As my last blog post, I’d like to share some of the important things that I’ve learned throughout the semester.

At the end of my student teaching experience, one thing I learned is that you WILL get through it.  Your toughest day where you want to (or do) cry, your edTPA, applications, long hours of planning, challenging students, observations, lessons gone wrong, all of it! There will be days where you question yourself and the profession you’ve chosen, and that’s completely normal. What’s important is that you will overcome all obstacles, and become an even BETTER teacher because of them! In the end, this is what you are meant to do 🙂

Another thing I learned is that teaching is such a rewarding career. It’s an awesome feeling when you know you have taught a student something new, made an impact in their life, and serve as a smiling face to them every morning. They also do the same for you! My last week of student teaching happened to be teacher appreciation week, and I was definitely feeling the love! On my last day, my students made me a book and gave me a basket full of school supplies for my future classroom!

So, despite the challenges that will come with student teaching/teaching in general, remember to focus on the positive things because they definitely outweigh the negative! Although I’m excited to be done and transition into having my own classroom, I will miss my first graders so much! Student teaching has been an experience that I will always remember. Those of you who will be in my position next year have so much to look forward to and will feel so accomplished in the end 🙂 Good luck!

Well, tomorrow begins my last week of student teaching!

Seriously, it’s unreal how fast it went!

I would like to share some of my first impressions of my student teaching placement as I reflect on my experience in first grade:

1. I was SO excited to be placed in the district I grew up in! It has always been a dream of mine to teach in the district I also went to school in, so I was excited to learn I would be student teaching there (and hopefully get my foot in the door). On my first day, the principal and my cooperating teacher welcomed me with open arms and I could tell I was going to have a great experience there.
2. I was nervous about the transition from 6th grade to 1st grade- I have always wanted the primary grades, but my clinical experiences at UIUC included two 6th grade placements, and one 3rd grade, so I felt like I now had more experience with the upper grades and wasn’t sure how the transition back to the little ones would go.
3. From Day 1 I was proposed with some challenging students, My very first impression of the classroom I was about to student teach in was a student in particular who has a 504 for autism. This student was JUST diagnosed upon my arrival, so all the plans put in place for him were also new. About an hour after I had settled in, I got a glimpse of some of the challenges I was about to face- the student was throwing a tantrum, kicking and screaming on the floor as well as throwing objects and pushing over chairs. In this moment, I knew I was in for some unique experiences.
4. Overall, I was overjoyed to begin student teaching! My cooperating teacher was so sweet, and the class was made up of 20 kids who seemed as eager to get to know me as I was them.

Stay tuned for next week, as I reflect on my final thoughts of my student teaching experience!