In these first two weeks, I have gotten to get to know students and start to build a relationship. Students have started to trust me to ask for my help and it has further emphasized my need and want to be a teacher. I absolutely love that I get to be a positive impact and can aid students in the ways they need.
How do you see your position from being a student to a student teacher?
I am so excited to actually be (kind of) considered a teacher. I feel like going into classes during practicum and teaching a lesson, or two if I was lucky, was never enough. Yea, I was able to teach successful lessons, but I always felt the relationships were missing. This is the biggest difference for me. I now have significantly more time to get to know every student, their needs, and their personalities. I have thoroughly enjoyed being able to help them in ways they actually and truly need from me, and I am only successful at this because we are building a relationship and actually have time to do so.
How do you shift between teaching and learning in your student teaching?
This shift is really fluid for me. My mentor teacher and I will switch off tasks and co--teach most of the time. Obviously, these classes are still her classes, and she runs the show for the most of the time, however, during these moments is when I get to listen and learn what she does with students that is successful and what I want to do in my own teaching that mirrors those successes. When its my turn to take the reins, I can easily shift into teaching mode, simply because I don't ever fully stop being in that mode, and a lot of my time has gone into building relationships so the students don't see it as a big shift either.
How do you make your teacher presence evidently in the classroom?
My teacher presence is defined by how I respond to students, relationship building, and dressing the part. I make sure that despite having fun and laughing with students, I still keep them in check when they should be paying attention or are off task. This action has seemingly made me an approachable authority figure. For a week and about a half, I did attendance with the students so I got to know their names, as well as take a few minutes to ask them about their interests and good things about their day. This start of class routine really allowed students to see me as a teacher and start to open up to me. I've noticed now into the end of my second and start of my third week, that students ask for my help when walking around the classroom and it warms my heart to see that I've already built some trust with and can use my #helpinghands.
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