Even before I applied to SNHU I wanted to be an elementary music teacher. I thought start from the bottom and work my way to high school and maybe one day go to grad school and become a college professor. I thought teaching elementary school would be easy and fun because I love working with little kids. I also have 2 nieces that are 2 and 4, and I adore them. But I was wrong, working with younger kids is a lot harder then people realize.
My first teaching experience was during my second semester of my freshman year here. We were co-teaching as a class at Northwest Elementary school, where I actually went to. There would be 2 of us co-teaching with the teacher of the classroom while the rest of our peers watched; there were only 8 of us in total. I was mostly stuck with kindergarten and first grade. We had to make lesson plans, practice and memorize the tunes we would sing for them. I would rehearse the lesson at home in my room before we actually had to teach. Sometimes in the classroom students would disrupt the class and I wouldn't get through my entire lesson plan. Once my lesson plan was too short and the teacher stepped in with a "filler" activity. For our final we had to teach a class all by ourselves and it was actually recorded for us to keep and put into our portfolios.
My biggest challenge was time management within the classroom. Also I had to tell the younger students exactly where and how to sit on the floor. There were a lot of tantrums when working with kindergarten and behavioral issues. After the class I realized I do not want to teach elementary, it is more difficult then I thought it would be. I think I want to teach middle school or possibly high school but I won't be too picky when it comes time for the job search.
