Last time I checked in, I was feeling pretty confident about the lessons I learned through going away to college at IU, prepared for student teaching, and prepared for leaving for Costa Rica in March. Today, I'm stressed over lesson planning, observations, and money, PLUS a lovely coffee stain on her favorite pair of khaki pants…
Sometimes Mondays suck.
Sometimes I’ve run out of the house 5 minutes late to pick up my carpool, only to find my car covered in ice.
Sometimes I completely forget where I was going with a thought, and stand blank-minded in front of my students for what feels like 10 minutes (but is actually 10 seconds).
Sometimes I spill coffee on my favorite pair of pants during my first class of the day.
My fellow (and future) student teachers: IT’S ALL GOING TO BE OKAY!
There are bad teaching days and there are good teaching days. What you may think is a terrible day of teaching is the day a student comes up after class to say how good of a teacher they think you are. What you think is a great teaching day may also be the day that leaves students even more confused than when they first heard the word “Stoichiometry.”
One thing that the IU School of Education certainly taught me is that teaching is a whole lot of trial and error. It’s frustrating and forgiving, rewarding yet often thankless, and it takes an unusual amount of confidence and will-power to see the light at the end of the tunnel that is student teaching.
Someday we will have our own classroom where we get to call all the shots and set everything up the way we want it (under the guidance of school policy, or course). Someday we will have students come visit us after they have gone off to college, or send us an email just to say thanks. It will happen.
Regardless of the endless grading, the lessons that don’t work, the coffee spills, and the tears of frustration, we will find our homes in the classroom. We will find jobs (somewhere, somehow). We will continue the legacy of IU School of Education graduates, and help create a generation of well-versed, well-rounded, critically thinking citizens of the world.
For now I'll buy some Tide to-go and maybe throw away that mug that always leaks. There’s no sense in crying over spilled coffee.
WE. GOT. THIS.
Until next blog,
Claire
- For some inspiring teaching stories: Inspiring Teaching Stories
- A blog about post grad: The Tassel List
- A blog about a great IU education group Considering Education? Consider the INSPIRE LLC