There is no amount of education that can prepare a teacher for what actually happens in the classroom.
I graduated in 2006 from William Care College in Gulfport, Mississippi. Back then, it was a private college. Now, it is a university. I’m sure I was the last graduating class from William Carey College because it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. I took my remaining classes during my last semester in a high school classroom and a room in a church that did not get blown away. I suppose being back in a high school setting was pretty neat. My whole college experience was not a traditional one like the one I had when I went to college right out of high school. But no matter where and when I attended college, it could not have prepared me for real-life in the classroom.
Don’t get me wrong; I absolutely love teaching. I’m going to be honest though. It is not for everyone. I wholeheartedly believe that when a person decides to go to college for education, one of the requirements should be spending time shadowing a teacher or interning in a real classroom. Experiencing different grade levels wouldn’t be a bad idea either. How does one really know what grade level he or she wants to spend 9 or more hours a day, and 5 days a week for the next 25 plus years in?
I got lucky. I was hired at a middle school to be an assistant to a hearing impaired 7th grade student. This was my first true experience in the public school system. I attended Catholic school from kindergarten to 12th grade, and they are not the same. It’s not a negative, but it is different. We didn’t have ISS or ISI. We had “you mess up, and you’re getting kicked out of school.”
My first day of work as an aid, a boy down the hallway threw a metal trashcan that bounced down the hall. The boy was already in ISI. This had scared me. I didn’t know what was happening in that moment. But, I made it through the day, and I even went back for more for the next four years. During that first year, I decided to go back to school for education and focus on teaching the middle school aged kids. I graduated with my bachelor’s degree with concentrations in reading and English. This meant that I could teach the secondary grade levels as well as elementary grade levels.
Now, just because I took American Lit and British Lit. and all of the other “Lits” doesn’t mean I should have been teaching 6th, 7th, and 8th grades English Language Arts. I didn’t learn how to teach grammar or writing essays. I read stories and books…a lot of them. I did write the required essays in my English Composition classes. That still didn’t teach me how to teach it. I had to pull my knowledge way back from my English classes in 8th grade and high school years. I really taught myself at the same time as my students. I also attended a lot of professional development that was specifically for ELA. But in all honesty, the academic portion is the easiest part of education.
Teaching about 100 plus eigth-graders every day was the real challenge. I took one behavior management class. The only thing I remember from that class was making posters with class expectations that couldn’t say “don’t, do not, or no.” That most certainly did NOT preparing me for anything…at all…ever! There were so many strong personalities in one room at a time.
They came from many different demographics. A lot of the students were raising siblings. Some had no water. No electricity. No food. No parents. Some students had parents in prison. One of my last couple of years working there, a brother and sister that were in my class witnessed their father taking their mother’s life in the front yard. College does not prepare you for any of this. I don’t think anyone or anything can prepare you for situations like these. College also doesn’t prepare you for the bonds that are made with these kids. Watching them walk out the door on the last day of school is heartbreaking wondering if you will ever see the again. And college doesn’t prepare you for the tears and hysterical cries from students who didn’t want to leave you because the impacted you made in their lives, or the tear you will cry because they have made an impact on your life as well. And it does not prepare you for getting a phone call from two former students telling you they just had their baby, she’s really premature, and wants you to come see them and the baby at the hospital giving up a visitation time with their tiny 2 lb. baby. This was the most memorable experience in my teaching career. This couple is still together today even after all these years. They have two girls, and they are successful and as strong as ever.
I do believe my positive experiences did outweigh the negative ones overall. But I haven’t even brought up the behavior challenges colleges don’t prepare you for! There is no sense in dwelling in that area. If you are currently a classroom teacher, then you know. And if you are not, go sub for a day or two in the classroom. The days are great, but those moments are not so great. And I say “moments” because in my experience, the tough situations don’t last all day long. There are still the pencil tappers or constant blurters, but those are such minor disturbances though hard to tune out. I just know we can’t let students take our sunshine. I know they aren’t taking mine!
I stayed with that age group for 10 1/2 years until we moved to Texas on a military transfer. But this happened at a good time even though it ended up being in the middle of the school year. It was the perfect time to step away, rest, and recharge. And I did.
I am still teaching, but I am teaching elementary students. It’s the best though it does come with its challenges as well, and some are not too much different than those of the older kids. They have unwanted behaviors. They have families who struggle. They just have things going on at home.
Colleges can teach things like academics, theories, how to write lesson plans, behavior management strategies, and they cannot prepare you for the stories students will share, the students you will wonder about for years to come, or the experiences you will have when you walk through the classroom door.
That is the day your real teacher education begins.
My former students who made the biggest impact in my life! The ones I will always think about. The ones that will always have a piece of my heart.
Leave a Reply