The craziness in my life began with student teaching. I can now happily say I lived through my student teaching which was the hardest part of my college experience. Before I started student teaching, many people told me it was going to be horrible, and I would cry, and it would be the hardest time ever. Well, they were right! It was 5 months of stress, hard work, and sometimes crying (but not too much). It was also extremely rewarding at times though and the best feeling in the world when I finished!
I student taught Freshmen at J.B. Castle High School, in Kaneohe, HI. Every morning, I would wake up at 6 am, get dressed and ready, and then drive the hour to Kaneohe with my two carpool friends, Kaelee and Andrea. We all student taught at the same school and I don't think I could have gotten through this experience without them! Being able to talk about our experiences, which we had some pretty crazy ones, really made us close.
Once at school, I would head to my classroom, room 37, and meet with my Cooperating Teacher, Shiloh Richardson. I feel extremely blessed for being placed with Shiloh as my CT. She is an incredible teacher and really cares about her students. She was a great help to me and was always willing to do anything she could to help me. She was also very kind and positive and would always cheer me up when I was having a hard day, either with a pep talk or a handful of chocolates.
The students in my classes were in a group called an Academy. They were put in this group because of behavior problems or low test scores from middle school. Because of this, my classes all contained a majority of students with extreme behavior issues. My CT, thought a very good teacher and very sweet, had trouble disciplining the students. Because of this, when I began teaching, I had to get them used to a strict discipline system. Not easy for a classroom full of wild teenagers! Over the months I struggled with this, but was able to develop a system to keep them disciplined.
Though student teaching was harder than I could have imagined, it was also very fun and rewarding and I learned to really love my students. Here are some of my LOVES from student teaching:
-being able to joke around with the students (whenever I was sarcastic they always believed me, which was really funny)
-helping students in class and after school and being able to see how happy they were when they did well
-having students tell me I was their favorite teacher and that they didn't want me to leave
-emails from my students after I left, saying they missed me
-having an awesome CT to work and collaborate with
-being able to talk to my sister, Melissa, for help (she student taught in Waialua)
-going on field trips with the students (on which my students tried to set me up with a military guy.. ha ha)
-hearing the hilarious things the students would say
-getting cards and gifts on my last few days
-helping students feel confident about themselves
-my last day of being observed and having it go well (I danced around in the bathroom that day, I was so happy)
-feeling the accomplishment of finishing student teaching and being able to graduate
I had a lot of awesome students and I feel so grateful that I had the opportunity to get to know them and hopefully help them and make a difference in their lives. Teaching these students taught me how blessed I was in the way that I grew up. I have an amazing family that supports me in all that I do. We have always had a nice home to live in and plenty of food to eat. Many of my students did not have this same experience. So many of my students lived with grandparents or an aunt, or crammed in a home with way too many people. Some didn't have homes to live in. A lot of my students were very poor and didn't have money for food. Many had parents that beat them if they got in trouble. Many students had parents that were into alcohol and drugs. Many had parents that didn't care if they went to school or what they did. Because of these sad environments they were brought up in, these students were rough on the outside. As I got to know them, though, I learned that though they acted tough, they still wanted the same thing as anyone, to be appreciated. I tried, and hopefully succeeded, to help each of my students to feel loved and appreciated. This is what I feel was the most important thing I did during student teaching.
No comments:
Post a Comment