Student teaching has always been described as a rollercoaster ride, in more ways than one. Last Friday at our cohort seminar, we discussed student teaching as being similar to a rollercoaster ride that has many ups and downs. There has definitely been some low points to student teaching, where I felt like I was just trying to plan for the next day or next few hours. This is a reflection of me not taking advantage of the full day and weekend hours to lesson plan and acquire my necessary resources. However, there has been a lot more positive aspects to student teaching so far, which have been motivating me to continue to try to plan and be prepared for my students. Hopefully the low points to the rollercoaster ride will not be as drastic as I move through the rest of student teaching and I will use this experience to learn better time management techniques and overall planning skills.
The other way student teaching has been compared to a rollercoaster ride is in terms of the courses we eventually pick up and start teaching as our own. We gradually incorporate more and more courses into our weekly teaching schedules and about midway through our experience we are teaching a full course load for a few weeks. I started teaching 7 class periods a day this week, which is going to be my schedule for the next few weeks. I'm referring to this as the top of the rollercoaster and then eventually my course load will get lighter and lighter. It is very important that I maintain my organizational system and incorporate new ways if trying to plan ahead if I am to enjoy this rollercoaster of a ride that I call student teaching.
I noticed that the day goes by SO fast when you are teaching majority of the time. In the next few weeks, I am going to try and take in the experiences and relationships I am building with my students, rather than just trying to push through the week. I will definitely enjoy teaching more if I intentionally focus on my daily lessons rather than looking ahead and trying to just reach my end goal. National FFA Week is this upcoming week and I am super excited to watch how my students incorporate the faculty and community members into their celebrations as a way to express gratitude for their support.
Let's talk a little bit about some of the awesome learning opportunities my students got to engage in this week. In Agro Environmental Science, my 9th graders dissected a pickle to learn about anatomy terminology and how to safely handle dissecting tools prior to using them on earthworms. My students loved this activity and it was a fun way for them to learn important information about proper dissection techniques and the benefits of earthworms in soil organic matter. In Food Science, we learned how to create egg foam and then made forgotten cookies. We conducted a sensory evaluation on the cookies and compared how different variations in the foam's peaks affected the texture of the cookies (even though they all tasted good). Overall, I had a lot of fun teaching more hands-on lessons this week and it showed me just how important content days are to create that base-line of knowledge for students prior to them applying it in a lab setting.
This next week is going to be filled with National FFA Week festivities and events and also lots of lessons that I have to prepare for. Although it is intimidating to think we are reaching that time in our student teaching experience where we are teaching a full course load, we need to enjoy the ride and spend time really taking all of the experiences in. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and I hope you've enjoyed getting a glimpse into what it is like to student teach. Please leave any comments or advice for me down below and check in again next week for more updates!
Lauren :)
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