Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts

During my last year as a student teacher I think it is important to remember that this is only temporary. You have to remind yourself that you will soon have a room of your own and the power and responsibility of the students’ education rests on your shoulders. Throughout student teaching I would get discouraged because I never felt like a real teacher. I had to get permission from my MT to use certain tools, computers, and other resources. I know as a teacher you still need permission from the higher ups, such as, your administration and department head, but during student teaching it felt awkward to have to answer to someone else day in and day out. It wasn’t like checking in with a parole officer, and I’m sure I’m making it out to be worse than it was, but I never felt like I was truly in charge during student teaching.

If I could do something differently during my student teaching I probably would have entered into the transition to teaching program instead of enrolling into the College of Education. I fully believe that the College of Education has helped me become a better 1^st year teacher by offering me examples of best practice and insightful resources that include my professors, academic journals, and colleagues input on how to overcome any pitfalls of teaching, but I can’t help but wonder if the transition to teaching program would have been better suited for me. I am a firm believer in learning through experience and the transition to teaching program would have offered me the opportunity to dive in and immerse myself in teaching, instead of taking it bit by bit like I have done in the College of Education. If I entered the transition to teaching program I could have graduated at an earlier date and basically get paid as I learn to student teach. At the time I did not know there was a transition to teaching program, but if I could go back I would have definitely put a lot thought in joining the program. I am not in any way discrediting the College of Education, I just know that as an older student with experience in being in a classroom without MT/CT support, I would have preferred having responsibility in my classroom immediately, as opposed to spreading out my responsibilities over the course of four semesters.

My program has helped me the most in providing quality professors with great knowledge of their craft, and wonderful colleagues that I can use to bounce ideas off of. Seeing the passion and knowledge that my professors possess has shown me that they take this profession seriously and understand what it means to be a quality teacher. The professors I have had during my core classes always have a handy article in mind that can help stimulate growth and improve whatever issues we may have as student teachers. Having professors around who are passionate about educating students and teaching future teachers how to become future teachers of value is the greatest strength of the education program.

During the education program I would have loved having more time to actually lesson plan. I feel like that is going to be one of our biggest struggles as first year teachers, and promoting more time towards that process in Core 1 and Core 2 would be beneficial to making sure we are ready for our time as a student teacher. I feel that a majority of the time was invested in classroom management techniques and learning about the background of education. I wanted more opportunities experiencing first hand how to enhance myself as a teacher, instead of reading about which strategies work best and which person started areas of thought concerning education.

Rant over. I still enjoyed it all.