Student teachers are special people. They’re caught between being a college kid and being a professional. It can be tough at times, but somewhere along the way, they realize just how important this job can be- but only after they find out what it’s really like to be a student teacher.
1. Our college friends don’t really understand.
We spend all day around kids and other teachers. We want to talk about testing and how little Johnny slept all through class. Every other college kid could care less. We often have to seek out other student teachers and relate with them.
2. Our schedules.
One semester we’re taking 18 credits and napping between class and the next semester we’re asleep by 10:30 every night in order to wake up at 6. We show up to school with coffee in hand and leave by four. The evenings are for prep, food, and recovering. The only thing getting us through the week is our weekends.
3. We’re “adulting” more than we want to.
We spend our days explaining to kids why they need to learn and why what we have to say is important. We have to deal with politics. We try to understand why lawmakers make the decisions they do when it comes to education. We drink too much caffeine. We whine about morning traffic. “Become an adult,” they said.
4. We become someone kids depend on.
For some kids, school is the only stability in their lives. We become a part of that stability. While kids might act out in class or give you a hard time, kids also notice when you’re gone. They can sense when you care about them and sometimes, they’ll open up to you. This is a teacher’s victory.
5. Teacher plan time is meditation.
We live for lunch and teacher plan time. Sure, we can get a lot done in the 45 minutes we get between classes, but let’s be real, amazon.com has great deals when you take the time to look.
6. Student teachers are still kids, too.
When I was a kid, I thought student teachers were old and had their lives together. Wrong. We just go through our days hoping our lesson plans will go like we hoped or that the fire alarm doesn’t go off. We’ve been thrown into a job that we don’t get paid for, but we’re learning just as much as the students are.
7. We struggle to relate.
Really, we’re only a few years older than our students, but this difference is totally noticeable when you hear the slang the kids use and the topics of conversation. We thought we were once hip, we’re not.
8. We’re tired.
This is tired on a whole new level. We exude so much energy during the day, sometimes we just need time to decompress. Our minds are on information overload. We also have a hard time leaving work at work, we think about our kids all of the time. Sometimes it’s exhausting.
9. We learn that nobody has the answer.
We spend years talking about theories and strategies in our college classes. When we finally step into a classroom of our own, we realize that these were nice to talk about, but nothing is as easy as it seemed. No one really knows what is best all of the time.
10. We’re afraid to mess up.
We want to learn and become better teachers, but we don’t want to make huge mistakes, either. We put ourselves in front of ruthless, observant kids who will call you out for your mistakes. We have to remember that it’s okay to mess up every once and awhile.
11. Kids are amazing.
Every single day they teach us something new. They make us think and push us to new limits. They’re smart, little humans with a lot to say. Kids really are amazing, and when we realize this, we fall in love with teaching even more.
