You guys! It is almost time for internship! I have been thinking about this experience all summer. I know, I know. One of the perks about being a teacher is taking at least the month of July off to de-teacher. But not me! I have been looking forward to this experience with excitement and flat out fear since April. So many things are running through my mind. What will I be teaching? Will I be able to help my students learn? What is the curriculum like (don’t worry, I have looked through all of this already)? How on earth am I going to do this? What will the environment be like? Will my co-op like my teaching style? Is the smell really going to be that bad (I am in a 7/8 split)? Am I ready for this? Will I make a good teacher? Will I know how to be a teacher when I am done this?
As you can tell, my questions vary from light to pretty serious. This experience will show me, at least in part, if I can do this. As a married 28 year old with no kids, I feel a little stress that this HAS to work. I need this career choice to be the one that lets Chris and I really settle down and start our family. Everyone that I have taught with and for have told me that I am going to make a great teacher. They have told me that I have a very calm demeanor and am very well planned and organized. I believe those things too. I love teaching. I look forward to having a room when I don’t have someone sitting over me constantly watching and making notes. Those people are very important and I appreciate them right now while I am learning, but I want to do it on my own. I think the fear I feel comes from spending a great deal of time on my first degree and then it not really panning out. I really wanted to be a psychologist. It was my dream and I loved every bit about it. But life didn’t have that in the plans for me. Teaching feels like a wonderful, fulfilling, and stressful thing and it is what I want to do. So what if it doesn’t pan out either?
Statistics show that about 30% of teachers quit the profession in their first year. I ask why. Why does this career end up spitting so many new teachers out? Is it because they weren’t prepared for the sometimes harsh realities of teaching? Did it just turn out to not be for them? Did life have other plans? It is a scary statistic, and I am sure everyone says this going in, but I will not be one of those 30%. I am in this for the long haul. Often talking through your fears and concerns, even if it is writing them down for potentially others to read (or not, I am not the boss of you) can impact your resolve. I recommend trying it out, as I already feel a little bit better about my internship and future career.
I am counting down the days until I can contact my co-op and discuss with him what subject I will be tackling for my 4 months. But, I could tell that he wanted his July and I am happy to give him that.
Mrs. Chyz's Classroom 