At this point in my educational career, I’m going to admit it—I’m nervous. Coming close to student teaching and graduation has be excited, but wary. I want to be a good teacher. I want to make a difference in the lives of others.
But… how do I do that?
There is no magic answer to this question. I can’t tap my shoes together three times and wish myself into the future where I am the best teacher in the nation. It just doesn’t happen like that.
If there is one thing that I’m sure about, it is the idea that this will be a lot of work. I’m ready for that. I’m actually excited for that. Each time that I think up an idea or come across something I would use in a classroom, I want to immediately put it to use. Unfortunately, I’ve been relegating most of them to an idea binder.
Through all of my education courses and many of my higher level English courses, I’ve kept everything. I have assignments, my own work, textbooks, novels and tons of notes. What am I going to do with them? I plan to learn from them.
There are a lot of ideas that my teachers and professors have used that I really didn’t like, but that’s okay. I can take those assignments and find ways to teach the same thing in a different way. I’ve seen ways I don’t like and that helps me narrow things down to something I may like.
Back to the anxiety issues.
- What if my students don’t like the lesson plans?
What if my classroom rebels against a grading system I’ve put in place? - Will I be overwhelmed by students who need more help than I can give?
- What happens if I cannot fit every content standard into my yearly plans?
- What if I have to teach a grade level that I truly don’t desire to teach?
About a hundred more questions like those have been parading themselves through my brain. The WhatIfs have struck again.
At this point, all I can do is work hard and wonder…
What if I find that teaching is my destiny, that teaching is where I’m meant to make a difference in the world?
That WhatIf is perfectly acceptable.
I have to admit that I am also a little nervous for my future classroom, but I believe that is part of the thrill of teaching. You never know who your students are going to be, you never know how they will respond to your teaching instructions, you never know if a lesson will be a success or not; this list could go on and on. I just want to be able to give my students the best that I can give them. I am eager for the challenge that is a head of me, and I look forward to growing and learning with my students. As much as I am a teacher to my students, my students will be teachers to me. Everything is a learning experience.
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