Student Teaching | Dec. 2018

Hello Hello! I have not been on here in AWHILE (sorry) but I had a very good reason! I have been student teaching for my last portion of my Bachelor’s degree. I just finished student teaching the week of December 5! Since then, I graduated from college (post on that soon!) and had a wonderful Christmas with my family. MERRY CHRISTMAS Y’ALL!

Now, we are all in that post-Christmas haze in that awkward period of time before New Year’s where we don’t really know what to do but stuff our faces with Christmas leftovers and watch all of the Hallmark Christmas movies that were DVR-d that we didn’t get to watch before Christmas.

Today, I am doing all of those things but today I am also going to tell you ALL about my student teaching experience in today’s post! This one’s a long one, so go grab a snack and dive in!

I started my student teaching semester in August. It was such a great start to the school year! I loved getting to know these kids. I student taught in a second grade classroom, which was the greatest ever. I couldn’t have asked for a better placement! The school, staff, and students were amazing and I felt very welcomed from the start. The staff took me on as one of their own and that meant the world to me. There was also another student teacher in second grade so it was also wonderful getting to know her and going through the experience together!

edTPA

My university required student teachers to do this capstone project (so to speak) called edTPA. It’s a way to assess teacher candidates in different areas of educating. Basically, its was a long and hard project where I had to plan a lesson segment (one for math and one for literacy), teach the lessons and record them, then assess the student work and plan for re-engagement. It was difficult but praise Jesus because I passed!! edTPA was my main focus until the beginning of October. After edTPA was over, it felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. It was done! I could then solely focus on my student teaching responsibilities and really get into planning my lessons.

Teaching

Now that I could focus, I began picking up subjects to teach week by week. I can only speak for the teaching program at my university, although I think most universities have a similar process. The way it works is first, I pick up one subject for the week. My first subject was Word Study (spelling) so from that week on, I taught Word Study. The next week, I would add on another subject, like science and continue to teach that. I keep going until I am planning and teaching all subjects. I have to full-time teach for 20 days and then begin handing subjects back off to my Clinical Teacher. During the whole process, I got observed 4 times by my university supervisor. This is where my grade came from. I had an amazing supervisor! She was so supportive and gave me such great advice on how to do things better and improve. My clinical teacher also gave me amazing advice and helped me daily! Student teaching is truly a learning experience. It is not easy! There are many things that were not expected but I learned from them. I think this is the hardest I have ever worked for something in my life. It was and definitely is SO worth it though!

One thing that I do believe made things somewhat more difficult is that I student taught in the fall semester. Typically, student teaching would take place in the spring semester. The previous fall semester would be where (at least with my university and teaching program), I would go into the school to begin getting to know the students that I would student teach. In my case, I had two sets of students, the spring semester and my student teaching students for the fall. The reason I say this is difficult is my clinical teacher is also getting to know the students at the same time as me so, instead of her being able to help me get to know the students, we did it together. Also, there are SO many breaks in the fall semester. Teacher workdays, holidays, you name it. We lost some days because of some hurricanes too. It was also incredibly more difficult to complete edTPA in the fall semester than in the spring. 

However, it was an incredible blessing to get to know DOUBLE the amount of students at my placement school! It was such a joy to see the students from last year in the hallways and ask them how they were doing in their new grade.

Student Relationships

You really won’t understand how big of a bond you make with a class from the beginning of the year until it happens to you and then you have to leave. I felt so blessed to have been in this classroom, in second grade, with this specific set of students. By the end, I had a unique relationship with each student. If are an education major or a teacher, you know that building relationships with students is the key to everything!!

I loved each and every one of my students in student teaching. Yes, there were very, very hard days. Days where they drove me crazy. Days when I doubted myself. But there were also days where they made me laugh, where they made me cards for no reason, where they made me smile when life outside of student teaching was really tough. I know in my heart that this is what I’m supposed to do and I’m so blessed that these students helped me jumpstart everything!

There were so many things that I got to experience that I didn’t really think about when I started this journey. I got to help my CE set up the classroom, go on a field trip with the class, go to after school nights (like Science night at the museum or Reading Night), help take care of quail eggs (and eventually baby quails), and so many more things. There is so much to this profession that you don’t think about ahead of time really until you’re in the middle of it I think that will also be true as I go into my first year of teaching!

My last day of student teaching was bittersweet. On the one hand, I had done it! I had completed everything required for my degree and in just one week, would be graduating from college. On the other hand, I was so sad to leave my class. They were truly a great class to student teach with. My CE printed out a class picture that we took on our field trip and had the kids sign it as a goodbye gift. All of the students wrote me cards. I wrote each of them a personalized note with two candy canes as my goodbye gift! Some students were upset and there were hugs all around. I would be lying if I said I didn’t cry on the way home.

But as I type this, I am a college graduate and in less than a week, I will be starting my first teaching job!!! OH YEAH, I got a job y’all!! More on that later 😉

Overall, I had a pretty great student teaching experience! There were hard days. SUCH hard days. Days where I came home exhausted and in tears. But there were really great days!!! Days that made me fulfilled and confident that this is my vocation. Days where I could see my own growth. Days where I could see something I had taught a student impacted them and helped them grow.

This was the end of a chapter. A chapter I can’t believe I actually finished. A chapter that had always been in front of me and now it’s just behind me. I know that the best is yet to come and I can’t wait to get started!!

Are you a student teacher or a teacher? Share some of your favorite student teaching experiences below! Or, do you have any questions that you would like me to answer! Please leave them in the comments and I will do my best to answer!

Til’ next time!

xoxo Ariana