The Drive to Thrive After Week 5

 Welcome back to my teaching adventures! It is hard to believe that 5 weeks of student teaching are complete which means I am 1/3 of the way through my student teaching internship. Between teaching nearly a full course load and building more connections with students every day, time surely does fly by when you're having fun! 

A few of the highlights from my week include helping students overcome their fears and also connecting the content of the week to a real-life application. One of the most impactful experiences this week was in my independent study welding class. The four students and I started our oxi acetylene torch cutting in the shop for the first time this week. My one student had stated that torch cutting was her biggest fear for this class. After learning our shop safety and demonstrating the learned procedures for torch cutting, it was finally time for the students to practice. The student that was most afraid of torch cutting was my first student to practice and she overcame her fear as I coached her through the process. She was able to successfully light the torch, prepare it properly and effectively cut the piece of steel. Having a student that faced her fears and trusted me to get her to guide her safely through the process was a wonderful moment in my teaching career.  

Another highlight from my week was connecting the information previously learned in other classes to create a visual representation of the major concepts that relate to our current unit of study. In two of my classes, my students created mind maps to connect information, concepts, and systems in animal science. This was a great way to connect the information in an agriculture class to other science classes throughout the school. 

Some of my goals for this upcoming week include increasing my planning horizon and pushing my students through more rigorous content. Now that I have taken the time to get to know my students, I am very excited to challenge them more through inquiry-based learning. I want to always continue to challenge my students and take advantage of every opportunity that I can! 

Reflecting on all of the time that I have spent in Gettysburg, I truly could not be any luckier! I am thoroughly enjoying every moment of success and struggle and cannot wait to see what the next 10 weeks have in store!