Student Teaching

36 credit hours of Math
21 credit hours of Education
100 hours of field experience
3 semesters working Math Lab
3 semesters working as a Math TA

All preparing me for such a time as this. I have begun. I feel like I should be nervous or terrified, but I'm not. Christmas Break was just enough time to prepare me. I didn't do any academic preparations; just mental. With talking to former teachers and friends and family, I feel more ready. With the prep this week, Carol (my cooperating teacher) and I planned for the next 2 weeks for Advanced Algebra. I feel like everything I've been doing is coming together. I see math, I put it into categories of subject matter, age of student, and in terms of previous knowledge. I immediately draw on my classes and my experiences with math lab. I see something needing to be taught, and I go into teacher mode. I use repetitive phrasing, leading questions, and draw on my experiences from tutoring. I talk to teachers and go into educator mode, pulling Bloom's Taxonomy of Higher Thinking and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Cooperative Learning and IEPs and LDs into my working vocabulary. I become a math teacher on a moment's notice. Maybe, a math teacher is what I am becoming permanently. Is it so bad to not be nervous? I still ask questions ("what do I do when they test my authority?") and observe procedures (Take attendance. Close door. Ask for questions. Check.) I still will practice my lessons and go over them numerous times before I actually teach. I will still get butterflies in my tummy when someone calls me "Ms Lynn" (Of course, when the principal called me "Mrs. Lynn" I really freaked out!). I still stress when I think of ALL the lessons I'll be giving before I'm done (117. 117 lessons before this semester is over). But my confidence in my ability to survive this -- maybe even succeed at this -- is increasing daily. I can do this.