On April 29th, I finished my 16 week long student teaching course with 8th grade students. I spent about 8 of the 16 weeks getting to teach the students lessons I created (with the help of my mentor) and forming relationships with approximately 100 8th grade students. I stressed about mistakes, the EdTPA, and how to grade assignments. Student teaching has been one of the most rewarding, stressful, exciting, and tear-inducing time of my life, and I am really going to miss these kids.
When I walked in this January, I honestly did not know what to expect. I had never hung around much in the town that neighbors mine, let alone knew any of the people there. I had never met any of the teachers there before either, so I really had no idea what I was getting into. The schedule is comprised of 8 class hours and my mentor and I got to teach from 1st to 6th. Lunch was the only break in the schedule, so it made for very long days, but the last two hours were planning.
Sitting back, I got to see which students slacked off, answered questions often, or were disruptive. This formed opinions in my mind about the students, which was not fair to them. There were some I became familiar with before I actually started teaching. After this semester, I can confidently say that at least most of them will miss me.
On my last day, I sat back and watched my mentor take back his class. I observed the students reactions to it being my last day and I fought back the tears. They made me feel apart of their community and many kids told me that I should stay or they hoped I got hired at their high school so that I could see them there next year. Some are sad that I am leaving, others are probably indifferent. All that matters to me is that I can see that I made an impact.