Musical Minds: Music Ed. Student Teaching Blog

 I am grateful for students teaching because it has allowed me to work on so many things that I could never really work on in a college class. When I came into student teaching, I was nervous and unsure of myself as an educator. I felt unprepared. I felt like I had no authority to be in a classroom. Now, after student teaching all semester, I have realized that I am prepared. I am knowledgeable about my subject, and I have good instincts. The thing that I had to realize is that it is okay to feel unsure, but to always show up and do my best for my students no matter how unsure I may feel. 

 The culture of each of my placements have been very different, but I assume  lot of that has to do with the grade levels. Indian Creek Elementary focused a lot on character strong traits and mainly teaching the students how to be good people as well as good students. There was a lot of school spirit, I think mostly to keep the students from becoming bored since they are so young. Taft Middle School is more strict in their culture, but I think it is necessary for students this age. They relate their expectations to real world examples. They often use advisory time to share skills that will be needed in future jobs, like organizing their assignments and how to be respectful when communicating with teachers (and future bosses). They also focus on bullying, because the school has trouble with students bullying each other. This relates back to learning how to communicate respectfully. In both schools, administration heavily focuses on respect with students, and I think that is gre...

 I feel pretty confident in my teaching abilities as of right now. I don't have all of the answers, but I feel confident in knowing how to find them. Actual teaching is going to be a completely different experience, and I am just excited to figure things out on my own.