School starts this Monday. Not only does school start, the beginning of a new phase of my life begins as well, and I'm getting a little freaked out. Now, you should know that "freaked out" for me means that I'll think about it more than twice today and that I don't know what to expect. My blood pressure and stress levels are normal, I'm not about to panic and quit before anything gets started. I'm not really a nervous person, so this is much more stress than I feel about a lot of things.
The big deal is that when school starts on Monday I'll officially be a student teacher. I've taken all of the necessary courses to learn to prepare curricula and lessons, but none of this really prepares you for the day you walk into a high school for the first time and start working with your cooperating teacher. I don't think anything can prepare you for that, really. That's the start of a very close working relationship that is completely individual to the teacher, and the only way to learn to navigate it is to jump in and start trying. Like a mouse trying to find its way through a maze. (and btw, I'll be teaching English and I know that last sentence wasn't technically a sentence. It's a style thing, learn to live with it.)
I've got a few things on my side, though. I don't actually start at the high school for another week. On Monday I start all the university stuff that goes along with student teaching, so I've got a little bit of time to get back into an academic mood. And the professor in charge of my seminar is probably the most inspiring teacher I've ever had, and there's no doubt in my mind that he's going come up with some little morsel of quasi-zen philosophy that will make any question I have make sense. He's the kind of guy that makes you feel good to be in his classroom, like he's really glad that you're there and can't wait to see you again. And I've got age on my side, too. I turned 30 at the beginning of the summer, and there will be a lot of 23-year olds doing their first student teaching too. I used to worry about being a 30 year old rookie in a profession where the majority start in their early 20s, but talking to a few experienced teachers has set my mind at ease about it. All of them said that they'd rather take a 30 year old rookie that demonstrates a lot of poise and maturity than a 23 year old with a year of experience that doesn't have that same presence.
And poise I got. The only times I ever get nervous when being put on the spot is when I don't have any sort of plan. Even if I have a rough outline of what I want to say in my head I'll be fine. Thinking back to the times when I felt incredibly nervous, everyone else around told me how calm I seemed and they were glad I was there because they were freaking out. So that's an easy problem to solve, right? All I have to do to keep from being nervous is think ahead a little bit.
The big deal is that when school starts on Monday I'll officially be a student teacher. I've taken all of the necessary courses to learn to prepare curricula and lessons, but none of this really prepares you for the day you walk into a high school for the first time and start working with your cooperating teacher. I don't think anything can prepare you for that, really. That's the start of a very close working relationship that is completely individual to the teacher, and the only way to learn to navigate it is to jump in and start trying. Like a mouse trying to find its way through a maze. (and btw, I'll be teaching English and I know that last sentence wasn't technically a sentence. It's a style thing, learn to live with it.)
I've got a few things on my side, though. I don't actually start at the high school for another week. On Monday I start all the university stuff that goes along with student teaching, so I've got a little bit of time to get back into an academic mood. And the professor in charge of my seminar is probably the most inspiring teacher I've ever had, and there's no doubt in my mind that he's going come up with some little morsel of quasi-zen philosophy that will make any question I have make sense. He's the kind of guy that makes you feel good to be in his classroom, like he's really glad that you're there and can't wait to see you again. And I've got age on my side, too. I turned 30 at the beginning of the summer, and there will be a lot of 23-year olds doing their first student teaching too. I used to worry about being a 30 year old rookie in a profession where the majority start in their early 20s, but talking to a few experienced teachers has set my mind at ease about it. All of them said that they'd rather take a 30 year old rookie that demonstrates a lot of poise and maturity than a 23 year old with a year of experience that doesn't have that same presence.
And poise I got. The only times I ever get nervous when being put on the spot is when I don't have any sort of plan. Even if I have a rough outline of what I want to say in my head I'll be fine. Thinking back to the times when I felt incredibly nervous, everyone else around told me how calm I seemed and they were glad I was there because they were freaking out. So that's an easy problem to solve, right? All I have to do to keep from being nervous is think ahead a little bit.
I'm going to approach this like I do most things: running headlong with no plans of slowing down.
It'll be good.
