Part of the education program I am in involves student teaching. We spend the last semester of our senior year teaching five days a week in a elementary school classroom. I think I have looked forward to this moment since I walked into the Kindergarten class the first day I was observing first semester sophomore year. It’s not news to me that I love kids and I was going to be a teacher.
When I was home a few weeks ago, I found a white board with homework written on it and pretend quizzes with my American Girl doll’s names on them. I was playing school with inanimate objects, and failing them most of the time. It’s a good thing I am student teaching in a first grade class then.
That’s right. I will be assisting and eventually taking over a first grade class for one whole week. It’s like an internship, but with small children who look up to you and want to hear what you have to say. I know the first day will be exceptionally scary, but I am living with four fellow student teachers and while we joke that we will sip wine while writing lesson plans, make crafts all day and be going to bed at 10 PM and waking up at 6 AM, I think most of that will be true. Maybe 10 PM will be more like midnight, at least according to my friends student teaching now.
I have already decided that next year for Hanukkah and my birthday I am going to ask for classroom appropriate clothes and maybe a mug for coffee. Regardless of all these plans, I am just looking forward to finally doing what I have loved since I was eight. I am ready to check out of college and enter the real world with children, classrooms, whiteboards, colorful markers, and lots and lots of crafts.
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