How I Found My Calling: Student Teaching

Such a cliche, right? People finding their calling. That’s what I always thought at least, although I do consider myself to be a skeptic.

I knew I wanted to be in education for a long time. Like other professions, I believe teaching to be a calling, my calling. What I wasn’t sure of was what area of education I wanted to be in. It took some time for me to figure out what exactly I wanted to teach.

I worked with 4–13 year olds as a teenager and in my early twenties. I also had experience volunteering in elementary special education classrooms where my youngest sister was a student. It’s fun to work with young people, I really love it. Who wants to work with all adults all day? Not me. For the longest time I thought my path would lead me to early childhood education.

I majored in history in undergrad so as part of the teacher certification program, I student taught in a high school history classroom. It was extremely terrifying to think about being in front of high school students as a college senior, who has never worked with high schoolers before. The summer before I student taught was filled with anxiety and nerves. I was constantly second guessing myself and was so unsure that I could get through the semester successfully, or at least somewhat unscathed. It came to a point where I emailed my advisor explaining my fears and even proposed dropping out of the program. Thankfully she set my head straight and calmed me down a bit. She told me that the nerves were completely normal and warranted. The thing about working in schools, being a teacher, working with kids… there are a lot of surprises — a lot of things that will catch you off-guard, but that’s all part of the learning experience.

The beginning of my student teaching semester was mainly getting to know the students, helping them out when they were doing independent or small group work, and learning how to lesson plan effectively. I then was given the job to complete the “Do Now” section of each lesson that my cooperating teacher did. Next thing I knew, I took on a whole class, and then 3!

Once I got over the nerves and got into a routine, I realized how much I loved teaching — but more than that, teaching history. To me teaching history is something rewarding because you can explain phenomenons of the past that students can further investigate, which then can be connected to other moments in history that happened in different parts of the world or even to current events.

Students then are inspired to question the present and use history to find answers.

I student taught in an urban district in Massachusetts and I can honestly say that I was never bored. My roommates loved when I got back from teaching because of the stories I had. An administrator tried to stop me from entering the halls before school started on multiple occasions because she thought I was a student. One morning I walked into school and a bird was flying up and down the halls. There was a pep rally around Thanksgiving and a live turkey got loose on the football field. See what I mean? Sometimes it’s just ridiculous.

“Burncoat Senior High School” — Tim Pierce

I still to this day say that student teaching is one of the greatest learning experiences I’ve had in my life up to this point. I’m grateful to my advisor, program supervisor, and teacher for their guidance throughout the process.

When I look back at student teaching and reflect on my current work position, I would share these pieces of advice to those who are student teachers, about to student teach, or are first-year teachers:

1. Don’t spend all of your time in the faculty room. (This was the first piece of advice I received from all three of those people I mentioned before. ) Why? Because it’s a gossip den. It’s so easy to go in there and get stuck in a conversation with other teachers, but sometimes you also get sucked into a negativity tornado where you’re talking badly about your students and even colleagues. Don’t do it!
2. Learn how to use the copy machines. This is key because while you may be that really organized and prepared person who has lessons and materials set weeks in advance, there’s going to come a time when you’re printing and copying the morning of those lessons. When this happens, trust yourself to get your materials ready! (Also if and when you can, save paper, save the world).
3. Be kind and get to know as many people as you can in your building. Some of the first people I met when I started teaching were the amazing people on our maintenance staff. They do all of the behind the scenes work to keep the school, classrooms, and grounds pristine. Aside from being a teacher, I am a faculty moderator of Student Council which organizes our annual Field Day. When that day rolls around, I profusely thank the maintenance staff for helping with set up and clean up. They’re amazing. Next? Librarians. Why? Extremely resourceful, assist with research, conduct lessons for various other topics, and this is the short list. Librarians are the best (especially ours). Last but not least, office staff. Probably the most respondent people in the entire building because they’re on top of it (all of it)!
4. Stick around. After a long day at work, it’s really easy to say “alright, I’m out!” at 3:15pm. While your couch probably sounds like a much nicer place than work where you’ve already been since 7am, knock out the work you need to do before going home! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve carried work home, then back to work the next day without having touched it. Even if it’s one hour extra at work, it will be worth it! Maybe you can watch Netflix without doing your work tonight.
5. Build relationships with your students. Another reason to stick around after school is to see what your students do outside of the classroom. Do some of your own interests match a club at the school? Check it out! Is there a soccer game going on? Stop by! Students really value seeing their teachers at their extra-curricular activities because then they see you really care.

There’s definitely more that can be said, but these five things to me are a good starting point when entering a new school or teaching job for the first time.

The thing about teaching is it can be really challenging. There are days where you drag your feet and have no energy to do something silly like stand on a desk, and that’s okay. What always helps me is to put focus back on the students. For me, they’re the reason I’m there and when I think about the things I want my students to know and the experiences I’ve had, it makes it all worth it.