What Makes You Feel Ready to Student Teach? (sample essay)

Ready to Teach Other Students

Growing up, I always pestered babysitters and older friends for tales of their favorite-and least favorite-teachers. This was a strange preoccupation for a little kid, but I think that even then I realized how much influence a teacher can have on the life of her students. As I moved through elementary and middle school and into high school and college, I was lucky enough to have talented and enthusiastic teachers who taught in a variety of styles and with many eclectic personalities. When I began college, I knew that I would want to teach when I was done, and that feeling has never left. I know that this is the right profession for me, and I am so excited to learn more about how to do it well.

A good teacher is flexible, creative, enthusiastic, and a hard worker, and I believe that I have displayed all of these characteristics as I have moved through my previous schooling. In my education classes, when I plan lessons, I see myself in my mind's eye, teaching them. I have learned so much in class, and now I feel I am ready to get the on the ground training that any successful teacher needs, as a student teacher in a real classroom.

One of my strengths is my ability to connect with kids. I have always loved children, and feel that I talk to them well and that they respond positively to me. I know that being a teacher means having a certain remove from one's students in order to maintain classroom management and order, but my natural rapport with my students, willingness to go the extra mile to help them succeed, and my creativity in lessons will, I hope, put me in good stead as a student teacher. I also have strong communication skills, which is important first of all for communicating information to students. However, students are not the only people that one communicates with as a teacher: parents, colleagues, and other school stakeholders are also people one must interact with, and I believe that I can do that positively and professionally.

Of course, while I am optimistic about my success in the arena of student teaching, there are certainly areas in which I feel unprepared. One of these is the arena of classroom management, which I know is a challenge for many beginning teachers. While I have general ideas on how to manage a classroom, and even some specific strategies I want to try, I know that this is something I will have to learn on my feet to a great extent. There are many resources available to me in terms of books like Harry Wong's First Days of School. Another way to address these is to talk to teachers I know, both veteran and younger: what did they do that worked, and what should I avoid? Using other teachers as a professional development resource will hopefully allow me to avoid some of the pitfalls of classroom management and to be effective from my very first day in the classroom.

I know that student teaching will be a wonderful experience in many ways, but my specific goal is to gain experience in the day to day running of a classroom. Establishing procedures for how the class will go, balancing review and assessment with the acquisition of new material, and differentiating instruction for students with different learning styles and needs are all things that I cannot learn entirely from a textbook. The next step to make me a good teacher is student teaching. It's a step I can't wait to take.