I have almost come to the end of what I like to refer to as my first "real" teaching experience. Although I have been in multiple classrooms and different grades over the years, nothing will have prepared me more for my official student teaching experience than this past semester. I was lucky enough to really enjoy my students and the teachers I was working with.
Although I am no expert and I still have a long way to go, I am very happy with how far I have come. I was fortunate to get a lot of practice teaching lesson and working with many different people to gain new insights. Let me tell you, teaching is not all butterflies and rainbows and there is more that goes into it than meets the eye. Until you are a teacher, you will never understand all of the work and the preparation that is required of a teacher. There are so many state standards and other requirements that are important to a teacher's performance and duties of the job. Now looking back on my school years, I understand curriculum better and why teachers taught us what they did. Some of these ideas and lesson I have even used now in my classroom. I am sure it will baffle some of my old teachers to hear that their old lessons and ideas are being used by me and are being taught to a new generation of students.
I think teaching really stresses that teachers are just humans like everyone else and that we are not perfect. No, we don't know everything, we make mistakes, and we have lives outside of school. These may seem like things one would already know but it has become more evident living the "teacher life". It is also a job where someone gets to interact with people of all ages. Your co-workers will definitely vary in age and you will at least be 10 years older than your students but maybe less, maybe more. It is a unique experience to be in an environment like this. I have absolutely LOVED working with my high schoolers in both of the internships I have had this year. They were all such wonderful and amazing students to know. I hope I have made an important impact on their lives just how they have made an impact on mine.
Am I still a little apprehensive about doing this every day of my life? Yes, of course, I am! Teaching is exhausting but being with these kids and seeing their growth will make it all worth it. I look forward to seeing how far I will grow as a teacher in the years to come and what kind of teacher I will be. TEACHERS CHANGE THE WORLD ONE STUDENT AT A TIME!
