Learning Experiences

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.