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Reflections on Student Teaching

Reflections on Student Teaching

Posted by Hillary Rose on Jul 19th 2022

Reflections on Student Teaching

Student teaching - the culminating experience before finishing your teaching degree and getting ahold of that precious teaching certificate. It is a time to put all of your content and pedagogical knowledge into practice. It may very well be your first group of "my kids." Entering the classroom as a student teacher is both exciting and nerve-wracking. I sometimes look back to my own student teaching experience in 2013 and think "whew, I'm glad I don't have to do that again!"

My name is Hillary Rose, and I have just finished my 7th year as a high school history and biology teacher. Here at Amped Up Learning, I am known as "Rosie the History Teacher" - a play on my last name and one of my favorite historical figures. Though my student teaching experience was almost a decade ago, I still think about it often and have fond memories of the unique learning experiences I had.

I spent the first half of the semester teaching World History in a rural public school in my home state of Michigan. I had a wonderful host teacher who let me run with my creativity and try new things as often as I wanted. The freedom was amazing - if not a bit daunting at times! The second half of the semester was spent on a student teaching abroad experience in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. There, I taught all grade 8-12 social studies classes at an urban private school. Learning about education abroad and being immersed in another culture was life-changing!

Throughout both parts of my student teaching, I tried hard to stay organized and to make the most of the opportunities to grow as an educator. I bought a fancy personalized planner, had a big accordion file to store lesson plans, was always super early to school get everything prepared, and attended school events as often as possible. I was also desperately searching for a job to start once I graduated, which was tough since my graduation was in December and I would be living in another country for several weeks leading up to that.

Juggling this variety of teaching experiences with a job search and other responsibilities was not without challenges. Using what I learned both during student teaching, and now as an experienced educator, I have created a Student Teacher Binder with pages upon pages of organizers, templates, and ideas to help you have a smooth student teaching adventure. You can find it in my Amped Up Learning shop here: https://ampeduplearning.com/student-teacher-binder-the-ultimate-organizer-for-student-teaching/ Also, if you are reading this and have already finished student teaching, but are about to embark on your first year as an official teacher, I also have a version of this binder for you! I hope that all of the new teachers embarking on this exciting adventure have a great learning experience - you are so important in shaping the lives of our next generation!

My graduation in December 2013. I was able to wear the Dominican Republic's flag as a sash due to my student teaching abroad experience.

Teaching high school World History in Michigan.

My 12th Grade Government Class at St. Thomas School

My 12th Grade American Government class in the Dominican Republic.