Student Teaching: First Day

I am both nervous and excited because in less than 2 hours, I begin my student teaching. For the next six weeks, I will be working with high school freshmen at one of my hometown's high school buildings. At the end of those six weeks, I will then student teach at an elementary school. Although I am earning my certification to work with students with mild disabilities, I believe I will be working with some students with more "severe" or "multiple" disabilities as well. I'll correct that if I am wrong though. I should also note that the teacher I am assigned to is someone I personally know, and is very nice. This should make things a little bit easier.

What do I hope for in the next 6-12 weeks? I hope to learn new skills, and gain insights as to what it will mean to become a good teacher of students with special needs. This includes learning more about the IEP process, which I am currently not as familiar with as I need to be. In addition, I hope to boost my confidence level that I will be able to become a teacher, and a good one at that. Although I know this is what I want to do for a career, I still have my doubts as to whether or not I will be an effective teacher in the end. The last teaching job I had as a preschool teacher was a nightmare where a) I never really had control over my students, and b) I was always arguing with my boss. Plus, I know several people who trained to become a teacher, but then changed their mind after horrible student teaching experiences. I will try not to fall into that pit that happens all to often to aspiring teachers. Rather, I hope to rise to the challenges that come before me, and to make a difference in the lives of the students.

While I was trying to fall asleep last night (earlier than I normally do), I did something I don't do that often: I prayed. I know it is strange thing for an agnostic to do so. But then again, as a Christian Agnostic, it is not that much of a stretch to pray. I may or may not be praying to someone or something, but it doesn't hurt to do it anyways. Anyways, I prayed not only for guidance and success in my student teaching experiences, but I also prayed that guidance will transfer over into everything else that is to come for me: marriage, the beginning of my teaching career, etc. As I mentioned in my last post, this is the biggest year of my life because it is the first year of the rest of my life in so many ways. And it all begins today. Wish me luck!

2009: It's Kind of a Big Deal

2009 will be a big year for me. I should be finishing my certification, probably my Masters (fingers crossed on both of those), hopefully finding a job as a special needs teacher somewhere in the state of Missouri, and getting married. Without doubt, this is going to be the biggest year of my life up to this point. And it all starts a week from today, when I start student teaching.

Above, I have temporarily changed my blog title to indicate my current teacher status (although the URL will stay the same). As I have said recently, my blog will probably turn into a journal, rather than a place to post and comment of headlines in the news. One of the most important aspects of education is tracking progress. I hope that, for the next 4-5 months, this blog will not only be a great outlet to blow off steam about my daily activities, but I also hope it will track my progress (or, God forbid, lack thereof) as a pre-service teacher. I also hope the accounts written in this blog can be a document that other education students can look upon for insight of what they might encounter in their student teaching experiences. From time to time, I do hope to write a little bit on what is going on in the news (education and otherwise). But don't expect a lot of that.

Happy Holidays 2008

I hope everyone has had a good Christmas.  I have taken some time off from the blog to relax, as well as enjoy the company of friends and family.  I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know some things going on in my life.  First, I had a wonderful Christmas with my family.  The only thing that was missing from it was my fiance when she was visiting her family.  She is back now, and I can't wait for our wedding this summer.  Secondly, I am starting a new book The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging.  Huffington Post is one of my favorite websites, and I am hoping I can learn a thing or two to improve my work on this blog.  

Finally, I will begin my student teaching here in a couple weeks.  I am not sure if I will have time to maintain the blog the way I have been.  While I will still post, it will probably be less commenting on stories in the news, and more keeping some type of journal of my day-to-day encounters as a student teacher.  I will spend six weeks working with 9th grade students, and another 6 weeks working with students in grades 3-5.  I am both nervous and excited about the upcoming weeks.  I look forward to sharing all of my experiences with you.