Letter
to Me
Don’t
wait until the last minute to do any papers or projects. You can kind of be bad about that sometimes.
Switch right now to middle school math and English. The secondary math route, will
not work well for you (there are some bad teachers out there). You can save
some time later by not trying to stick it out. Do what you want to do. Mom and
Dad are not going to be disappointed that you switched majors (it’s really not
a big deal). You love math and English, and going in at the middle level makes
it really easy to learn about everything you love. You are going to have some
crazy professors, who grade unfairly. Do not worry so much that you forget what
is important.
WSU has
a great lesson plan format. IT WILL SAVE YOU TIME IN THE LONG RUN! You learn
how to really utilize the lesson plan template well. MAKE IT AS DETAILED AS POSSIBLE.
One thing I would change about the courses is to have a course that talks about
how to successfully create lesson plans. This would include looking at how to
backwards plan. Otherwise you have a few teachers who teach you different
things a little at a time. It would be nice to have a class that discusses how
to efficiently plan.
ALL of the work you do in your
pre-service and pre-student teaching will come in handy! Your professors may
seem to ask for a lot, but you will want to thank them later, because
everything will come so much more easily. You will have fantastic math and
English supervisors at WSU. They will care about you and help you in any way
that they can. Do not take them for granted.
Mom and
Dad will try and convince you to sign a waiver to get out of the district you
are in. You will decide not to. This is a great choice! You will meet so many
wonderful teachers and students in your student teacher placement. Speaking of
placements, keep your notebook up to date, it will benefit you. Spend more time
experimenting with organizational systems that best suit you.
Spend
your last semesters giving everything you have! You will have one major project
in English. If you do every step one at a time, fully, then you will be so much
happier. That is something I did and I know it saved me a lot of worrying later
on.
You will
face a lot of challenges in student teaching. You will meet each one with determination,
this will help you more than you can believe. Also, remember that you are going
to an awesome teacher! Do not stress out too much during the job interview
process. Don’t worry, you will get a job. Do not be afraid to say what you
believe should happen in a classroom during your interviews. Some of the things
you believe are slightly radical in a field that can be filled with
traditionalists. There will be people who will find your views refreshing. Be
yourself! You rock, remember that!
Katie,
ReplyDeleteI love how I tell myself the same things you've told yourself here! : ) I absolutely agree with what you've written here, especially the paragraphs about the WSU lesson template actually saving you time later on and keeping your student teaching notebook updated! I know that at first glance, the lesson plan template looks daunting and intimidating with all those boxes, but filling out all those said boxes really helped me think through all the things I wanted to do in each lesson.
And you're right-as long as we continue to face each challenge that arises with determination, we will all be fine!
I am still worrying about the job part, though... I keep having nightmares that I spent all this time, money, and effort getting through college for absolutely NO REASON. I'll try to stay as determined as you are about all the issues we're facing on the hiring front! :)
I think the real difference between us as 17 year olds is knowing where we were going and what path our lives would be taking. I find it interesting that your advice focuses around easing the path through the education program and deciding on the focus you would be in. Personally, it took me several years to come into this line of work, and I had no idea I would be ending up here now.
ReplyDeleteI like the inspirational tone you took. It's a very uplifting bit of work. It's usually easier to look back only on the mistakes we made and not focus on what good decisions have lead us to where we are.