One snowy morning about two weeks ago I found myself sitting in the teacher’s lounge. Now, normally I would have been in the classroom going over the day’s plans with my cooperating teacher; however, the commute that morning had been horrible due to the lovely winter we are currently experiencing, so a lot of the teachers were delayed, including my cooperating teacher. I felt that instead of sitting outside the classroom and waiting by myself, that I should go socialize with the teachers that had already arrived. To my surprise, one of the fifth grade teachers sitting in the lounge gave me some advice that I have been thinking about for a while now.
This fifth grade teacher had just asked me how my student teaching experience was going. After my initial response of “It’s wonderful. I feel like I’m learning so much already”, I began to express the apprehension I was feeling towards doing my full takeover. Now do not get confused. I am so excited to complete my full takeover (which by the way begins on March 31st, 2 weeks away…not that I’m counting or anything…) because it something I have been itching to do since freshman year. However, at the same time, I am so nervous because the teaching responsibilities truly become mine. It’s as scary as it is exciting. So, after my rambling, this fifth grade teacher looked at me calmly and just said “Don’t worry. You’ll be fine. It’s going to fly by.” This is the normal comment I get from any teacher I talk to, but this teacher continued on. “Just don’t forget. The best thing you can do is to make mistakes. Make lots of mistakes because now is the perfect time for you to do it”.
Now as odd as this advice sounds it really stuck with me. This really is the perfect time for me to make mistakes. At this specific moment, I have a lot of wonderful teachers and a supervisor who are all more than willing to help me out with any problems I come across. I know I will have other people who will want to help me in the future, but now more than ever, these people are here to teach me how to be a better teacher and catch me when I completely fall on my face, so to speak.
This advice struck me again today when I had my midterm conference with my supervisor and cooperating teacher. One thing that my supervisor discussed is that she thought that I did a great job reflecting on my practice, but at the same time she was worried that I tend to beat myself up too much. So, it seems at this moment, I do not realize how great the mistakes I am making really are.
From all this, one major lesson I, as a student teacher, have learned is that mistakes are bound to happen. Instead of obsessing over the mistake itself, I really need to start thinking “OK. That was horrible, but now what can I do to make it better?”
Miss H.