Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Student Teaching!

It has been awhile since I posted, BUT today was my first day of student teaching! I got placed at an elementary school with an amazing cooperating teacher for my first nine weeks and placed with another amazing high school art teacher for my second nine weeks. After this experience, I will be applying for licensure as a K-12 Art Educator and open teaching positions for the fall of 2013. Wow!

I am also working with my University to pilot the new EdTPA system, which is a teacher's performance assessment that will be mandatory for all student teachers to pass before receiving their license to teach in any discipline in the near future. Myself and a student in Early Childhood Education will be experiencing this together, and will be working closely with our advisors and the School of Education to do the best we can! I can't wait to write about the successes and struggles of my experience and how they relate to both the edTPA and life as a student teacher. I hope to help out as many others in my position as possible, especially those in the future that I am piloting this for. Wish me luck.

As for the edTPA, it will be a lot more writing and a bit more analyzing of lesson plans, videos of presenting lessons and engaging students, and assessment procedures. By the end of this, I should have written about forty-plus pages of reflections, planning and assessment. I'm excited to see what happens! There is a lot on my plate with all of these new responsibilities, but nothing that is too scary. Plus, I have some great art educators on my side!

Speaking of which, my cooperating teacher at the elementary school, Ms. R, is pretty great. Today I got to watch her in action and saw how she ran her classroom. Although I do not have the system down quite yet, I know that I will be able to get into the swing of things soon enough! I set up five folders for art projects that I will accumulate throughout this experience, which is unbelivably helpful. She has some great ways for me to really get the most out of this experience, especially since she has had over 20 student teachers. (I think I'm her 23rd or 24th or something crazy!)  One of  my classmates just finished up with her last Friday, and had a great experience. Ms. R keeps calling me by the name of the other student teacher because we are so close together.

The students warmed up to me pretty well and were excited to see that they have a new helper in the room. I am anxious to get to know them more and really have a relationship and rapport in my classroom. It should be a fun experience! More to come on my first day experience soon!

2 comments:

  1. Welcome back and congrats! This is the beginning of the end!!

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  2. Thanks Jen! I'm very excited! Can't wait to get in the groove now... :)

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