It has been WAY too long since I've written, but I am sitting in my team room sipping hot chocolate during 6th period. Having a student teacher may be the best thing to happen this winter!
When I first read the email saying I would get a student teacher, I had gotten in a car accident that day and was quite frazzled. I think I just laughed. It was near the end of May (last year) when I got the email and I was in our team room telling my car accident story when my principal walked in and asked if I had heard the news. I laughed and said yes, but I didn't think I was able to get a student teacher because I don't teach the CRUCIAL SpEd classes (math and reading). I do teach Writing, but Resource Learning (study skills/homework help) is not a common class. Due to my questions about whether or not I was even able to have a student teacher, I didn't get my hopes up.
My student teacher started volunteering last semester (just a couple of hours here and there) and I got more and more excited! I'm pretty sure she got more and more nervous because she wanted to student teach elementary, but she got middle school. Yikes! Elementary and middle school behaviors are extremely different and I have some tough kids. She's a trooper though.
A few funny things that happened last semester:
A male student asked Ms. Han, "Are you going to leave us?" She was a bit confused, so he clarified, "Everyone who comes in here ends up leaving." He was referring to the volunteers that come and then leave when their hours are done. We both smiled and said something vague like, "I don't know. We will see…"
Another student asked, "Why don't you get a student teacher? Everyone else has student teachers?" Ms. Han was in my classroom when he asked that. We both smiled secretively to each other.
I didn't want to tell my students that we were getting a student teacher because I didn't know how they would react. I experimented on my 1st period and told them that I was going to get a student teacher after Christmas and they wigged out! Some of the comments included,
"Will you still be here?"
"Is she from BYU? People from BYU are evil."
"Is she Asian?"
I died laughing at the last one because unbeknownst to them, she is Asian! haha She is Korean and she's awesome. After the blow up in 1st period, I decided against telling any of my other classes, so it was a surprise when I announced that I would have a student teacher!
Today is her first day teaching ALL class periods and I'm loving it. I miss teaching though. I truly do love teaching and I adore my students. I have worked hard to build relationships with them and I work hard to teach them meaningful, useful things. I miss teaching them, but it is fun to see Ms. Han teach. I really enjoy mentoring. I don't know if I could ever leave teaching and just become a mentor though. I seriously LOVE-LOVE-LOVE the students. Good thing Ms. Han is awesome. If she was…weird or terrible, I would have a hard time giving up my students to her!
-Ms. Damron-
