Standards Introduction: 

My student teaching experience was not quite what I was expecting going into this, but it was the most enriching 16 weeks full of learning and growing as an educator. My first (and only) placement was at Sussex Central High School in Georgetown, Delaware. I spent the first eight weeks with two incredible mentors, who have helped shape my teaching style and encouraged my confidence in the classroom. This experience was different from what is typical for the student teaching program because the art department was short one teacher. So, at the beginning of week 2 I started teaching one class on my own. While this was great, three other classes did not have a teacher. After getting approved to stay at SCHS for the remainder of my student teaching, I began teaching the remaining classes starting at week 8. While this was hectic and somewhat stressful at times, I feel as though this made me a more confident and well rounded teacher. The student body at this school is different from any school I have ever taught in. There are several students whose first language is not English, so a challenge for me was translating everything to Spanish. After a few days I became adjusted to this. I was worried about making connections with students in the middle of the semester, but I quickly realized this would not be an issue. The students were so excited to finally have a teacher. I spent a few weeks getting these classes caught up with instruction and assignments in order to meet the minimum grade requirements for the marking period. When I felt like I was finally able to catch my breath and start fresh with new lessons for a new marking period, I was surprised to find a new art teacher was starting at the beginning of the new marking period. So, I reverted back to my previous schedule with my original two mentor teachers to teach lessons and help them in their classes. As I am writing this, I still have four weeks left of student teaching, and I am excited to see how much more I will grow as an educator. While this was not what I originally had in mind for student teaching, I would not change a thing for the world.