Student teaching: Am I really qualified to do this?

My final semester and I was embarking on the journey I always knew my university education would end with. Student teaching.

I had considered doing an internship but I didn't want to prolong graduation, and I also wanted to do folk dance as long as possible, so student teaching it was! I had gotten my assignment the semester before and before Christmas break I had even gone to meet my mentor teacher, Wendy King, and got the Geography book I would be teaching out of and a bunch of her material on my hard drive.  (And oh what a trial it was for me to get that stuff from her Mac computer to my hard drive, yet another reason I dislike Apple. But I digress.)

There was actually an interesting way that I arrived at being paired with Wendy. I was originally with another teacher, but a student who had been paired with him in practicum went up and told my professor that there was no way he should have a student teacher because he had been terrible. Thanks for standing up for me. :) I told my professor that if he felt like it was the right placement for me I wouldn't make any waves, but a while later he emailed me and told me that they were switching my placement. He never told me why, though I later found out why and let's just say my classmate was right in standing up for me.

Then, halfway through Christmas break I got an even bigger surprise, my professor emailed me yet again and asked if I would mind co-teaching with Madde Belnap? Uh, sure, why not? I had a rough idea of who Maddie was from my practicum class. I'll be honest, I was pretty worried because she had seemed like a pretty outspoken person in that class and I didn't necessarily agree with everyone she said. But, I said to myself, everything happens for a reason.

Why yes it does. Though Maddie and I had our problems, they were actually opposite of what I expected them to be! I am kind of a planning freak and doing lesson plans and scope and sequence is not just my bread and butter but an absolute joy to me. Maddie, however, is a much more free spirit than me, and wasn't as much of a planner than me, being much better at being flexible and in the moment in the classroom than me. So planning with these two different personalities could get difficult. Even more difficult when you added in a mentor teacher. Planning with three people is just hard, no matter how much you love all people involved. So I won't pretend it was easy. But I also won't pretend I didn't learn a TON from the experience and didn't come out loving Wendy and Maddie more than I ever thought I would.

As the semester went on, Maddie and seemed to get a handle on things, copies, lesson plans, disciplinary problems, writing tests. Yeah, did you know that writing tests is hard and that whenever there are mistakes students just LOVE to point them out? We became more relaxed and better friends and had more in the classroom with each other and with our students. And as time went on we got to help more and more with Wendy's AP World History class. Which was awesome!

Oh the kids? I guess I can talk about them. So Wendy only taught Geography classes and a couple of AP World History classes. Interesting because I was a History Teaching Major, not Social Studies Composite and not even a Geography minor (even though the Lord told me to get that minor, I just decided to ignore Him because I am endlessly prideful. And now I see why He told me to get it, oops.). So really Maddie and I were teaching four Geography courses, and we got fresh students  at the second half of the year, so they were all ours. Score. We did get to help teach the AP World classes, but the Geography classes were all ours and Wendy was great about stepping out and really letting us have full authority.

Maddie and I took charge of two of the classes but we both taught in all the classes. I had 3rd and 8th, and she had 4th and 7th. Timpview had odd/even days so it went 1/3/5/7 one day then 2/4/6/8 the next. We had 1st period prep (the BEST to do last minute prepping for a new lesson) and 6th period prep (which really ended up being a super long lunch) and AP World was 5th and 2nd.

Discipline wasn't half as hard as I had expected and let me be honest, I kind of love taking cell phones from children. I'm a total jerk right? But seriously you take a few the first week of school and then it isn't a problem. The best compliment I ever got was when a new student  had his cell phone taken from him about halfway through the term and his neighbor said to him "You chose the worst class to text in". That's right. I found that wearing severe pencil skirts and heels and wearing my hair in a bun made me feel the part of a disciplinarian. It also made me pretty distinct from the students, both in look and in feel, so it was easier for them to obey me. Don't worry, I was nice to them too, eventually. To be honest I never felt like I had to be super mean or anything at first. Just strict.

The students? I can't even express to you how much I love them. I haven't thought of the much recently, but as I write this, faces come up in my memory and I can't help but smile. Even though I thought I would come out with all these dears in the AP classes, truth is I just closer to my Geography students. Even though they were harder to handle and less excited about learning, they were my students, and we shared something! Even though let me tell you, I think the AP students were more sad to see us go than our Geography students, they were such dears and I really did love them. Promise.

I had my golden students who were hard workers and sweet and loved to learn. Wow some of them loved to learn so much! One of my students, if he asked a question I couldn't answer, would look it up for himself and come and tell me the answer the next day. And some of them were so thorough about their work and homework and did everything expected of them and much more!

Other students were more of a challenge, but I can gratefully say that I didn't leave not liking any of my students. All of my challenging students I was able to get to know in a way that helped me realize what it was that they really needed in their lives that caused them to act out. Some of them just needed more attention (and for positive things), some of them needed to feel needed, some of them needed to be largely left alone, some of them needed to just feel comfortable with me, some of them needed to admit they needed extra help. All of them just needed to feel accepted. I mean come on, we're talking about 9th graders. Oh and human beings. We were all 14 once and we still had human feelings, and human desires, and human reactions. And when we were acknowledged as humans instead of 14 years olds, didn't we respond much better to that? That's what I tried to do, treat my students as humans instead of 14 year olds. Because heavens 14 year olds are crazy. But humans are great. My confidence in 14 year olds actually skyrocketed after this experience, I saw their potential even though I didn't always know how to untap it. But isn't that the constant quest of a teacher? I can't wait to reach that goal. And for all the adventures I'm sure I'll have along the way.

 I gained an even better testimony of why the Lord chose a 14 year old in the Restoration of the truth. It's a pretty awesome age.


Oh and PS, when your professors tell you that you should ONLY student teach and not have a job or take any other classes (or maybe do both? Like have a job and do PAC...) you should definitely listen to them. That way you don't have a breakdown in the middle of the semester and you definitely won't get two colds right behind each other.

The other senior year in a nutshell: The end of it all

Here it goes.

Spring/Summer
Spring was spent in Europe. Yeah. You've heard about that already here, and here, and here. And here and here and here.  So you are not in want of information on that excursion.

Summer was spent working. I had 20 hours at the TMA office and 10 hours as Lauri's TA. But then on the first day back as Lauri's TA I was asked to TA another Humanities class for another 10 hours a week. So yeah, working three jobs 40 hours a week. Ended up being a little busy.

I did find time to finally meet my friend Mikey at a wedding reception for one of my BF's Jake (both of whom will appear in the BYU celebrity post). And I ended up getting to know Mikey really well that summer, which was needed for me. I hadn't had a good guy friend in a long time, and it's a lot easier to not have to worry about chemistry with a guy when he's married. Easy peasy.

Fall semester
A new PAC family was made this year! I ended up becoming really close to some people who were my "students" in SPAC. I also got to experience a different director. My first year dearest Edwin G. Austin was our director. And this year it has been Jeanette Geslison.

This was the semester of extra practices for PAC. We had two guest choreographers (Luba from Ukraine and Richard from Hungary) and lots of performances.

As for the academics, this was the semester of education classes. I kind of decided to take all the education classes in one single semester. I heard they were all pretty useless (kind of true, sadly, but I think it's just the nature of the beast) and you might as well get them over with quickly. So I took classroom management, adolescent development, multicultural education, educating students with disabilities, practicum in social science teaching, and history teaching methods. They were nearly all block classes and...all started second block. Yeah. So the first half of my semester was full of folk dance and the second half was full of education classes.

I got over my fear of research papers in my Capstone research seminar. I researched Senator Reed Smoot and yes, he hurried along the depression with a silly tariff. Thankfully my paper ended before that section of his life. In this class I also finally read a book about the Black Death that was extremely interesting. Weird that it's taken this long to write a book that makes the Black Death interesting. People love death!

Finally, I took Dance 474: Advanced Percussive Foot Styles. This was THE best dance class I have ever taken. Greg Tucker was the teacher (once again, the only clogging teacher I've ever had). We learned French Canadian, crazy hard clogging, tap (yessssssssssssssssssss), and Irish. It was bomb. And in this class I bonded with the dear dear Amber Shepherd who is basically my favorite human.

Oh and I not only saw Savion Glover perform, but also took a workshop from him. Oops, I almost blogged about that but never did.

Winter semester
I student taught.

And worked 20 hours a week for the most part.

And was in PAC (thankfully no mid-semester tour this year!) with a few weekend shows and mid-week shows as well.

You're not supposed to do anything BUT student teach, required to not have jobs or other classes. Oops.

So I was an hour late to PAC everyday (at least) and always felt behind on the times. I thought I'd never make it at some points. But I did! At the beginning of the semester I heard that one student teacher had said student teaching was the hardest thing she'd ever done including losing her father to cancer. I thought she was crazy. But now I see where she was coming from, though I wouldn't necessarily go that far.

I was teaching partners with Maddie Belnap, someone I never would have chosen but am entirely glad I was able to learn from her all semester. My mentor teacher Wendy King is probably the most on top of it person in the whole wide world and a wonderful teacher to learn from. And I have a newfound love for the orange and blue of Timpview High School.

And then I graduated. 


Okay or I will next week. Close enough.

The end.

PS, sorry I didn't write down funny quotes from this year in my computer and I've already packed up all my notebooks.

Challenge accepted

So student teaching is over. I have all kinds of wacky time on my hands. (I promise I'm not trying to smush this in all your I-still-have-impossible-finals-to-conquer faces.) I spent all day looking for good blogging challenges to do. I found none. I finally subscribed to one challenge that first gave me blogging tips and then told me to post 30 times in the month of April.

So. Game on.

And since I could find no other more specific blogging challenges I will be creating my own. And since I am graduating from BYU, it will be mostly nostalgic for all my BYU (and non-BYU) buddies out there. My next 30 posts will go as follows.

1. Explanation of blog challenge (that's this one. clearly.)
2. Freshman year in a nutshell: that girl who lived off-campus
3. Sophomore year in a nutshell: quest for perfection
4. Junior year in a nutshell: The one with more social interaction
5. Senior year in a nutshell: Folk dancey
6. The other senior year in a nutshell: the end of it all
7. A year of Daily Universe: advertising?
8. Freshman Academy: I'm seriously getting paid to do this?
9. The TMA office: so many friendships, so little time
10. Folk dance part A: Getting started
11. Folk dance part the second: SPAC
12. Folk dance part the almost last: PAC1
13. Folk dance part the actual last: PAC2
13. Lauri's TA: Who could ask for more?
15. Single's Ward: real life is way better than the movie
16. Campus entertainment: so many tickets
17. 2010: that one summer I spent at home
18. The roommate series: The room roommate
19. The roommate series: The Asians?
20. The roommate series: pre-acquaintances and randoms
21. Student teaching: am I qualified for this?
22. BYU celebrities: Because I totally had a class with Jimmer!
23. BYU dating: do you want the good news first?
24. BYU dating: or the bad news...
25. Nooks and crannies: my favorite parts of BYU campus
26. When I was your age!: how BYU campus has changed
27. Some raw data: be patient, I'm not good with numbers
28. Rate my professors: My favorites are usually the funny ones
29. The end of the end: a commentary
30. How beautiful are they?: The testimony

Also. Just for fun, the title of this post is inspired by a student of mine from student teaching who asked if he thought the idea he had for a project would work. I said I didn't know if it would. He got a steely glint in his eye and said, "Challenge accepted".

I've been pinned.

You guys I gave in.

I was holding out for so long. I was so resolute! Such determination. But eventually I gave in. I joined Pinterest. I was so shameful I couldn't bring myself to even ask someone to invite me. I had to ask to join. Embarrassing.

But I blame this sudden Pinterest urge on a few things.

1. I recently took up crocheting. (Just don't ask if I've finished that Valentines Day blanket yet. There's time for love and hearts all year long right?) Since I've never been remotely crafty in my whole life, and since I always associate Pinterest with crafts, I could justify not joining. But crocheting? That's crafty. Plus I knew it wasn't really just about crafts. That's just all I ever see. But that's what I get for having crafty/married friends.

2. Let's be honest. This has been a difficult semester. And let's be honest again. I get a spring break. Student teaching definitely holds some amazing positives. Spring break, friends, begins in exactly 7 days (I am counting next Saturday as the first day of Spring break). And once Spring break begins, I'm basically done teaching. I will come back for two fairly inconsequential days. So Spring fever. Spring fever made me join Pinterest.

Cabin fever is very similar to spring fever. Sans Fazzi's outfit. And the singing. Sometimes. 

3. I survived student teaching! While I'm still teaching, as you just read, next week is essentially completely planned. Here's some info for all you non-teachers out there. While the magic (or lack thereof..) happens in the classroom, the WORK is in the planning. And oh heavens the work is much harder than I ever anticipated. So sure I still have to be at Timpview at 7 am for the next week but when I go home I'm...basically done.

4. It was inevitable. Let's be honest with ourselves. I'm a computer junkie (thus this blog). I blame my father.

This isn't a representation of my dad. Or me really. 

So I am now one of those girls on Pinterest. Yes I'm planning my wedding (no I'm not dating anyone. At all). Yes I'm finding a million recipes I want to use. BUT, it has not given me an urge to do any new crafts. I feel like that is a victory.

A very small one.

The joy of today

Here is a quick list of things that made today unimaginably joyful.

• I woke up in the same position I fell asleep in. Anyone who knows my usual inability to sleep will be amazed. 
• My gelled hair from last night's (AMAZING) performance left a perfectly shaped coif from which I easily did my hair for today. I actually learned today that I take less time to get ready than one of the other student teachers at Timpview. He's a guy. I love low maintenance. 
• TMtP. Seriously the best blog in existence. And maybe I was 10 minutes late to school today because I was reading some amazing comments and awesome blogging goodness.  (I was especially hooked once Kim Jong Un was referenced. I love current event referencing.)
• Goldfish

• Getting the test and review written and ready (which means the next FOUR days are planned, oh the glory of a block schedule). 
• 8th period going well (after much prayer and deliberation and changing of things, poor guinea pig 3rd period who experiences the first go at my lesson plans). 

• Students who have begun caring about learning and doing their work (we're going to pretend this isn't because Friday is the end of the term. Kapeesh?)
• Playing the piano. Ah. Forgot about that beautiful thing. 

Oh how I miss my family's baby grand...

• Seeing my dearest Lar'n and the whole blessed TMA office staff whom I love dearly
• The fact that Amy, the TMA chair, remembered me and that I am student teaching. I am still surprised when authority figures remember me,  because they have like a million people to remember. 
• The totally creepy and awkward face I got from T-Lef (Tom Lefler) when he came into the TMA office and saw me. 
• Accidentally making up a new smiley face. l:). A smiley with a unibrow.

Frida Kahlo anyone?

• Remembering that I have cool songs on my iTunes that I forgot about because I have somehow stopped listening to music all semester? Who knows.
• Having a song pop up by my dear friend Mikey Christensen on my iTunes! A song which I not only forgot I had, but had completely forgotten that it existed altogether. 
• ALSO Rec night was amazing! Especially since I was sick and couldn't dance at the last TWO and this is my semester of them, so I'm glad tonight was great!
• Expensive chocolate chips. Thank you Bryan for introducing me to them. 
• Folk friends. 
• Feeling like I'm good at the hula and making a cool made-of-plastic-but-supposed-to-be-grass head thingy. I've been wanting to crochet lately but haven't had time, but this I HAVE to make...so it's a nice required relaxation thingy. 

Sunday grab-bag

Here is a jumble of thoughts, ideas, questions, and discoveries of this sick-ish girl on a lonely Sunday afternoon.

Thoughts

• I can't believe I just applied to three jobs on the East Coast! All in Virginia. 
• I feel really good about Virginia right now. Even though I haven't applied for any full-time teaching positions which is...you know...what I'm getting my degree in. It's cool though.
• I also feel terrified about moving across the country alone. Especially for a part-time job. 
• I can't flipping wait to perform in Ogden and stay at my house for a night with three of my favorite girls in the world. AH!

Ideas

• The world should know that bunions aren't gross. You thought they were filled with puss or something equally disgusting didn't you? They're not. And they're painful. And yes I have one.  
• I need a cheap as free haircut. With no layers. I'm super boring. 
• Student teaching should NOT require me to make up the two days I have to miss for folk dance. 

Questions

• Why didn't I know until today that lds.org has those old school seminary videos from the 90's in their media library? Perfect Sunday afternoon activity when you can't keep your eyes open long enough to do the Gospel study you want to do. 
• Why does lds.org STILL not have Legacy up as one of their feature films? I mean really.
• Why is it that when I rarely get sick (like less than once a year) for the last 5 years of my life, I suddenly get sick twice in the span of half of a semester?
• And why am I getting sick the week before I have the performance of my life in my hometown Ogden where my friends, family, and old dance people may be coming to see what I've been doing the past five years?
• Do I really want to teach high school and/or jr. high or do I just want to teach dance?

OR

Discoveries

• a.m. cold medicine affects me the same as p.m. medicine. Thus why I barely made it through Sacrament meeting today and stumbled home like a drunkard accompanied by my loving roommate. 
• Bodies can make mucus seriously quickly. And my body might be even better than others. Sorry that's kind of gross. But it's so grossly true. 
• I still like Ramen. COLLEGE. No parents. 
• The nice Kleenex with the lotion are totally worth it. 
• I might be allergic to dating. Just a theory. 

V-day wrap-up and Parent Teacher Conferences.

A day of lists. We'll start with the V-day wrap-up. A list of what my roomie Megan-o and I wrote (with a guest appearance by Christina Craven) in our love game. And yes some things have been omitted because not everything needs to exist on the internets.

I love Lynette because she bought chocolate today. The Gospel. Christ. Truth. James Talmage. iPods. Amber. 8th period. Dante's job. Jane by Design. Matthew Atkinson. NICK FADDEN! Texting. Mornings that aren't 5:45. Stutters. Christina. Humanities. Don Q conversations. Megan-o. Lynette! Doing nothing. Chocolate. Journals. Saturdays. Sweat pants. Sleep. Not wallowing. Ice cream. Crepes. Illnesses leaving. Preach My Gospel. The fact that I thought this said creeps (with an arrow pointing to crepes). FB stalking. Lynette's squeaky voice. Mikey. Megan-o. Spotify. Pesos. 8th period helping out. When Jake is good. Participation. Short faculty meetings. Making grades better. Sleep. Preach My Gospel. Day being over. Being trusted. Family. Having grades entered. Pink nails. My perfume. Being giddy. Mrs. King. That cute boy in 101. Smell-good boys. Water. Dinner. Amanda. Love songs. Blogging. Sounding like a woman. Not coughing. Funny videos. Pink. Comfortable shoes. Good hair. Healthy days. Megan's healthy days. Thomas. Mike Steele. Folk skirt. Speaking in Church. Learning from my mistakes. Chivalry. Rides home. Made up raps. McD's. Pepe at McD's. Codster. On-task Jake. Being complimented by students. AMBER. Dinner I didn't make. Blogging. Reading cool blogs. Sweats. Guy friends. Totally Missing the Point . Lauri. Having a job. Maddie. Holly. Cassidy. Caroline. David. Spanish. Spanish music. Timpview. Good groupwork. Bubble gum pink skirt. Friday. Jane By Design. Blue shirt. Tandy. Mikayla. Kelsey. Friendship. TOUR. Julie. Jon. Jeanette. Mike Steele. New blog. Mikey. Katrina's shirt. FRIDAY. Island projects. Review days. Dan's 101%. Bed. Leggings. Not having appendicitis. Cough drops even if they're nasty. This episode of Jane By Design. Free pizza. Good weather. Not being rejected. Brownie bites. Curled hair. SUNDAY. Speaking in church. Compliments. The Alex incident. Flirting. Getting asked out. Not dying in the snow. Alina. Ashlee. Maloree. Noel. Noel's boots. Larissa. This sweater. Curled hair. Being added on Facebook. Family. Makeup. Review day! Test tomorrow! V-day tomorrow. Thomas. Folk skirt. Jeanette. Lauri. Valentines Day. Much Ado About Nothing. Kenneth Branagh. Emma Thompson. Lia. Jeremy! Talia! Hair staying curled. Hoops and Yoyo. Not being awkward. TMA! Kyle. Andrea. Jenn. Becca. Post-its. Garlic alfredo chicken pasta.

For the first year I had to refill the bowl of M&Ms! Megan-o and I have a lot of love.

And now for parent teacher conferences. I'll keep it short and sweet. Some words that come to mind after my first experience as a teacher at parent teacher conference.

Long.
Funny.
Really funny.
Awkward.
Long.
Insightful.
Useful.
Long.

I was also reminded that every time an opportunity to speak Spanish exists, my Spanish doesn't...

Thankfully none of these parents came...

A student of teachers. A teacher of students.

For this, my final semester, I am student teaching in a 9th grade geography classroom at Timpview High School. Yes. It's going well. Thank you for asking. 


It's an awkward stage to be in. Student teaching. Did you ever think about those two words together? And why is it that the second word is the verb? We never say we're studenting. But I've gotta say, that as much as I'm teaching, I'm studenting much more. 


It seems ironic that when teaching we learn the very most. In fact we talk about this often in the education major. If you want students to really learn the material, have them teach it to someone else. Seems backwards-ish. But teaching is the most active form of learning. I always understood that. Ethereally. (Is that a word too? I'm not getting a red squiggle under it. So I'm trusting spellcheck here. But can anyone actually say that out loud? Ethereally. That's not easy.Try it.)

 But now I am beginning to really understand. The other day I taught about landform production. Subduction. Plate tectonics. Weathering. Yawn. Keep in mind folks, I'm actually a history teaching major. History ≠ Geography. I mean I love the human element of geography but the physical element? Let's just say that was one of my less good grades in college. So my mentor teacher, after watching me lecture on it the first time, told me to study it until I cared about it. 

So home I went and National Geographics I did study. At one point, while reading about subduction and tsunamis, all of the sudden I wanted to, nay, had to see a video of a tsunami. I was interested! I watched Youtube videos of tsunamis for a while then quickly wanted to finish the article I was reading and move on to another I'd found about earthquakes. 

So basically what I'm saying is. So far I've learned a lot of things through student teaching. Mostly, however, so far I've learned to learn. Even though I thought that was what college was all about. My mentor teacher put it well today when she said that's what is great about being a teacher, you have to study continually. 

Well good. Because I love to learn. I just have to remind myself every once in a while.