Biggest Surprise!

"Now that you are nearing the end of your first quarter of your internship, what has been your biggest surprise about being in the classroom and working with students?"

My biggest surprise in working with students is definately how important a consistent routine is to students. In my classroom we have a very predictable school schedule from day to day, with assembly or half days being an exception. This schedule has been the same since the beginning of the school year so the students are accustomed to this routine in our classroom. On Halloween my students had a different schedule than normal. Instead of having math and extras in the afternoon we had a Fall Harvest celebration where the students did some fall activities and got to watch The Incredibles for the remainder of the school day. All day the students were already wired because it was Halloween and they couldn't wait for the evening so they could go and trick-or-treat, so that extra energy is completely understanding. However, during the day where the routine was the same as any other Friday the students were able to put that energy toward their work. Once we got to the time of day where we were doing the Fall Harvest celebration the students didn't really know what to do with themselves. During the entire movie students were constantly coming up to my CT and I asking permission to do tasks which are trivial, wanting to know what they should be doing, and so forth. It seemed like the students weren't used to so much freedom of choice in our classroom, and truthfully it is fairly structured, but I would have expected the students to be excited for so much free time and a time period where they could just relax and not have to do anything really academic.

My biggest surprise working in the schools in general is how much the children really impact my daily life. Going into student teacher I knew that I would obviously get to know the students since I would be spending so much time with them over the course of the school year. I just never realized how much I would really care about the students and their happiness and well-being. Everyday I go home and think about my students in some way, whether that be correcting their homework or just of something eventful that had happened over the school day. When I have a student that is having problems at home, or just having a rough day overall, their unhappiness and issue really resonates with me and is something that I almost can't stop thinking about over the course of the day. One example is earlier in the year one of my student's brother passed away suddenly and the child is still struggling with acceptance and her emotions on a daily basis. When I found that out, I was sad for my student, of course, but I was more upset seeing her going through her mourning process and knowing there is not a whole lot that I can do to make her happy or feel better besides make sure she knows I am a resource for her to turn to. And although this connection that I feel between my students and I validates why I went into teaching in the first place since I am getting to make a positive impact in my student's lives and help them discover that learning can be fun. However, even in the brief time that we have spent in the classroom so far, I have learned a lot about teaching and children from the best resource that is available - from the children themselves.