March Madness

Over 80 Post Baccalaureate students are going through student teaching while 49 new students are beginning their third and fourth classes of the five classes. With everyone in different places, I thought that it would be beneficial for the new students to hear about experiences from students that are almost finished. If you are almost finished and would like to write about your experiences on the blog, just sent me an e-mail and I will get it attached. I may not be able to post all of them but I will post as many as possible.



I titled this post March Madness as a way of comparing student teaching to the basketball finals that many of us enjoy during this time of the year. Most student teachers work very hard to make points with students each day whether by a positive word, a lesson plan filled with engaging learning and executed perfectly, or a smile for a student that has had a bad day. Even though student teachers work hard, sometimes, the benefits are not as obvious as some think they should be. It may be many years, if ever, before the positive impact is known. A reflection that I read recently described a student teacher and her willingness to go the extra mile by going to a soccer game to watch her students. The benefits of the hour of her time that she took were immeasurable. The students were excited when they saw her at the game. That excitement transferred to the classroom where the students continue to work extra hard to show her their appreciation. Just remember that even as our favorite team does not always win the final game, they won some games and made an impact just getting to the BIG GAME. So it is with student teaching - you may not win them all, but you will certainly make an impact.

Reminder
On a different note, be sure that you have sent in all the paperwork for the districts in which you are applying. Once the school districts start looking at applicants for interviews, they will be looking at those with complete applications first.

Twitter
If you are using a Twitter account, you can follow the Post Bacc Group by typing in BarbDixon as a username. I am trying to introduce some of the various technologies that our Grades 6 - 12 students are using and looking at ways that we can incorporate this technology in lessons to make them more engaging for students. If you are setting up a Twitter Account, be sure that you set it so that you don't get text messages all the time (unless you have unlimited text messaging through your cellular provider).