It's all coming to an end...

Well, here we are. The last entry. Well, it's the last entry as an EPS 350 blog, anyways. I have to talk about how I've changed, as a teacher, as a result of my pre-internship, and boy, have I ever. I've grown, really.

Let me just start by saying my pre-internship was a universally positive experience. I could barely even contain the joy I felt throughout that three week block, and felt myself talking about it endlessly. It's true, teaching does take over your conversations. My co-op and I got along famously, and my pre-internship partner was a gem. We worked in perfect sync, like some sort of well-oiled, teaching machine.

One of the largest areas where I changed, and grew, was in organization, and dedication. I mean, I am still pretty disorganized, but this experience forced me to learn how to put my nose to the grindstone and PRODUCE. As well, it forced me to keep some sort of system for my materials, lessons, and everything else under the sun I came across. It was truly a "trial-by-fire" in a sense, because I felt, after the first day, in which I ran short of material on a lesson, that I would sink if I didn't make some vital changes, and fast. I mean, trust me when I tell you that you don't want to run short of material... once is enough for that feeling. God, another side-story: At one point I temporarily misplaced my marking sheet and folder of student assignments, and wow, there is another feeling I never want to experience again. You should have seen me while looking for it. My face blended in with the damn whiteboards! But yes, organization is key to teaching, and that includes your thoughts, papers, life, everything.

Another few areas, and broader areas, were just in student interaction. I mean, the classroom environment is just so centered around you, the teacher. If you're happy, confident, and excited, they'll feed off of that. Now, you can't run a class on sheer enthusiasm alone, but my god it helps.

Also, I learned that like, a personal attachment to certain lessons can set you up for quite the fall. I put together a lesson, which I loved, and thought was such a creative endeavor, only to have the students get moody and reject it initially, which made ME moody. Wow, the two days I spent on that activity were particularly miserable, and I guarantee it would have been MUCH better if I would have taken less offense to the students' initial reaction to my assignment.

I'll punctuate this by saying the most important point in my growth as a teacher. After this, I feel like I can BE a teacher, and like I WANT to be a teacher, and hell, maybe even like I can save the world, just a little...

Just a little.