Student Teaching Week 1

It's been a while since I've posted, so here's a quick update. I am in my final semester at Utah State and am doing my student teaching so I can finish up my degree and graduate in May. I cannot believe I am finally here!! Time flies so quickly. I am student teaching at a middle school in Cache Valley, teaching 6th grade Math and 7th grade Utah History. I am so excited to be at a middle school. The kids are so excited to learn and work surprisingly hard to complete their assignments. 

I never thought I could enjoy middle school so much. Last semester, I completed my history clinical experience at a middle school in Logan and absolutely enjoyed it. I always thought I would like to teach high school, but I have really enjoyed working with the younger grades and would consider teaching at a middle/junior high once I finally start looking for a teaching job. The kids just seem so much more excited to learn at this age and I've had lots of fun working with them.

This past week of student teaching has been pretty great, mostly because I haven't really begun teaching anything and have only been observing the different classes and memorizing the names of the students. I did explain to one class how to complete on worksheet and that was interesting because I forgot everything I was supposed to say once the teacher turned it over to me. It turned out well so I don't know what I was so nervous about. Hopefully, it will get easier once I get to know the kids and have more experience. I've been working with them on their homework during the last 10 or so minutes of class and during study hall (the last class period of the day) and this has been great. It's given me insight into how they learn and what explanations help them understand. The teachers I am working with have lots of experience and know how to help their students learn. I have already learned so much from them about how to help student enjoy learning. I've also had the opportunity to observe some of the other teachers at the school in other disciplines, such as Language Arts and Science. They've given me ideas on how to lead students through different types of lessons and how to manage the classroom. Also, in these classes, I was able to observe some of the students I will be teaching in other classes and that was really interesting. It was great to see how they react to different teaching methods and different subjects. 

I'm excited to see how this semester semester turns out. I should begin actually teaching this coming week and will let you know how that turns out next week or the next, so watch out for that. Hopefully it all goes well :)