My classroom management professor is a part-time professor and a full-time English teacher at the local high school. He was able to get a few of his colleagues to chair a panel for our class after school on Tuesday. They introduced themselves and we were able to ask them questions as a group, then we split off into disciplines.
Not gonna lie, my first couple of questions (as a member of the social studies group) were all about the hiring process. Do you take the first job you’re offered, even if it doesn’t seem like it would be a good fit, or wait for one that might be better? (Take it.) How long did it take you to get hired as a full-time social studies teacher? (A long time.)
And their biggest piece of advise: get a minor. Everyone wants to teach social studies because it’s awesome. I’m doing an English minor and they said that should work really well. One of the teachers was also dual SS/ELA and said some years he’s taught all English and others all social studies, so having the dual endorsements was a good career move for him.
I really enjoyed it. I love our professor, but he’s just one teacher, and at this point in the process, not many of us have experienced other teachers (barring the ones we had when we were in school, of course). It was interesting to see their different personalities, and one of the biggest pieces of advice the group as a whole had was to be yourself, because the kids know when you’re not being genuine. There’s not one teacher personality, or one certain way a teacher dresses or acts, which seems obvious but can be difficult to internalize this early in the process.
In other news, this quarter is a lot more work than I thought. I’m working 15 hours a week, volunteering 3 hours a week, taking 17 credits in the form of 5 different classes, staying active in 2 clubs, and trying to go to church every Sunday. I ended up dropping my Weight Watchers membership—it kept getting pushed farther and farther down on my list of priorities and I couldn’t justify the $50 monthly fee.
Also, I wrote my first TPA today. We’ve been building up to it in my assessment class, working on the individual components until we mastered them, but this was the first full TPA we’ve done. I know mine’s not perfect but we’re critiquing them in class on Tuesday so I’m looking forward to that.
And that’s all the teacher candidate news I have at the moment. Oh—except that I also turn in my field placement request form. I requested district on an Indian reservation. I’ve been unsure about declaring an Indian Studies minor for awhile, but I worked out all my classes for the rest of the time I’m here, and it’ll require a couple quarters of 19 credit hours, but I can do it.