Student Teaching: Full Documentary

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you good morning everybody this is the first day of student teaching I'm excited I'm not that nervous because I was with Miss Wilson last last semester for about two months so the kids know me and I'll help them remember me we'll see how that goes but I've made my lunch I got my coffee got my nametag and we should be ready to go see y'all later hi guys so today is officially the first day of school the kids are back from break and I'm excited to see how the day goes I'm excited to start building those relationships with students it'll be really interesting I was running late because I didn't really engage time well and I couldn't get an earring in that one in so morning leader Miss balding is gonna be with her reading group I'm with my reading group if you need to ask a friend for help more power to you but it should be like one question maybe a 2-minute interruption and then you're back to doing what you're doing today is Tuesday June 8th and today my first student teaching [Music] so is hiring and there's just a lot of different personalities in there and I think it's gonna be a really great semester I feel like unprepared really right now and I think that's kind of how a lot of my classmates outgoing into student teaching we just feel like oh my goodness now it's like legit and we have to teach and you know plan lessons and do all this stuff so what kind of everything just hit me today like I'm good at me doing this from the beginning school bell to the end and it's exciting when it's nerve-racking yesterday was my first day of teaching I get to you know meet the kids for the first time and you know I played a little game with them to try to get you know so I could start remembering names and everything went great but I came home last night got sick and then was throwing up all night so what they say about schools is in fact true that there's a bunch of kids run around with with a lot of germs and they don't wash their hands one thing I learned as a teacher is to always have you know hand sanitizer and taking your vitamins and then washing your hands all the time because it was pretty miserable being that sick what they said it was true schools or schools are dirty kids kids are dirty and I will I've definitely learned my lesson so hopefully next time I talk to you guys I've got better news and I'm feeling a little bit better so see you then [Music] hi my name is Holly Morris and per student teaching I'll be heading home to Hutchinson Kansas and in a fourth-grade classroom so I grew up in Hutchinson Kansas that's always felt like home my boys enjoyed being home with my family I've always had such a good experience with teachers the school districts and the people around me just kind of encouraging me and telling me that education is a good path for me my fifth grade teacher for sure mrs. Malan I remember my family was kind of having a little bit of a rough time and she just kind of took me under her wing and kind told me that everything was gonna be okay she was just that sense of comfort and I'll always remember that my parents never went to a four-year university they both went to a two-year technical college school for my family they always kind of expected my sisters and I to do good it wasn't a pressure but just that little push we needed to always do our best and I never felt like I would disappoint them in any way that was just kind of ingrained in me that school was important they boys just kind of encouraged me throughout my education and into college and they're just super excited for me now I want to be a teacher because I truly feel like it's something that I was called to do I just want to be a positive influence and a light and all of my students lives just that push they need to know that learning is fun and good and just you know I think being the light is kind of its lacking right now and students could always use that I was actually on time today but I was speeding in a school zone so I started off my morning with a nice lovely ticket on a Friday morning but the rest of the Friday went great and I can honestly say that just seeing the kids makes it even makes me forget about the ticket until after school of course until right now but that being said the past two days has just really been about building their relationships with students and getting to know the students names getting to know their personalities and what their strengths and weaknesses are my biggest worry right now is just discipline my cooperating teacher has been really good about expressing that hey I want you to step in whenever you can and even though she says it's still just a little bit uncomfortable so I'm excited for next week when we really get more into all of the academics of school and hopefully next week I can report that I don't have any speeding tickets and that I'm not late to school as a cooperating teacher I see my role as being not only somebody who's modelling for somebody coming in but also again building that relationship and just trying to be as transparent and as honest with that student-teacher as possible you want to put your best foot forward you wanted to see or him to see you know how great everything is but it's not and it's okay calling the fire department that would mean I was taking what her being on fire literally or figuratively [Music] again I've said that several times over the course of the years you know what today wasn't the best tomorrow will be better I try to let them know I don't put it on the kids put it on yourself how can you be better tomorrow because the kids are coming they're just being who they are you know and so it's like even though you might feel like well I worked hard on this lesson plan you know why didn't it go right well you're gonna have days like that so just know that and just say tomorrow will be a better day and we'll come at it from a different direction really for me it has helped me learn to give up a little bit of control I am a very structured routine oriented person and when you bring another person into the classroom you do have to let go of some of that but I think that's important for me but it's also really important for the students to get that other perspective of somebody that might have a different teaching style I'm not even concerned about the accents I'm concerned about these are not getting I think the cooperating teacher is a very important role because you are exposing the students to their first interaction in a real classroom they will have to take responsibilities that they never took before it is so important that first exposure of these students in the classroom because the cooperating teacher will be able to guide them when you teach you have to have the classroom management you have to be able to talk to a student and at the same time pay attention to everything that is going around you because you are responsible for those students so the role of a cooperating teacher I think is very interesting because it's it's the line of one being an educator to the student teacher themselves but also being a friend and a confidant for the student teacher one aspect you always want to make sure that you are helping and aiding the student teacher in their endeavors but also you want to make sure that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing so it's this very interesting calm of being a teacher and a friend at the same time [Music] kevin was a very compassionate kid very friendly he would always go to places and introduce himself to other people I always like to be around kids his age he was born in Puerto Rico and then I joined the military when he was 5 years old so then we moved to the States and he grew up for the most part in Texas he taught swim lessons to young kids and adults and I think that made him want to become a teacher boy you're my boy yo adios mi boy pero tenemos un dia mas c vamos a las máscaras de los equipos that the fourth day I hope to bring authenticity to the table when I'm teaching Spanish and ultimately humor I like to make people smile and laugh and feel good and I believe that just a simple smile can change the whole person's life around I think it's gonna be a great teacher I think it's gonna be one of those teachers that can feel relationship with the students and really connect to them he's gonna touch many lives and make a difference as teacher okay we're good it is hard work and sometimes it's hard I you and you feel like you want to give up but then at the end of the day when the kids come back in his cage talking in Spanish or they come back to you and thank you for something you know that it was all worth it the fact that he finished his degree he persevered it's a very positive person all those qualities bringing from today it was actually the first day I taught my first lesson so that was exciting I knew I knew I was gonna do that today I had been watching my cooperating teacher mr. Rick's teach this lesson to a couple classes so he told me hey just you know teach what I taught you know he kind of just handed me handing me the reins for for a class period and to to say the least it didn't go as what did not go well I did not live up to my expectations historians believe that close to 50% of all their deaths were were due to starvation that a lot of it was was this you know I got up in front of class and I thought I knew my content I was looking at the first slide and I was just drawing a blank I didn't know what today because I didn't make the slides myself my teacher did he's the one that created the talking points and you know I thought I could just kind of emulate what he was doing I got that first slide and I drew a blank I forgot the election of 1920 I couldn't remember who wanted I'll just kind of standing there with a blank look on my face I was so focused on trying to do exactly what my teacher did I was trying to use the same jokes and it just did not come off as authentic one of the students came up to me afterwards and said hey man just a little tip of advice we're just a bunch of teenagers we have little to no idea what you're talking about so if you just go up there with some confidence and and and and teach to us he's like we're not gonna know what you're saying is true or false we're gonna believe you but if you go up there timid and scared talking to us he's like we're not gonna believe you and we're gonna it kind of hit me hard as like wow like my first lesson and a student's already you know giving me tips on how to teach better it is those kind of a humbling experience [Music] hi we're the Fran's family and we're the proud parents of Scot France we have three boys and Scott is our youngest raising a house full of boys was never quiet and as they grew the grocery bill during the teen years was frightening and going to lots of sports activities Scott was more compassionate not that the others weren't but more so of him even in elementary he had some autistic kids in his class and his teachers would call me and say that just really seems to have a connection with them is it okay if we you know have him help them that was kind of a sign that that was just his area I knew Scott had compassion and I knew that you know being good in sports I think that would tie well in with his coaching and I think he wants to coach as well and I just thought what a great fit that would be if he you know would tie that all together and and follow through with teaching and coaching you know it's not easy to go into teaching when I think through k-state football I think that gives him a great understanding of working through challenges and setting goals and I think he does a great job with that and I think he'll do a great job teaching young individuals in the classroom and on the field we felt bad you know that you couldn't help your country out yes I think he has the ability to not just look at what is happening with with that child right then how they're reacting but trying to look beyond or around that of what's causing that's just a different mindset that you have to have sometimes you don't know what they're going through their life their challenges and sometimes people just see them in the hallway or in different situations and settings and and judge them and I think what Scott brings is a lot of understanding and an ability to see what that person can truly be and not just what they are in that moment and I think with all teachers they have a real patience and understanding and vision that they can see the good and everything and so I think Scott really has that quality where he sees the good in people we've seen all the work that he's put in to get to where he's at right now and you know playing at k-state it's been a great experience and it's gonna be a four-year starter at left tackle I mean I don't think that's ever been done in the recent history and and just his desire and work ethic and his god-given ability has put him in a situation to do that hopefully you know there might be some years after k-state finishes up this year but you know he always has I'd agree to go back to and I think he'll do a great job in the classroom because they'll build a relationship with kids and I think it'll be a great experience when that time comes help enjoy going into teaching so I went to bed last night thinking hey tomorrow's gonna be another normal day of me just kind of sitting and observing and just getting a feel of the classroom but no I got a text from my cooperating teacher about 5:30 in the morning saying hey I'm gonna be gone today my daughter is sick and I need to stay home and take care of her so I'm not sure if there's gonna be a sub or not but hopefully there is just to have someone there for you but so I was kind of in panic mode this morning and then I realized that there would be a sub and I was like okay that's kind of cool and then in her instructions she was like but he's going to be more of your help rather than me helping him so in other words I kind of just took over the classroom today I was the substitute being in my classroom you know these kids teach you what to do more so than you could ever learn just sitting in a classroom hearing about classroom management just learning how to deal what works best for this kid and dealing with what works best for this kid it's not all the same classroom management for me is one thing that I'm probably not as good at just because I'm such a laid-back guy I'm a very personal guy I noticed as you develop relationships with kids they'll test you you know they'll they'll kind of walk that line see what they can get away with it's so easy to get off test in Spanish class and sometimes I think I'm nice but I'm definitely getting better at it lot not pacion when I think of my own classroom management style I think I'm more on the strict side hey let's try that again go back into the hall and walk into it it's definitely definitely a lovingly strict but it is stricter so when you're in education we're always worried about classroom management and one of the techniques that I have learned this semester is team points so we came back from winter break and the students in their new groups all formed a name and that's their name for the rest of the year and then you know if they're doing something right if they're going at it with efficiency following directions at the end of the day we find the team with the most points and then the next day they have some sort of reward I use attention getters just to make sure everybody's on the same page so I'll do the three to one call do you know waterfall waterfall or call eyes on me soccer there's attention getters for kindergartners there's attention getters for high schoolers okay good morning guys first of all for pre-k and all that they you know they say all eyes on me or at school let's put bubbles in our mouths and you know they get quiet for high schoolers if you say that they're gonna look at you like what so the first week I thought the way she got the students attention by clapping she was doing it great I felt a little awkward doing it but this is the third week now and I do it with no problem anything to like just get their attention and they know look at me and so we can move on and go forward so I'm from Hutchinson Kansas I grew up there it was a small enough town where you knew everyone I'm very close to my family my two older sisters are very close to me one lives in Texas with her husband and my older sister Turner has been up two kids so I love being an aunt growing up I always knew I wanted to live in a bigger city I love Chicago in New York and I just knew I wanted that big city life I've just always known that I wanted to be a teacher and I knew I wanted to teach in the inner city and my parents have always supported me and that she worked for a ministry in our church and they worked with kids that were lower income maybe had a parent that wasn't in the house she just had a heart for kids and out of that flowed her desire to be a teacher so she had her first week of student teaching and she was really nervous about moving to Kansas City new school everybody was new but I talked to her than after her first week and she started sharing some stories and she told me how much she misses the kids already after the first week and she can't wait to get back on Monday and be with them and I named she's gonna be an awesome teacher I'm a pilot with Southwest Airlines and I've been a pilot for probably 25 years ago I can see things happen now that I see some of the younger guys they're flying with me don't see coming student teaching for months that's hot she's a she's got a steep learning curve but just like with my job in any job it's gonna get better and better as she goes and I think that she'll just add new pieces to that every year to make the experience for the kids better I'm proud of her perseverance helping others and making a difference she's going after that dream probably what I'm most proud about with Hannah and her enthusiasm she's channeled all that energy into helping other people this last week I had to deal with something that was I don't know just kind of intense my teacher was out of the room and so it was Friday and we have lunch in the classroom on Fridays for fun Friday if they're you know if they've been behaving correctly for the week I was eating with them and I heard a boy call another boy a girl and everyone in the class heard it and I just kind of looked at him in disbelief like did you really just say that and this boy who was called a girl he just shut down he laid his head down and just automatically started crying and so I'm looking for my teacher first of all I'm in shock about what this boy said my teachers not in the room and all the kids are looking at me and so I pulled this boy over and I you know just said like hey whoa what is going on like why did you say those hurtful things he just said he was joking and everything and that bothered me just to see this kid shut down and then this cannot be very sorry about it it just it kind of hurt me and that's when I realized that I must really care about these kids because if they are bringing each other down tearing each other down it hurts me too and so my teacher said that's a good feeling to have because that means you care about these kids we had a staff meeting with five or six of the social studies teachers and one of the teachers was late and she had a student that came to her crying and she was just bawling her eyes out talking about how she feels like she doesn't have any friends and how she feels like you know no one cares for her and she felt so you know misplaced and insecure but what really stuck out to me was as you know as the teacher was talking about this not incident but the event that happened she said her name and I was just sitting in the back of this meeting like oh my gosh like I I just talked to this girl no more than one hour two hours ago she actually came up to me and was like oh hey uh I'm here I just wanna let you know but you know I'm gonna go to different classroom and work on some homework just tell mr. Rick's I checked in I'm gonna go to the classroom next door you know I had no idea I came to the realization that's so important for us teachers to really get to know our student and really get to know them on a personal level you know maybe I could have made her day saying oh hey how's your day going it just goes to show that it really does matter to the students how much their teachers care about them one afternoon my cooperating teacher left me alone it's like the first time on my own officially and by the end of the day we had two girls in tears I was like oh my gosh my teacher leaves me alone for one afternoon and there are two in tears but one of the girls just really opened up about how she's been feeling bullied and how she feels suicidal sometimes and just hearing a fifth grader say that it wasn't anything that I would have even considered in fifth grade like I knew of suicide but it's just so prevalent in our world now and people are just so aware of it just I wasn't expecting that conversation to come up but in a way I'm glad it did because I was able to talk to her and just be like my cooperating teacher and I want you here we love you here you always have a place here you're safe here like and I never realized how true that is for the majority of kids like they'll feel so much more at home at school our relationship since then has just taken off it's good to know that she trusts me enough to confide in me I really wanted to become a teacher because of my mom she is an elementary school teacher and my mom really influenced me to become an educator hi I am joy May Johnson I have been teaching for 34 years I am the proud mother of Angela Johnson Angela was very outspoken if something came up and and she didn't agree with it she would certainly give you her opinion that was a good thing because I think it made her a stronger individual she loved to play outside and she and her sister would play in my classroom after school and pretend to be teachers she has always enjoyed helping others not just in a school setting but she has always been the go-getter or wanting to help other people I think that was something that made her realize that she wanted to be in front of a group of students and share that love of math and other subjects as well I am really excited to just be in a classroom where the teacher her area of concentration is math and so I can't wait to see it her be passionate about what I'm passionate about I've spent so much time during my college career studying mathematics now I'm just worried about covering all of the other contents for fifth grade I am very proud of her because she always pushes herself and I'm very proud of her for becoming a teacher because as I'm leaving the profession retiring and knowing that my my daughter is going to be in the classroom to help children and is probably one of the greatest things that I could could possibly dream up student teaching provides the avenue of success in teaching it's important it gives you that opportunity to not necessarily fail but to understand that it's okay not to know immersion in any capacity is a good thing whether it's a foreign language whether it's teaching or being a doctor or whatever when you can have a fellowship or a mentorship or some kind of immersion in what you want to learn that is the best and easiest way to learn and that's what student teaching is I remember when I was a student teacher I was told if you're ever gonna try something try it now because you know my cooperating teacher was there to help me and that's things that I would like to my student teachers to do as well you know if you want to try something that you're afraid of doing now would be the best time to do it because there's someone else in the room that can help you failure really lets you move forward and life and it's not just a teaching in any aspect of life whenever you try something and you fail you learn from it you know my lectures became better because I failed that first time so failing forward is just it's almost a necessary step that you have to take in order to become better failure will happen at any time in your life even as a teacher I am going to fail big-time but it's what we decide to learn from that moment that will turn our lives and that will make us better we tell kids all the time we learn from our mistakes but if you're having mishaps and you adapt and grow from that and you're showing that you're a learner and a teacher at the same time I've tried to stress to the student teachers that it's okay to have a bad day you know and it's okay to say even to apologize to the kids and say you know what we're gonna do better tomorrow and it's okay for them to see you you know not not be your best you know because you're human in order for a student teachers semester to go well I really believe that the student teacher should seek out as much as they can it's your student teaching semester and and treat it as such you want to gain as much as you can from that semester so if you ever want to go that extra mile just do it student teaching is very important because you're learning how the classroom actually works how to do your routines how to deliver instruction how to deal with you know those students they are making counterproductive decisions in your classroom how to communicate with parents you're learning a lot of different things teaching is a tough job and it's a high-stakes job and it's a serious matter [Music] there's a fine line to building relationship with kids and being their educator yes you can build relationships but also you should focus on being that adult that's teaching them whether it's student teaching or your first classroom I think relationships are the first thing that you should focused on so those first two weeks you know they're there for us to build the relationships for the kids and so I really wanted to know names you know you talked to a kid the very first day and it's like hey I know your name is Marlon you know and and she's like oh my goodness I have no idea who you are but you know my name it's like boom there's an automatic connection if you don't put yourself out there and start creating and building those relationships right away then I feel like you're always gonna feel distanced they're not gonna feel like this is a teacher in my classroom they're just gonna think this is an observer it was interesting the first day I got here it was quite obvious that that I played some sort of sport at Kansas State they're like oh my gosh like how tall this guy is and how big this guy is it was really good for me because it's started to let me build relationships with my students especially with the male athletes they had an instant connection of wow this guy's a division 1 football player looking back on things I wish I would have kind of opened myself up sooner first I kind of had a barrier between myself and my students I was just kind of locked up and it was until I became a lot more comfortable in this environment a lot more comfortable with my students that I began to open up and once I did that you know I became a better teacher they need to respect you need to obey you and to not just be their friend I've honestly noticed that some who I have friended it seems more difficult to tell them to follow the rules [Music] it is the morning of the day I have my first formal evaluation kind of nervous just the word observed I'm going to be coming to observe you you know it just kind of freaks me out and makes me kind of stress out even more so I was just really scared what if you know my kids are bad what if you know this is gonna happen or this is gonna happen I probably spent too long on my lesson plan I went through every detail just to make sure it was perfect making sure all the modalities are there you know getting the kids out of their seats using technology and then I'm just thinking not every lesson is gonna be as detailed as this last week is rough first of all I got observed again [Music] because I got nervous I got really nervous and I let that nervousness take the best of me and my Harper teacher says that I stood there like a board and then second hour I was fine I was engaging with the students and I was laughing with them and I was having a good time my carpet teacher even told me that it was like night and day that's like in my CT mitsuko she was just very helpful just like you know this is what you're doing you know you do this every single day you know you're just having one more person watching it was fine and my kids did great and she told me I was a natural my first formal observation went really well and I'm just looking forward to the rest of the semester I don't know why that felt so good to get it done but it did my supervisor said that it's nearly impossible to get a 100% engagement from all the students most the time you only get 80 to 90 percent and that was kind of encouraging it's not me if the kids aren't fully engaged and it's pretty impossible it was just so good to hear her say like this is what you are supposed to be doing teachers make mistakes you know lessons aren't always going to be perfect and I just think that's just so good to know because I I try to be a perfectionist but teachers are always learning and I think that's so cool because my teachers been teaching 22 years and you know she's still learning things it's important to be a professional during student teaching I think because you are transitioning from being a college student to being a professional and that was kind of hard for me because I had to get out of the college mindset but now it's like I want to do well it's student teaching I want people to see me as an individual fit for this profession and in our block seat they really emphasize that so I think just making that transition I'm no longer a college student and I am a role model I need to be positive for these kids not only how I dress but how I talk and how you act we made a great fourth grade Facebook page and on the groups that we're using our personal accounts so we had a marketing team come and make sure you set it to private make sure you're looking at what you posted kind of deal because those are things that happen even as a fourth grade teacher they may not be looking at your Facebook but parents are definitely curious to see who's the new student teacher in their classroom last time I talked to you guys I talked to you about how I'm trying to get to know my students more let me tell you it goes both ways my students are definitely trying to get to know me more in a good way and also kind of in a weird way kids nowadays they don't hold back they look you up on Google they type in your name on Twitter Facebook they were you know searching through all my tweets trying to get to know like know if they're trying to get to know me or try to find something funny I'm not really sure but yeah students are pretty ruthless when it comes to a invasion of privacy one important thing that I have dealt with this week is boundaries the other day the student he knows somehow that I am getting married and then he comes out and he says hey he said first of all I says my first name he said hey Kevin can I come to your bachelor party yeah and as soon as he said that not good my corporate sure did not like that and I didn't like it either you know comments like that can get you in a big trouble and yep so that's that's like one of the biggest thing is knowing with that boundaries I think it makes a difference when you're a part of a community the investment you have within that community like I have three children within our district I want our district to be the absolute best that it can be for my own kids and when I hire teachers I worked hard to hire teachers that I would be proud to put my own children in their classroom our team wants a teacher that student-focused that bases their decision on what's best for each student not for what's best for them as a teacher not what's best for the content but that they have a heart for students and their ability to learn are kids that come from poverty have some additional challenges and they need a greater level of love and care and support and it takes a teacher with a big heart to be able to bounce back day after day and provide that kind of support to kids we can teach things about instruction and classroom management and provide support so we can teach that part but you can't teach heart sometimes it's simple if they don't get at home and so we have to make sure that we find a ways to give it to them at school you have children that are at different learning levels but also you have children who are at different levels emotionally socially emotionally and you have to be able to be in tune with those with the kids and you have to be able to be willing to get to know them in order to be able to reach them it's important for me that they have a growth mindset that they don't have preconceived notions of what a student can and should be able to do until you walk in the shoes of that student's life you don't know what they bring in the doors every day I see a lot of young teachers come in and they know physics or how to write a wonderful paper but you can't get to the content until you've mastered the art and science of relationship building and classroom management students crave structure they crave discipline particularly those that don't have it outside of school they want it and they need it teaching is not friendship leadership is not friendship and so when they can see that you have that kind of connection with them they'll do cartwheels down the hallway for you but as soon as they see that you don't really care you're not genuine in your heart you've lost them teaching is such a powerful and important career and I know that education is a hard field to be a part of but there are so many benefits to creating great opportunities for kids and to establishing foundations that children will use for the rest of their lives you get to be that person that builds that and that is powerful beyond words [Applause] today was probably the hardest day student teaching yesterday my teacher was sick and I didn't find out until I was on my way to school and my university supervisor was coming to watch me teach a lesson and I don't know what happened after lunch but we had some major behavior just between two students we've just been having a lot of bickering going on people getting into other people's business when they're not needed but I just felt like I was not as kind as I wanted to be today I had to get after students so we did a science experiment I had some kids who didn't even want to do it didn't want to do the experiment didn't want to do this assignment didn't want to do a flip grid and I had a hard time with that actually I'd never dealt with that so it's just I don't really know how to do things just completely by myself like that I like still had to rely on someone but even going to the bathroom like one time I my teacher was gone and I need to ask Miss mitchellson fourth grade teacher across the hall to just keep an eye on my kids cuz I to go to the bathroom so bad and just things like that you don't think about and until you're in it and you're experiencing it it's just it's crazy and you know it was hard on all my kids day because I seriously love them I I want the best for them I want them to to learn as much as they can while I'm here and I I hope that I'm just effective in doing that in being here one of the most difficult things about the semester was as you become closer with your students you begin to know more about them and sometimes that can be good and sometimes it can be heartbreaking because a lot of kids especially in my special education classrooms come from some rough situations and a lot of times these kids they didn't get like the right education when they're younger they didn't have the right you know supporting cast I had kids they come to school and the same clothes you know they're obviously not getting the food that they need and that that's the most difficult thing as seeing problems that you can't fix I had one of my students pass away and that was extremely difficult that stuff really kind of gets to you obviously growing up in high school you hear about people's you know family members passing away and as tragic as that was it's a whole different ball game when when you're a teacher because you you have a different connection with these kids a lot of unexpected you know things happen because when you're dealing with hundreds of kids you're subjected as a teacher to a lot of different people's lives and the tragedies that can occur that's something I never really thought about just the kind of baggage that that you either learn about or just the things that randomly happen I think it's so important for student teachers any teachers to understand that we can't be perfect nobody's perfect and that's just it's a standard that we'll never meet but it's knowing that we can come back the next day and start fresh we have the opportunity to start fresh and inspire those kids that we might not have inspired the day before there is always new opportunity with every day this semester Scott really tried some out-of-the-box things he really embraced creativity things such as maybe annotated timelines one-pagers even protest posters the thing that I really liked about Scott was is the relationship that he had with the students on numerous occasions I would just sit back and listen to the conversations that he was having with students I've learned a lot from mr. Rick's in terms of classroom management mr. Rick is a great laid-back guy but there's also a drill sergeant in the military for a handful of years so he can be very demanding when he wants to one thing I've learned in terms of classroom management is it's easier to ease up and give students but longer leash than it is to take leash away from them with Kevin I have learned his passion for technology he loves to incorporate a lot of Technology when you can see it in his face when he does is that love for technology I've learned to explore new options just because Kevin was there and I appreciate that I've learned a lot from miss Wilson but the most important thing that I learned so far is that your last class will always be your best class because your first hour you're teaching and then you realize some things that you didn't do or you didn't get to do and then second hour you fix it you perfect that and then as each class goes by you're getting better and better better at it helen has taught me just the honesty I you think in the transparency and they're not being afraid to ask questions and every day she comes with a smile it takes me back but I was student teaching in Cedar Rapids Iowa having a cooperating teacher there to kind of guide you through it as always a good thing anytime mr. Poole was talking I just wish I could like remember that you know like oh I'm gonna need to know that for this next year I just wanted to soak it all up you know during the time that I was here having miss Johnson this semester I think the biggest thing she taught me is more informal assessment instead of the homework and the worksheets I've always been a big proponent of sending homework home but I've really in the last couple years tried to get away from that and she did a really great job of incorporating assessment within her lesson to know what the kids have learned that they still met the objectives and there was evidence of that the learning the intern learns from the cooperating teacher but the lessons cooperating teacher can learn from the interns I think that's just an opportunity for everybody involved to just be a better teacher and a better person one of the things that I've observed from my cooperating teacher that I really want to continue in my own classroom is to just be consistent kids notice if you have one expectation and you don't follow up on it that damages the relationship so just consistency the biggest lesson I've learned from watching how she sets the classroom community I'm learning it that it's so important for them to feel that sense of community to be kind to each other and if they know and they have that expectation that they're to be kind to each other then everything else just goes much smoother what's up doc first the Future student teachers make sure you thank them make sure you let them feel that everything they've done for you you've appreciated it and you've learned from it you know make them feel good because they're taking the time out from their schedule to actually teach you teaching requires you to be on every time you're around your kids if you can give it your full attention and give it all your efforts that's the best way to get the most out of your experience I feel like student teaching is kind of a giant job interview it is your real-life experience in a classroom where you get to compile everything that you've learned in the previous semesters and put it in action I think when a students come in to us when teaching a hundred percent and really maximize that learning time from that is student teaching time that you have always come open mind I did my student teaching having five children and there were days that I couldn't go to my son's soccer games because I had to study to teach my lessons or I had to grade and I know it's hard but this is going to be your job so it is only a semester I don't think you can place enough emphasis on how important it is to plan and prepare for lessons and then after you implement those lessons be reflective and take more time to reflect on how it went and what you could have done better so that when you go back and redo that lesson it's better each time I can see also the survival mode of I need to work because I got to pay the bills I see that in a college student but maybe something else gets cut back maybe social time gets cut back if you work you might be tired when you are teaching and those little moments they're just you're not even are aware of that because you are tired so just commit a hundred percent you have to know that anything worth having is going to require hard work and time if you really commit a hundred percent to your student teaching experience your whole journey will be ten times better in the sense that you will invest in your profession so I just finished making some little goodbye gifts for my kiddos and I'm slightly getting a little bit more sentimental and those are gifts for my CT and then the other fifth-grade teacher it is a Friday it is the last day of student teaching and I walked in this morning to this for the graffiti wall that one's really sentimental but the rest of them I think would be good [Music] just got to my car it feels weird to know that I won't have anything to do next week besides work I got lots and lots of hugs from people I didn't even expect to get hugs from a lot of kids got more sentimental than I expected I cried twice but happy tears for sure and I'm about to drive off from Bluemont for the last time as a student teacher so next time I come back I will be a middle school math and science teacher or somewhere else and I will just be a visitor so it'll be weird but good day good semester people aren't kidding when they say they have a special place in your heart so I'm just gonna miss the kids I love their personalities they're so sweet they each are also unique and have different talents and to just see them thriving in the classroom academically some of them have just wowed me I mean it's just seeing like where they're gonna go and so just waking up every day you know it just became a norm and you know just that not happening anymore it will just be really weird not being around them I got done with elementary school yesterday and I wanted to show you guys what I made my kids do so here we got something the rain like Juvia that's supposed to be a penguin at Pinguino and Seoul and over here they actually I didn't tell them the label some of them did they labeled and lay on la lluvia pretty nice that Delphine they kind of spelled it wrong that's okay from the first week I was there till the last week I was there they knew it all and that really surprised me and it made me so proud that they were actually learning and it felt good it felt really good and I think that's one of the one of the best things about being a teacher is that those proud moments that that realization that your kids are actually learning and everything you're teaching them is getting stuck in their heads and it's just it's amazing and I'm I'm happy [Music] coming back to student teaching Hutchison has just been fulfilling to me because it's soni getting to work with people and teachers that I've had and then coming back to the community and seeing the students that are growing up in Hutchinson just knowing that I have that impact on them as part of what makes me excited to go into next year knowing that I'll have my own fourth grade classroom here and this being back in Hutchinson and giving back to the community that way it's such a kind of mixed emotions because on one side this was a really crazy semester for me so part of me is like I can't wait to be done but on the on the other hand it's it'll be so crazy like leaving all the relationships that developed here the kids that put a smile on my face every day although this chapter of my teaching career is over there's gonna be so many more like great chapters to come [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]

Channel: K-State College of Education

Views: 25,850

Rating: 4.9193954 out of 5

Keywords: First Year teacher, First year teacher advice, advice for teachers, advice for new teachers, how to survive teaching, how to survive the first year teaching, how to survive, teaching middle school, teaching high school, kindergarten, K-State, Kansas State University, college of education, day in the life of a teacher, day in the life, teacher, Student teacher, teacher internship, student teaching internship, a day in the life teacher, Scott Frantz NFL, Scott Frantz draft

Id: 8iCfkDI6ARo

Length: 61min 2sec (3662 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 30 2019