-12pm everyday during professional blocks. I won’t lie, when I was taking those classes it took a lot out of me to just get out of bed in time! But all of a sudden, once you begin student teaching, you are expected to look presentable (no sweats and no rain boots) by 7:30am and to be cheerful and excited nonstop until 3:20 (again, generally speaking). Furthermore, you are expected to participate in extracurricular activities with your cooperating teacher. In my case, I have play rehearsal until 6:30 or 7 (and sometimes even 8pm)!

Then you have to account for the hours of lesson planning; yes, I said hours. On average, I spend about an hour and a half to two hours preparing every single lesson. With block scheduling, I’m required to teach two classes a day. That’s three and a half hours preparing lessons! Yes, I have a planning period – but there are things to be done then as well! What with drama club meetings and students just popping in to say hello, you can’t rely on those times to get things done. This same rule applies to before school and after school ‘prep’ periods. You can’t sacrifice building relationships with students to “catch up” on work you should have completed the night (or nights) before.

After you’ve prepared the lesson – you must grade the assignments from the previous lesson. This also takes time, especially when you aren’t dealing with a multiple choice/true or false type of assessment! As a Language Arts student teacher, I grade several essays a night.

Then, finally, there’s spending time with the boyfriend, the best friend/coworker who is feeling neglected, the best friend who is getting married and needs you to try on “maid of honor” dresses, the best friend who is also student teaching and who needs to vent, and of course the residents you feel you’ve neglected (or maybe this is all just me). But it doesn’t end there! There’s campus meetings, work, outside activities, and Exponent articles that need to be taken into consideration.  At this point in your life, you’re also starting to apply for jobs! That process alone is overwhelming. And God forbid, you save some time to work out and stay healthy!

Needless to say – be prepared to be exhausted. As a severe planner, I thought I had this whole thing under control and that it would be “easy peasy.” Even I, the type A personality, had to adjust to this type of exhaustion (and it’s still a constant struggle).

Secondly, wash your hands and bring disinfectant. My second day of student teaching  I all of a sudden got very ill. Turns out, my cooperating teacher had the flu all weekend. I thought I could “tough” through it, but it wasn’t possible and a few minutes later my understanding cooperating teacher sent me home. Thank goodness! I was ill for two days straight! The next morning he calls me and asks how I’m feeling, I say I’m doing a lot better, and he says, “Don’t come in today.” I ask why and he replies that in about three hours I’m going to hit absolute rock bottom. Come ten o’clock, I thought I was about to croak! I could barely function! I’m so grateful to have such a great understanding cooperating teacher (well, really, he should be. He gave the “bug” to me!).  Even after I returned to school on Thursday of that first week, the smallest thing would take my breath away. Walking to my car became a chore and climbing the stairs to third floor Briscoe was nearly impossible. Take it from me – wash your hands constantly, eat healthy, get lots of sleep, work out, and disinfect everything. Do everything you need to in order to keep yourself healthy.

Be prepared to miss the classroom. When I returned after being sick, I was so surprised at how many students had already missed me (and yes, they were being sincere). Many of them asked how I was feeling and offered to help in any way that they could. I wasn’t prepared for this kind of attachment so early on in the experience. I was still only observing! That first weekend, while I was so thankful for the extra hours of sleep, I started to miss the students and the classroom. Believe it or not, I was ready to return to class on Monday morning (despite the 6:30am wake up).

And finally, be prepared to put all those hours of “theory” that Northern has equipped it’s students with into practice. After my junior field experience I had no doubt in my mind that I wanted to be an English teacher. I was going to enter the classroom and inspire and instill passion in my students. I was hopeful and I was ready. Teaching is so often times idealized into a fantasy that many people (including me) commit to. I was going to be like the teacher from “Freedom Writers.” I was going to do it all.

While I still have that passion, don’t get me wrong, I’ve also realized that being in the classroom isn’t always an amazing experience. Students misbehave, I have to be “the bad guy” sometimes, students don’t always like the fun activities I’ve spent hours preparing, and I don’t always get to teach something I’m excited about. Even though I’ve only been student teaching for a couple weeks, I’ve realized that I’m not going to change the world every day. I’m going to change the world one day and one student at a time. It might not be possible for me to reach a whole classroom every day, but if I can reach one or two or five students a day – slowly, but surely, I’ll make a difference. And that’s why I went into teaching in the first place. Stay tuned to find out what has changed by the end of my experience come the end of April.