Teach the Teacher

Reminiscing about the student teaching days.

You know what sucks? Student teaching.

Holy shit was that an experience.

By the time I was undergoing my “welcome to education hell,” I was 90% resolved that I wasn’t going to be a teacher. Now, student teaching typically happens during your last semester. Although some opt to take it earlier. During that time, you aren’t allowed to take any other classes. And to sprinkle some shit-flakes on top, there’s a project you have to undergo called the “edTPA.”

By the time my junior year rolled around, I was on the fence about teaching. My professors didn’t do a great job at selling it, and the pay was going to be shit. On top of that, most teachers quit within four years (44% quit within five). It’s a high-stress job with low-pay and minimal recognition. Watching a high-school teacher get bullied during my observation hours confirmed that I may have made the wrong choice.

Yes, that happened.

My first school for observation hours was Kankakee High School. The first teacher I had to observe got shoved into a locker. This teacher was a rotund, meek-looking fellow who opted to flip on the TV during class instead of using creative and engaging lessons. In fact, I don’t know why he signed up to have a college student observe his classroom. Maybe he wanted to warn others. I don’t know.

As an aside—I don’t know what happened to the student. I’m sure he faced some sort of disciplinary action. This took place towards the end of my hours, and I never got a chance to ask the teacher. This was also just over 10 years ago.

The other teacher I observed at the same school ruled his classroom with an iron fist. This guy was a total dick. But he had to be. Otherwise, he’d be getting swirleys.

And those observations tied into what I learned during a Classroom Management course. The vast majority of your time teaching isn’t spent teaching; it’s classroom management.

By that time, I was already getting lured back into the Marine Corps. I had gotten out in 2015, and the Corps was calling my name like an abusive ex. I joined a local reserve unit in Chicago and went to the field once a month.

And a side note: this isn’t a horrible option for those of you who are veterans in college.

In 2018, I made the decision to go over to the dark side and commission as an officer. I went to OCS that summer and returned to school to finish my final year before receiving my degree and then comissioning.

My first semester back was hell. I had to take 20 credit hours. My life was school. And it sucked. But again, I had to squeeze in those credits because you can’t take any classes during student teaching, and I wasn’t going to take summer classes to push my commission date.

Student teaching wasn’t actually horrible. I did fine. Considering I had just graduated from OCS, high-stress environments weren’t abnormal to me. Dealing with students who were rebellious was actually easier than I thought.

Now, as a former enlisted grunt, it might be easy to assume that all you have to do is yell and people will listen, right?

Wrong.

People hate that shit. Even in the military.

To get students to stop acting up, all I did was stare into their souls. The awkward silence was enough to keep students from being disruptive. But the second you yell or raise your voice at a student, you lose them. And that’s worse than a disruptive class.

The workload was intense. Lesson planning took up a lot of time. Grading was time-consuming. Confronting students who cheated (and then dealing with blatant lying) sucked. A snow-storm forced a week of stay at home learning, and I had to develop e-learning lessons (this was pre-COVID and hadn’t been implemented at the school).

And that edTPA… man. Separate from passing Student Teaching, you had to teach a set of very specific lessons that hit very specific widgets. Passing this meant you could be licensed to be a teacher. This was rigid and grueling work.

I liked to teach with a very informal approach. I viewed teaching as developing a relationship with the class and letting that carry the lessons. The edTPA forced me to step aside from that and teach according to the edTPA.

All of that to say, despite the grueling hard work and the students who made teaching challenging, I loved teaching.

It’s often during student teaching that students realize they don’t want to be teachers. Far too late in their collegiate careers to make a major change. Far too risky to fail and be forced to spend another semester at school.

I often wonder if teaching looked more promising, how different my life would be.

Anyway, carry on with your day. I was feeling nostalgic about student teaching… for some reason.