Over a month into student teaching
now and it seems to all be going by too fast. This is the first semester where
I couldn't wait for it to be over and at the same time wished I had an extra
month. In my mind I had an idea of
student teaching. I thought how planning for everyday would be a huge
challenge; however, I didn't realize how all of the out of class items would
stack up at the same time.
As
with everyone else, I’m sure, the KPTP is always looming in my mind. On top of
this there is the constant pressure to be interviewing and finding a job.
Between these activities, lesson planning, and the other normal requirements to
my time I feel as though I am always pressed to be doing something from the
moment I wake until the moment I fall asleep. Speaking of sleep, that has become
a missed luxury; I feel I would need at least another ten hours in the day to
accomplish what I feel I need to and still be able to get a decent night’s
sleep. Thus my new motto is “I’ll sleep when I graduate!”
This probably seems like a rant on
how terrible this semester is, but in reality I love this semester even with
all the pressures. When I’m actually in the classroom with the students helping
them grasp concepts, lecturing, joking with them, or just basically teaching I
have a great feeling that I have made the correct choice for my career. There
is no place on earth like the inside of a classroom from the instructor’s
position and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
Over the last few weeks I have had
complete control over teaching Romeo and
Juliet. My CT has been a huge help with offering advice and things she has
done with the play in the past. I love being able to come up with original material
and tweaking proven to work material. When the students make connections to the
text or seem to be genuinely enjoying what I have planned gives me a great
sense of accomplishment. There are challenging days, but overall it is a highly
rewarding experience. The issue I keep running into is time. With 80 minute
classes, I still feel like I never have enough time to incorporate everything I
want to into a day’s lesson. More than once I have spent hours coming up with
an activity only to later cut it when I realize there is not time to
incorporate it with everything else that needs to be done.
After
Spring break I will start teaching Death
of a Salesman to my seniors. This lesson will encompass the rest of the
school year for the seniors and I find this is adding extra pressure. Knowing
this will be the last school assignment some of them ever take gives me a
driving pressure to make the unit a memorable experience that will help them
improve on their skills and grow. This has also been a text that I have been
taught in class as a student on a number of occasions, and thinking back to all
the activities I was able to experience as a student with this work gives me a
plethora of ideas for the unit. Unfortunately I am running into the same
problem of what to cut and what to keep. There are so many ways to approach the
text that deciding on one path over another brings greater challenges than I
had originally anticipated.
Overall
I am pleased with the choices I have made thus far. I have learned what works
really well, what does not work, and have grown from my mistakes. I think the key thing I am taking away from
student teaching is not to only be evaluating students but to also constantly
be evaluating my own teaching. I realize every lesson will not go exactly as
planned, that sometimes I will have to improvise lessons during the lesson, I
will need to scrap lessons that are not working and give more time to those
that are to benefit my students.
