Today I met with my first placement cooperating teacher, Mrs. Stanton. She’s a wonderful lady, and last fall I was able to have clinical hours with her on Fridays, so I was already comfortable with her and her teaching style–I was eager to start!
We met at her house and talked about what would happen in the next few weeks. At this point, I had no idea what to expect. I knew I wanted to take control of the classes as soon as possible, but would that mean I needed to read a bunch of novels over the next week? What novels? Did I have the freedom to teach however I liked? And what the heck was I going to do with the American Literature class?!
I sat down with Mrs. Stanton and we discussed the class schedule, the class periods, and the books that we could potentially start with. We decided on Tuesdays with Morrie for the English 10 students, The Scarlet Letter for the American Seminar 11 classes, and Old Man and the Sea for Honors 10. We then talked about how I would start to take control of the classroom. I was going to start, day one, with English 10. By the first week I’d have both English 10 and Honors 10, and hopefully by that next week I’d take over the American Seminar. Exciting! But also terrifying!
We did some preliminary planning, but these are my thoughts after meeting:
- Focus: Read/re-read the textbooks to prepare for lessons
- To-Do: Plan a complete unit for Tuesdays with Morrie
- Goals: To go into the experience confident, prepared, and positive
We talked about the upcoming Professional Development days, the hours of school, and what events I could participate in. After leaving, I felt ready (still a little nervous!) but excited to start teaching. My first task: plan the New Mohawk Day for incoming freshmen students.