Student teaching could be a horrendous experience. You’re already paying your university a ton of money, and you’re essentially working for no pay as a teacher. And depending on who you end up getting paired up with, you could have a terrible master teacher with little to no compatability. Luckily for me, I got paired up with Shannon Lee from Santiago High School, who was a sweet, yet firm teacher able to show me her ways.
What I definitely learned the most was the need to have procedures and establish clear routines for students to follow. I had to learn the struggles of classroom management the hard way that year, dealing with 10th and 11th graders. Though I liked the 10th graders more in terms of personality, the 11th graders (one class in particular) were better behaved. They even re-acted out an entire lesson again for me in order for me to complete my TPA 4.
After a semester of observations, I got a chance to take over. And even though my lessons were “creative” and I never necessarily struggled with lesson planning, I never mastered management that year, and struggled for the most part. I think it was largely in part due to the fact that students didn’t necessarily see me as a teacher, and more as a friend. Big mistake.
Anyway, the lessons that I learned that year helped carry me over subsequently to my first year of teaching. Slowly but surely, I got better at everything that I did, and it wouldn’t have been done without the expertise and guidance of my master teacher. She helped intervene at times when I lost control of the classroom, but was patient enough to understand my struggles and help me through hard times.
Thank you for inspiring me to be my very best, and even getting me a cake on my last day. Maybe one day I can follow in your footsteps and help aspiring teachers as well.
