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.
I'm curious to know what course you were exposed to that allowed you to go into a class and teach! I have yet to teach an entire class, nor have I made a lesson plan since 10th grade in high school (and even then, it was geared more toward the little kids opposed to older students). I've always known that I wanted to teach, though, and I will do whatever it takes to get to that point!
ReplyDeleteI think your choice is great, as it is practical but you are still staying true to what you want to do, which is the most important thing. :) Little kids are sure cute, but having to control them is an entirely different thing...