Saying goodbye to your first placement

As my first placement comes to an end, I am beginning to realize how much I'm going to miss my students and the environment of the school. I anticipated that I would find students that I would connect with and attach to, but I never thought I would find myself wishing I could come back and see them again after my student teaching is done. Today one of my students asked me when she would see me again after I left, an thought it was totally unnecessary for me to go to the high school. This really made me want to stay!

There is no doubt that I learned a lot about how to teach, but I also learned a lot about the community of the school. My school has been going through a lot of changes, and it's interesting to see how the staff are handling everything. It's easy to see there are politics everywhere!

My cooperating teacher talks to me a lot about the students and their families to get a deeper insight on their lives and where their art expressions come from. Before I began student teaching, I thought about the lessons I would learn and the classroom management strategies that I could pick up, but I never really considered all these other little things that are vital to a classroom teacher.

I've realized that there are ups and downs to being a teacher--the enjoyment students get from what they are doing, to the "boredom" students feel when a lesson isn't up to their standards. I know it goes with the territory, but there is still a part of me that wishes I could make every student happy.