R is for Reflection!

While this class has been a whirlwind and kind of crazy, it has also been incredibly fun and exceedingly helpful!

When I first started to consider becoming a teacher [think like 2nd grade Nicole...14-15 years ago...when people still called me 'Nikki'. If you need some context, check out the blonde girl in the ugly green dress with the white collar on the far right of the third row from the top] it was always that far off concept of when I grow up. Well, here we are...rounding out our last undergrad classes ever...preparing for next semester's student teaching. It's real. It's scary. But here we all are. Fortunately while I was growing up, I was only ever asked what I wanted to be when I grew up; no one ever asked me why when I responded with, "a teacher!". For the first time I need to explain why I believe teaching English is the right profession for me. Between methods and the Teach for America application process, I have been asked whyyy so many times. Well, here it is. I'll tell you why. I want to be an English teacher for three reasons: One, the teachers in my life have had so much of an impact in making me who I am today. With their help, I graduated high school, got into college, and have almost finished college (among many, many other things)! I want to have a similar, positive impact on my own students. Two, I don't know what I would do with a ton of money if I had a high-paying job. Becoming a teacher will provide me with just enough! :) And the third reason kind of solidified after spending a week at the NCTE conference. I came to realize that I really enjoy working with the people in this field, and I feel like I fit in here :) It also doesn't hurt that I've been living with a high school English teacher for the last four or so years. 

But what kind of teacher am I going to be? This is a question that has both intrigued and worried me for the las two or three semesters. I spent many of my classes here at Ship and back in high school observing the many different types of teachers and how they make it work. I know for sure that I do not want to be an overly boring or strict teacher, but I also do not want to be that super fun, pushover teacher [or any of the teachers on the left really]. I want to be a fun teacher who is also effective. I want to have that class that the students are actually excited to attend and experience. I also really want to use nontraditional texts in my classroom....but at this point, until I'm employed, that is an auxiliary desire. Anyway, I'm rambling. Carrying on with this blog post! I think that this semester has been rather crazy...what with classes, jobs, clubs, attempting to have a social life....I'm still not entirely sure how I've made it this far. I mean...apart from employing sleep deprivation to get everything done...I'm honestly not sure how I'm finally at the end of my undergrad career, but it feels pretty awesome! As far as this semester goes, there have been three major things that have influenced and solidified my continuing desire to be an English teacher.

• NCTE & Vegas:  I was super super nervous to attend this conference on the other side of the country! All of my worries were for nought though. Honestly, every single person we met at the conference was incredibly nice and welcoming. Everyone was eager to chat and get to know one another. At the end of the conference Travis and I had the opportunity to meet Kylene Beers, an author on adolescent literacy, via Twitter and then in person. She wanted to help out a few pre-service teachers and decided to gift us her giant box of books that everyone received coming into the ALAN Workshop. It was so selflessly kind of her...it was freaking awesome. These kind of experiences occurred over and over during the whole trip. Furthermore, the panel that Dr. Shannon, Travis, Heather, and I put on was so well received. We had people talking to us directly after the panel and pretty much every day after as well. It was a really awesome experience!

• Teach for America:  This has been a crazy process. When I first looked into it all I could see were the infinite steps one had to take and the hoops I needed to jump through; it was all incredibly intimidating. Somehow, I made it through the entire process and was offered to attend a final interview. I accepted and traveled to George Washington University in DC on 12/3 to do so. It was actually really fun! It was an all day event with about 12 other applicants from the area (I traveled the furthest distance, bleh). We all taught quick (and by quick I mean 5 minute max) lessons, participated in some group activities, and attended a few sessions. After all of this, we were allowed a lunch break. Given we were in the heart of DC, about five of us decided to go explore together for a few hours until our personal interviews. We ended up at some Mediterranean restaurant where we ate outside and got to know each other  I was really interesting to hear from others why they wanted to teach, why they decided to pursue TFA, and just their general background/life stories. If I get accepted into this program, I am excited to work with people just like them :) 

• Pre-Student Teaching: This has been a particularly interesting step in the whole college process. My original placements were at Central Dauphin East Middle and High schools. First first two full days in each school found me driving the hour home and wondering what the hell I was getting myself into. The students and schools that I encountered were nothing like what I remembered from middle school and high school. I grew up in a bubble of a suburb. Not a whole lot of diversity to be found. CD East is the complete opposite of what I've grown accustomed to. Frankly, I was ready to just go ahead and pull a Walt White (for those of you who are familiar with Breaking Bad) and find something completely different to go and do. But, I couldn't really pull myself together to try and do something like that, so I just kept going back to the schools and soon they started to grow on me. The students are rather awesome and not nearly as intimidating as they started off as. And while I have a new placement for my high school for actual student teaching, I am really looking forward to going back to CD East Middle school!

The mystery now becomes student teaching. What will it be like? How overwhelmed are we going to be? Will our students like us and want to learn with us? I've met with my first co-op and, like I said before, I am really excited to work with her again. I'm looking forward to her email in the next week or two that will give me some clue as to what I need to start prepping for January. As of now, I'm pretty calm about it all, but come that email I'm sure the panicking will start. My co-op commented that she is glad I don't start in the classroom until a few weeks after the break; she wants time to warn them of my soon-to-be presence. So, future students, brace yourselves. I'll see you in a month.

As for the rest of you from methods... We've sort of made it to adulthood! Whatever that means.