When I first got my student teaching information about what grade I would be in as well as what teacher I would have, I instantly went onto my future school's website and looked her up.
As I scrolled through the information of her, I gulped. My teacher had been on countless professional organizations, she was past president of the school's education association, she had been to numerous professional conferences, she was a ND teacher of the year finalist...
Oh man, I thought to myself on that February day in 2013, this teacher is awesome and with her experience, I'm going to look so bad at teaching.
I quickly messaged my sister-in-law, inquiring about if she knew the teacher I had. She replied back,
"You'll love her! Both of my older boys had her and they absolutely loved her."
Well, that's a good sign, I thought again to myself. I don't know about other student teaching candidates but for me, I couldn't help but feel nervous and get those "bad student teaching experience" thoughts. After all, August to December was a long time.
Wrong.
It was the shortest three months of my life, I think. From the start my teacher was welcoming, she knew how to boost my confidence, and she gave me praise on the things I was doing well as well as on things I could improve on. It made me realize that that is exactly how I want to teach my future students. Although I was a 23 year old and my kids will be 8 year olds, the concept is still the same. Encouragement is so important.
And with that, I think I learned more in those three months than I did in four years of college. Ha!
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| A sample of the cards I got from my kiddos. I miss them! |
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