STANDARDS INTRODUCTION:

I had a unique experience with my student teaching semester but loved every minute of it. My student teaching experience started off as normal. I was teaching for 8 weeks at Coal Ridge Middle School. I throughly enjoyed gaining experience and knowledge throughout my time with the students and my mentor teacher. I learned a ton about behaviors, legal issues, lesson plans, lesson ideas, classroom management and more. I was sad to be leaving my first student teaching placement because I had a great mentor and had great relationships with my students but was excited for what was to come. At my second placement at Burlington Elementary School my mentor was amazing she helped guide me through difficult process and was always willing to help. Sadly, it was short lived. I spent about 2 weeks at the elementary school before there was an emergency at Altona Middle School that lead me to long term subbing for their middle school art teacher for the remainder of my student teaching. It was a rough and quick adjustment but I made the most out of what I had. This forced me to run a classroom on my own for the first time and it was not without failure and many learning curves. I had never planned so many lessons in my life but it was enlightening to be able to have this experience. I learned a lot through trial and error and with the help of the Altona Middle School principal. It took me about a week to feel adjusted to my new environment and get everything in order and it was all uphill form there. I got a better understanding of professionalism, differentiation in my lesson planning and leadership within the school. Overall, I would not have had it any other way!