Thursday, December 6, 2012

WHOA!

I am about to wrap up my last semester as a regular graduate student and on January 28th I will begin working side by side with my mentor teacher(s) in my student teaching experience.

All I can think is... "Whoa." (said in a Joey Lawrence voice of course)

Reflecting on this prompted me to go back and look at what I wrote about when I first began this graduate school journey back in the fall of 2010. Here is the post from the first week of classes. It seems like so long ago! I cannot believe how much has changed since then and how much I have changed!

For example, in that post I complained about my classes being with undergrads and grads in the same class. Looking back on that complaint now, I feel bad. Yes, it did surprise me, but now that I have spent so much time working with some amazing undergraduate pre-service teachers, I am grateful I was in classes with them! Many of them are so much more mature than I was at ages 19-21.

I also talked a lot about work and the struggles of being in charge of a management team of four adults and then a staff of 20-50 and theeeeennn managing a three million dollar store. Oh, gawd, I SO DO NOT miss that at all! I am very much looking forward to only managing classrooms of children for the rest of my career and I have no desire to be in administration and manage adults AGAIN.

Adults are way worse than children.

I digress.

Last weekend I got my student teaching placements and I will be with a 3rd grade teacher in a suburban district for the first 8 weeks and then I will be with a special education teacher in K/1st grade (omg) in a urban district for the last 8 weeks. I am so excited and I feel extremely fortunate in my student teaching placements! I had originally requested to be with a specific teacher, but that teacher will be out on maternity leave, so that did not work out and I did not have any other suggestions, so I basically told the student teaching coordinator, "I trust you. Place me with someone who is a good fit." I'm pretty sure she did!

I have not met the teacher at my second placement yet, but I met the teacher at my first placement today and I am almost positive we will get along great! First of all, she is from my boyfriend's hometown and they know each other! Small world, right? In addition to that, she's also my age, which I really like. I have seen enough "veteran" teachers to know that I don't get along very well with inflexibility or people that do not adapt to change well.

(Then again, when I'm older, I probably will not adapt to change very well either!)

So, in the past 2 1/2 years I have learned so much and have met so many really wonderful people. With each step towards being fully licensed to teach elementary school, I am even more certain that I made the right decision to switch careers!

If you could switch careers and realistically do something different, what would it be?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am a nurse now but I would love to own my own book store! And sell my own crocheted blankets there.

Unknown said...

I actually am switching careers! I'm back at school to become a diabetes educator. You know, a couple years ago it didn't feel realistic. But with the support of my family and husband, I can do it. Not that you have to be married, but I think the support helped me plan it out and convinced me that I could do it. We only have one life and we really shouldn't waste it working at a job we hate!

Julie said...

Yay for student teaching! Its a good thing to do it when you are, you have a better shot at getting a job for the fall. I had to do my student teaching in the fall and there are less jobs open for the spring. You will have a blast, its fun - and yes hopefully you get along great with your teachers. My first 8 week one was awesome, we're still friends to this day. My 2nd one, never called me back, never emailed back, and she was supposed to be a top notch teacher of the year person. She wouldn't let me teach, I literally sat in the back of the room at my desk watching and helping when I could. My advisor knew all about it and eventually I had to ask the teacher if they knew I was supposed to be on my own and she replied, "oh really, never knew that." (hits head on desk) So I wish you luck and have fun!

Marisa A. said...

Yay that is awesome, so crazy that you're almost completely done being a graduate student! And BOYFRIEND?!?!?! What is this news?!?! :)

Carolina John said...

Great call! It's so nice to know what you are supposed to be doing. Enjoy!

Shoshanah said...

Congrats! I'm so excited for you that your starting to get into the class you and your career change in finally starting to happen. Crazy how quickly time flies by though, right? Especially since it feels like just yesterday I remember reading about you working at the mall.

And did you really just subtly drop the b-word in there?!?!

Crazy Shenanigans-JMO said...

Yay! That sounds like a wonderful position that you got! Congrats!!

Kyria @ Travel Spot said...

I'm sorry...did you say...boyfriend? Hello...when did this happen missy? Details!