Breathing a Sigh of Relief

After almost four months of student teaching, I finished November 18th! I still don't think it's fully hit me that I've completed my Bachelor's degree, but I'm still excited anyway.

I was in a 2nd grade classroom. I was so blessed to have an amazing cooperating teacher to learn from, and we had a great aide in the class that I became friends with too. I'm going to miss all the great people I met and was able to work with, and I'll miss the students.

I think going 5 semesters in a row and being pregnant was making me more burned out towards the end than I usually am, so I was definitely feeling that I was ready to be done. Now, to explain, for those of you who don't already know, student teaching is a full-time commitment. You work the full hours any teacher does, however, on top of that you have coursework each week to complete, a cohort meeting every week with other student teachers and your supervisor (clinical faculty), daily lessons to prepare, a unit to teach and compile into a work sample portfolio, and you have a total of 8 observations (4 by your cooperating teacher observing you teach, and 4 by your clinical faculty). Likewise, they no longer count these 50+ hours a week as 12 credits, so there is a pairing course you can take with student teaching, and there are some assignments that go along with that. Generally, I'd have to say, it was an extremely busy semester.

Throughout the experience I was able to grow by leaps and bounds. I feel that I learned so much more about being a teacher, than I thought was possible in that amount of time. I'm excited for what the future holds, and to be able to share what I've learned with those I associate with and to be able to help teach my children.

All in all, right now I'm breathing a sigh of relief. :)