STUDENT TEACHING

In 1986 the University of Colorado at Boulder created a program for non-traditional/returning/older students entering the teaching profession. The program was called PROBE. We all kept a journal.

PROBE JOURNAL

STUDENT TEACHING: Before

When deciding on my student teaching assignment I formed the following concept. During the first student teaching experience, which was to be just six weeks and with gradually increasing responsibilities, I would work on my weaknesses — place myself in a situation I knew would be difficult — to maximize my own learning. In the second experience, which I understood to be the main one, with fuller responsibilities, I would go with my strengths, placing myself in a situation where I felt confident of my ability to perform.

So I chose to work with David Title and squirrelly 9th graders in the alternative-school-within-the-school at Long’s Peak Junior High called Peak II. In this situation I felt I would be forced to develop the stage presence, classroom control and assertive personality that I felt were my weaknesses. Also, Dave Title seemed the ideal PROBE cooperating teacher, interested and enthusiastic, so let it be known that the goal of recruiting truly masterful teachers into the PROBE resources was a consideration. [?] Anyway, when the extent of the first experience went from six weeks to nine it did not help alleviate the feeling that I had bitten off more than I could chew. The weeks preceding November 3rd were anxious and apprehensive ones.

STUDENT TEACHING: The Beginning

David Title teaches four physical science classes in a row each day. My assignment when I first arrived was simply to learn the names of the students in the fourth hour class, to prepare myself for taking over that class. I was surprised to find out how easy it was to learn the names with the help of the seating chart. As I observed for those first few days, my anxieties were anything but alleviated. Trying to imagine filling in David Title’s vacancy caused me to wonder why in the world had I got myself into that situation. He is forceful and theatrical, with a booming theatrical delivery; no amount of watching could lend me those tools. A famous American climber, Yvon Chounaird, has said, “It’s not a good idea to look at a big wall for too long.” Still, I followed the theory that if one is wading out into water over one’s head to thrash about, tread water, drown or whatever, why hurry?

After a week, though, I stood in front of the class, not quite paralyzed, but surely nervous. Near the end of the hour, I bobbled dropped and broke a tube full of hydrogen gas, which seemed like a classic faux pas for one’s first day. Anyway by the end of the second week I had taught three classes and stage fright was still a strong factor. I did not ask myself will this ever pass? If it didn’t pass I could never be a teacher, so I thought positively and asked only how long will it take?

STUDENT TEACHING: Third week

The Sunday evening of the Monday beginning my third week was unusual, because the constant anxiousness I had lived with for the preceding several weeks seemed lifted for the moment. Hmm, interesting, I thought, what will the morning bring? The morning reinforced the feeling that some psychological change beyond my control had taken place that would allow me to stand in front of a group of students without the adrenalin surges and flight reactions I had been laboring under. Obstacle one reduced to a manageable size, at least. And beyond that came the real challenges, and would name the big ones as follows: classroom control, and learning how to teach to persons whose learning styles and abilities are so utterly different from my own.

The pattern I fell into was strikingly like that seen in the research I had done on the behavior of student teachers during their first week. They, as I have done, tend to spend a lot effort trying to largely ineffectually control talking going on in the classroom. The third week the I title The Unassertive Personality in the Junior High Classroom. The honeymoon was over, I had two classes and they took turns degrading into environments where little or no learning took place. The authoritarian in me failed to appear, which was no surprise as I had never seen him in my lifetime. I was reduced, dismayed, and mostly wondering how the hell I was going to survive six more weeks. The idea of having an accident and being hospitalized for a while didn’t sound that bad. [Such as driving into the ditch on the way there.]

STUDENT TEACHING: Fourth week

I came in Monday with psyche rebuilt by my emotional support structure of good friends and exercise, resolved to nail the perpetrators in each class. I suppose it is not too surprising that students have adapted to be extremely sensitive to resolve a teacher’s manner before being actually effected by it. Anyway, I didn’t have to do anything — they were good, relatively good anyway. So the three days before Thanksgiving passed with some signs of improvement. I left Wednesday afternoon for the Canyonlands of Utah where I rode with others 80 miles on mountain bikes, circling the fantastic Needles district of the park. On Sunday we climbed on the demanding vertical Wingate sandstone, finding as I have on climbs that I’ve done in recent weeks that since starting student teaching it is harder to get scared. This interesting side effect finds me climbing very well. I arrived home late Sunday, and Monday morning I started for the first time with all four of David’s classes and my own curriculum. Full responsibilities with the challenge of remolding my own formal knowledge in to super-simplified and experimental lessons. With the refreshing break of a field trip on Wednesday, beautifully organized by a Dave Title with a lot of time on his hands, the week went well. On Friday there were even some moments when I thought I might be enjoying myself. Coming up, reputedly the toughest time of the year to teach — the two weeks before Christmas.

[journal ends here]

[David Title retired in 2014 after 35 years of teaching. He has 1500 followers on Facebook.]