The Last Day

Yesterday was my last day of observing with my cooperating teacher. I was sad to say goodbye to all of the students I helped throughout the past ten weeks. I had an extremely good experience in my field placement. My cooperating teacher was very welcoming. She taught me a lot about teaching in general and teaching a special education class. I learned many techniques that will help me in the future with my own students.

Books are great resources for teachers to use, but they could have never prepared me for teaching as much as the field experience did. Although, I have a lot more to learn, I am more prepared to be a teacher then I was ten weeks ago.

Ever since I was little, I knew I wanted to become a teacher. However, I changed my mind numerous times about what I wanted to teach. I was not sure if I wanted to teach mathematics in a high school setting or every subject to the elementary students. Through my experience, I realized that teaching is the right profession for me. Also, I love working with the elementary students. Therefore, I am going to pursue a dual-license in Early Childhood Education and Intervention Specialist.

Ultimately, I hope to teach intervention mathematics. I want the opportunity to work with elementary students and enhance their mathematics skills. Basic mathematic facts are very important. Unfortunately, students who have problems learning their basic facts get farther and farther behind in mathematics. They grow to hate mathematics and usually struggle with it for the rest of their years in school. Therefore, I want to be the teacher who gets the students back on track and enjoying mathematics.

Overall, I had a very good experience and learned a lot of useful techniques for the classroom. I cannot wait to start my next observation experience!