During my third week of full-time teaching, I have learned a great deal about myself as a teacher. It still amazes me how much those little first graders teach me on a daily basis. One thing is for sure as well, in the teaching profession, there is not one day that goes by that at least one child within your classroom makes you smile. Lately school, work, and planning a wedding have been stressing me out. I feel as if I do not get enough sleep, my mind is just drained, and there are some mornings that it is a struggle to get myself in my car for that 60 minute drive. However, once I walk into Mason-Dixon and see the welcoming faculty members and that first student walks into the classroom, all of those worries, anxieties, and stressors just seem to vanish. I do not know if this is because I know that the students need me to be at my best in order to learn the most, or if it is just the fact that I love teaching so much it makes life a little bit better, but all in all that feeling is priceless!
Throughout this week, I began to feel even more comfortable with the students and I continue to learn more and more about them every day. Each child fascinates me with how their little mind thinks! Some of the sentences they come up with during our “word of the day” discussions truly amaze me. Some of those sentences are even beyond anything that I could think up of in a given amount of time. I am really looking forward to reading some of their writing stories based on the sentences we hear on a daily basis.
I have also learned a valuable lesson within the classroom regarding perseverance. Although there will be some students within the classroom that struggle on a daily basis, it is my job as an educator to not give up on these students. I also learned that when these students begin to pick up on the lesson/concept you have been trying to teach for a few days or weeks, it is the most amazing feeling once they accomplish it. You feel so proud of that child for accomplishing the task that you just smile from ear to ear! It is these kinds of teaching moments that I live for!
Not that this particular thought has to do with my first grade classroom or my internship per se this semester, but one other event that occurred this week that was eye-opening, was involving our tutor orientation. There are 5 upcoming tutors for Mason-Dixon and we had two separate orientations for the group. Both days, as I sat in on the meeting portion of the orientation, I could not believe how much more confidence and knowledge I have gained in regards to education. I could see the nervous, scared and uncertain look within the eyes of those tutors. Instead of myself being a part of the “listening” group, now I was in the seat in which I was the “professional.” The tutors were asking me for my insight and thoughts, and it finally hit me that I am at my final step before I become a teacher and have my own classroom. And for the first time since I have been at Mason-Dixon, that thought did not scare me. I know that I have the abilities, the knowledge, and the experience to have my own classroom. This made me feel so much better about myself in terms of teaching, and it also made me see how far I have become since I myself was sitting in that chair at tutor orientation. What a great feeling that was!
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