Week 2: Behind the Scenes of Student Teaching

I am trying my best to keep up with my weekly updates on student teaching...but please keep in mind, I am do 20 billion things at once...because that just the life of Natalie. 

This past week has been much better... I am still alive :) It has taking it one day at a time, so I don't get too overwhelmed. 

Let me just give you some insight on my life at the moment. 

I have been truly blessed to be able to keep my job as an event planner at GCU, and they have allowed me to work from home. Not only do I work for GCU, I also work for a dance studio....and I student teach. Call me crazy! I find myself laughing at myself thinking how I would make this work. 

These past two weeks have been quite an adjustment. I wake up at five in the morning, leave for school, and stay there until four or five each night. Depending on the day I go straight to the studio and teach my dance kiddos, or I come home and work for GCU. In the midst of that I also have to lesson plan and grade, along with a student teaching course. 

 I didn't realize the amount of hours I spent working until I was asked the other day... I work an average of  73 hours a week.

I am a big ball of stress, and I can only blame myself.... but I am trying to make it all work out.

My mind is never completely all there at the moment, because I am thinking of 22 billion different things. I apologize for all those who have encountered me through this time, I am not myself.... ha! I also apologize for all of those who I have not seen, I literally have no time.

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Things I have learned this week: To be stern...and to yell. 

I have learned that I am not a yeller, nor is it something I want to be very good at... However, when you are managing 24 first graders, you learn to raise your voice. For some reason I thought I had this mastered with being a dance teacher. I feel like I am always yelling over music and girls chatting, however, it is so different when your in an academic setting.

During week two, I was in charge of procedures, routines, and transitions. 

Let me just tell you, lining up 24 first graders up is a lot harder than you think. Once you get one kid in line, you have another one wiggling on the floor, or getting in a fight with the kid in front of them because they cut them in line.

I have been told in my college courses for years now, that classroom management is by far the hardest thing about teaching...and boy oh boy did I realize it last week.


Another thing I learned this week, is that no matter how much vitamin C, or the amount times you wash your hands, you will never beat all the germs of 24 first graders. My second week in I already felt the sickness. With the amount of working I am doing, I am trying to make sure I am getting enough sleep, so I have some type of rest to stay strong. 

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Each day it is getting better. I am no where near where I want to be as a teacher. I also know I am by far the hardest critic on myself, and expect perfection... but I also know that is not always realistic when you're a teacher. I have a lot of growing to do as a teacher.