Student Teaching: First Day

I was surprisingly calm when it came to planning for and thinking about my first full day of teaching--I have known what I wanted to do forever, and so it was just a matter of sitting down (or standing up, if you will) and doing it.

It was AWESOME.

I got a little nervous in the few minutes right before I stood up to take over the class. I was worried about the awkward transition to a new teacher (me) and the fact that I'd never taught more than two consecutive periods before in my life. I was slightly worried that the kids would give me trouble and that they wouldn't respect my authority as a student teacher.

But, as it so often happens, I needn't have worried.

Today we started a new unit on personal narratives, and I wanted to combine a getting-to-know-you-type activity while introducing the material, so I decided to have the students put their chairs in a circle and have every student share a short (true) story from his/her own life. As these are 7th graders, I heard some expected groans and saw some looks of frightened bewilderment.

And even though some of the students chose to pass (which was perfectly fine with me), many more decided to be brave and share a story about themselves. We had students talking about the scariest thing that's ever happened to them, about how it felt to try something new, and about how they got one of their scars. I laughed as a class clown simply shared as his story, "This scar on my finger? I got it from trying to cut open a banana. The stupid peel just didn't want to come off," and I felt like crying as one of the quieter girls somehow found the courage to say how much she missed her father, who had been deployed back to Guatemala a couple years ago.

I love the rich diversity in our classroom. I love how these students are so much kinder than I remember students being in my own junior high. I love how when I was up there directing and teaching and sharing experiences with the students, that I felt like I was where I should be.

After years of questioning whether I really wanted to be a teacher, I finally received a confirmation.

I do.