My Student Teaching Experience

I have been a student for a long time, as long as I can remember. My whole life has been getting ready for the big test, reading my assignments at the breakfast table, or working on some big project. But until my semester as a student teacher I don’t think I was ever really a student. I knew that being a teacher was work, and that it’s definitely not for everyone, but I didn’t know how much time and effort was put in just for me; until I became a teacher myself.
I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard or enjoyed myself more than in this past semester of my student teaching. Every day I came home from my high school classroom with a bag full of folders and books just to sit down at my computer to make more lesson plans. One thing that I learned my first week, when I was still observing my students, was that I needed to be prepared. These students ALWAYS questioned the information they were given. They wanted to know HOW WHAT WHY WHERE and WHEN of everything! If I wanted to succeed in the classroom, they were not going to make it easy. I had to know what I was teaching, and try to be prepared for whatever questions my students were going to ask. Fortunately the classes I took during my college days came in handy. I remembered cool ways I was able to learn in the college classroom, and tried to incorporate them into my new high school setting.
Being a teacher has brought out a love of learning that I didn’t know I had. I have always liked school, and I like to experiment, question and search for answers. However; teaching has taking that love of learning to a new level. I was excited to come up with new lesson plans and show my students what new sweet activity I had planned for the day. I was excited to see them come in with a look on their faces that plainly said “Mrs. Carpenter has seriously lost her mind, what is she going to have us do today?” and the smiles when they left the class, talking about the new material we had learned.
I especially loved it when one of my students would come in early just to say hello; when they would come to me after class and want to ask more questions about the topic we covered that day; and ask if we were doing the same thing tomorrow. I enjoyed walking around my classroom and seeing their different projects, and the creative ideas that they came up with. There is a saying that two heads are better than one, and I think the saying holds true that 25 heads are better than one. My students would ask better questions than I could. They were better at checking for understanding, or making sure their neighbor understood the directions. I learned that my students never ceased to amaze me.
This past three months has gone by so fast and has been more exhausting and rewarding than I would have guessed. There are several things that I would definitely do different. And there were times when I just wanted to call in sick… but then I was afraid I would see my University Supervisor, my Cooperating teacher, or worse one of my students in a store and have to explain why I didn’t show that day. I would definitely choose teaching again if I was given the chance to do everything over.