🎵We don't need no thought control! 🎵 I had to keep going lol
Anyhow! Howdy there loves!
As you may know from my bio, teaching is one of my greatest passions. I want to talk to you a little about how my teaching career started and that means revisiting the college days.
I had an idea of what I was getting into when I started the education program and then realized quickly after a couple courses I actually didn't really know what to expect. Ad a primary and secondary student I never stopped to think, what do my teachers have to do to prepare for our lesson or how they studies about Piaget, a name I never heard of before college. You really have to understand the cognitive process, again what the heck was that before college. in all it's glory. It's not just method and application, following a textbook, it's really getting to know each and every student and having THEM teach you.
My internships taught me many things, but the most important thing it taught me is the teacher I didn't want to become. My first internship I had a sweet mentor and she really showed me how much I truly loved teaching kindergarten. Unfortunately during internship 1 you only spend half a semester 3 days a week with that mentor and her class. I wish I could've spent internship 2 with her because she made me LOVE being there every day. That internship was at a Title 1 school. The building was old, the kids were low income, the neighborhood was sketch, you get it. I don't give a flying hoot because it's not where you teach, it's how you teach. I learned that quickly during internship 2.
During my second internship my mentor was no help at all. The school was cliquey, all they cared about was the state test and being an A school, and my mentor didn't ever let me take the reigns of the class. In your second internship your supposed to full on teach the class for that semester. Nope, didn't happen. I had so many ideas and came up with these amazing strategies and projects I would use with the curriculum but she said "no, stick to the textbook, we don't have time for projects." There was SO much more that happened during that internship (that I won't get into because I've already wasted enough time on it) but those "teachers" weren't going to dissuade me from being the best educator I knew I could be. I did what was asked of me and more! No way was I lettting a good experience get away from me. I would make sure to push through and give those students the teacher and education they deserved. I did just that. TWO weeks after I graduated I was offered a position as a kindergarten teacher at a local science charter school to which I applied; I was finally where I was meant to be. I didn't care that it was a new elementary school and inside of an office complex! That just intrigued me further and I couldn't wait to be a part of this school only in their second year. I spent nearly every single day that summer preparing my room, looking at the curriculum, creating projects for the first couple weeks of school, and gleaming like I never had. Let's just say, that first year my husband would have to beg me to come home at the end of the day. That's because I LOVED what I was doing. So if you're reading this please don't let someone discourage you from your true passion, no matter what it may be.
To THIS day I stay in touch with my first kindergarten class. Military life has made it a little hard to visit my cuties because when I go home I only have a couple days at best to see my family (thank God for social media otherwise I'd never see my little owls!). I am REALLY looking forward to going home this year because I really want to spend a day at the most magical place on Earth with my sweeties...who are now THIRD graders! I can't believe it!
Stay tuned to hear about that first year in kindergarten in another post 😉 .....
I hope you enjoyed and found some inspiration in my #TeachingPost