For college students studying teacher education, the idea of student teaching can either be seen as a dream come true or a nightmare filled with nerves and anxiety. It is the time in which future teachers get a real taste of their career choice and segway into the professional world that lies after graduation. Alyssa Goericke, a 5th-year senior from Spring Lake, MI, is in the midst of beginning this process and has shared her thoughts with me.
Briefly explain the logistics/process of student teaching.
“The semester before you student teach, you get an email about going to a mandatory student-teaching meeting. At those meetings, they go through the whole process and explain how to fill out the application, mention important dates, and describe all of the stuff that needs to be done. I am at the very beginning of this process. Once your application to student teach is submitted, you find out your placement around the end of that semester. In the meantime, you have to get CPR certified, get fingerprints done, and get a background check. Once you get your placement, you set up a meeting with the teacher, and after that, you begin.”
How do you choose where you want to student teach?
“I want to save money while I student teach, which means going back home and living with my parents. They live on the western side of Michigan and I need to find a balance of getting my diversity requirements fulfilled, so I’ll either be placed in Muskegon or Grand Rapids. (Diversity requirements state that teacher education students must gain classroom experience in multiple environments, such as urban, ESL, and low-SES settings.) This is a big requirement so it’s a huge factor in where I am placed. Above all else, I prefer to go home to save money. Both my parents are teachers as well, so they will be a very good support system since they are very experienced and can help me with basically anything.”
What are you nervous for?
“I’m nervous that I won’t be able to create meaningful relationships with students, and that I won’t be able to have a sense of authority in the classroom. I have had trouble with this in the past, and I feel like I don’t have a lot of classroom management experience. I’m nervous that I’m not going to be able to teach the kids what they need to learn, and I’m nervous that my lesson plans won’t be fun. I’m also nervous that I won’t be successful in it or I will start the process and realize that I am not meant for this career.”
How will you overcome these fears?
“I definitely think it will help to talk with my host teacher and university coordinator (oversees student teaching) head-on. I will also be talking with my parents about my fears early so that everyone involved can know how to support me in the best way.”
What are you excited for?
“I’m excited to live rent-free! *laugh* I’m more nervous than I am excited, but I’m excited to finally start applying what I’ve learned in an actual scenario. I’m excited to be in a school setting again. I’m excited to get back in the swing of being in high school, especially since it’s difficult to wake up early.”
What do you see yourself doing once your student teaching is completed?
“Hopefully teaching in an actual position. If I haven’t gotten a job yet, I see myself applying to more jobs and trying to move out west. I see myself being successful in this, but it’s all up in the air.”
Do you think CMU has prepared you for this experience?
“In certain ways more than others. In how to teach my content and the value of creating relationships with students, yes. However, I think that classroom management is huge and I feel very unprepared for it. On the other hand, I see it as something that you learn through experience because each class is different, but I just wish there was a way I could be more prepared for that.”
If you could go back and re-do your undergraduate studies again, what would you change?
“I would go in knowing that I wanted to teach so that I didn’t have to be here as long. I would have also done a different minor or double majored. I feel like I wasted money on my minor because it isn’t really something that interests me. There were a lot of activities I wish I got more involved in sooner as well. I was later to the game in my involvement with the things I participate in now, and I wish I had included myself earlier.”