Student Teaching: The last step in teacher preparation programs at Universities across the globe. All prospective student teachers have the same expectations: eager to learn students, fun classroom activities, and a classroom as beautifully setup as the ones seen on Pinterest. However, as a new student teacher myself, I am quickly learning of the little things that they forget to tell you during this pivotal experience.
The non-instructional duties, the paperwork, the IEP's and the 504 Plans, the early mornings, and the late nights.
Here are 10 things no one tells you about student teaching.
1) You will spend countless hours making copies.
Students, if you are reading this, never take advantage of the papers your teacher hands out. Never lose another worksheet, article, or handout.
Teachers, I feel your pain. As a student, I always had the idea that handouts, worksheets, and tests were readily available to teachers. As a student teacher, I realize that my view on handouts was wrong. You will spend countless planning periods, mornings, and after school hours making ninety copies of every handout. When a student loses one, you WILL cringe. The copy machine can be your best friend and your worst enemy at the same time. Word from the wise, ask an experienced teacher to help you before you have a paper jam for the fifteenth time.
2) Your sleep schedule will change.
You will find yourself going to bed before 9:00pm and feeling like a rebel when you stay out past 11:00pm. You'll question yourself when texting a fellow teacher of student teacher at 10:30pm because they might be sleeping. You will kiss your sleeping in late days goodbye because you'll be up at 6:00am even on a Sunday morning. Advice: It is okay to go to bed early even when your roommate is calling you lame.
3) You will fail, but you will also succeed.
Most, if not all student teachers, expect their student teaching experience to be perfect. WRONG. You will make mistakes (I've already made a lot of them). Your students will not want to listen to you right away, and they may even say you "aren't even a teacher yet." It will be okay. If a student laughs in your face, if a lesson is a complete flop, or if you just cannot control the class at all the first few days. It will get better. You will get better. You will succeed.
4) Your cooperating teacher is a saint, but he or she is also a real human being.
Your cooperating teacher or mentor teacher is a saint, and you should treat them accordingly. They welcomed you into their classroom, and they accepted the responsibility of training you to become a better teacher, but they are also living and breathing human beings. They will make mistakes, they will need your help, and they don't have it all together either. Many experienced teachers still get butterflies on the first day of school JUST LIKE YOU.
5) You will spend money upon money on your classroom experience.
It is not required to purchase supplies, decorations, or other materials for the classroom. Yet, you will find yourself saying, "This would be great for the class!" every time you go to Target or Staples. Whether it be pens, pencils, notebooks, or posters for the wall, you WILL spend your life savings and you WILL be happy about it.
6) You will quickly make teacher friends.
Teachers are a part of the most welcoming community there is. They eat lunch together, the hangout after school together, and they will offer to help you with anything you need. I cannot even count the number of times I've heard the words, "If you need anything, I am right down the hall!" in these past two weeks of student teaching. It will make your life a lot easier. Utilize the help and build friendships because they will last.
7) You will soon have a family.
You will notice that you start to referring to your students as "my kids." Whether they are good students, bad students, or seemingly unreachable, you will care for them like they are your own. You will care about whether or not they had breakfast that morning, why they seem distant in class, and you will beam with pride when you see a concept finally click in their head. Your kids will be your kids from now and all the way through the rest of their schooling and lives. They make a permanent impact on your life and on your heart whether they know it or not.
8) Your free time will be diminished.
Remember when you would go out to happy hour, watch TV with your significant other, or go out with your friends? Say goodbye to that for the next three months. Student teaching is a full time job and then some. When you aren't at school from 7:30am until 3:30pm, you are at seminars or workshops or spending hours in the library working on your dreaded student teaching assessment portfolio. However, it will be worth it! You will not want to trade these next three months for anything, and the beer will still be there when you graduate.
9) You will start using "teacher talk" at all times.
It is no secret that you need to use teacher language while teaching in school. What no one tells you is, you will be using teacher language at home, at work, and even when you are out with your friends. You will find yourself overly explaining things to adults as if they were students, feeling the need to discipline children misbehaving in the grocery store, and even neglecting to respond until the word Mr., Mrs., or Miss is put in front of your name. It is okay. You're a teacher!
10) YOU CAN DO IT!
There will be trials and tribulations. You will fall flat on your face, and there will be days where you feel like you just can't do it anymore. YOU CAN DO IT. Don't give up. Don't give in because you can do this, and it will be the most rewarding experience of your life.
So here's to you, student teachers! Even though there are a lot of things we are not prepared for when entering our student teaching experience, it is the BEST experience of our lives. Cheers to a new school year, and good luck!!
