Congratulations!! The day you have worked so hard for is finally here! You have finally finished your student teaching experience, but now what?? We are all individuals and we need to reflect on what situations will work best for ourselves. You may feel confident enough to jump right in and manage your own classroom or you may feel you would like a bit more experience and try your hand at substitute teaching. In this post I will talk about my personal journey and some thoughts that may help you with deciding what would be the best next step for you!
Throughout my college career I had the opportunity to observe and spend quite a bit of time in various classrooms, which I am very thankful for!
During my Practicum I spent 2 weeks at an urban school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania which was a much different setting from the area I am from. I attended faculty meetings, workshops and did some teaching in a 1st grade classroom with the supervision of the immediate teacher.
My 1st placement during student teaching was in 1st grade at a local Catholic school, which I actually attended as a student when I was younger! I attended faculty meetings, created lesson plans, graded student work and tests...with the supervision of the immediate teacher.
My 2nd placement was in 6th grade at a near by public school as the reading teacher. Again, I pretty much had the same workload. I attended faculty meetings, created lesson plans, graded student work and tests...with the supervision of the immediate teacher.
Field work, Practicums, observations and student teaching will provide you with many experiences and situations that will hopefully help you become a successful teacher.
Field work, Practicums, observations and student teaching will provide you with many experiences and situations that will hopefully help you become a successful teacher.
After graduating and receiving my teaching certificate my next step in the teaching world was to become a substitute teacher. I have only been substitute teaching for about 5 months but I can honestly say that I have learned more in this short amount of time than I had in all my years of college! If you notice above, I made it a point to include that all of my experiences were with the supervision of an immediate teacher. Once you are in a classroom alone with 20some students, things tend to be a bit different!
Unless you are 110% confident with yourself as a new teacher, my advice would be to gain valuable experience as a sub.
Decide what school/s you would be interested in receiving a full time position at.
You may want to sub at 2 or 3 schools, which is great! This will give you the opportunity to determine which school you feel would be a perfect fit for you. If one school does not seem to be the right place for you, you may decide to leave that school behind and give more of your effort to an amazing school you would love a permanent position at. All of this is a learning and growing experience for you as a teacher!
Subbing is an opportunity for you to see what works for you and what doesn't. You can observe what your strengths are and what areas you may need to improve.
Subbing in a school district that you wish to be a permanent teacher at also allows you to see how the school works. (Lesson plan formats, attendance, lunch count, specials, rules, expectations, etc.) It also allows you to become familiar with the faculty and staff.
I probably could have said all of that ^ in a few short words...basically, after student teaching I would highly recommend subbing!
I was recently asked to take a long term sub position starting in March, I am so excited! I feel that my time as a day to day sub has helped me become more confident with my ability to take on this new adventure!
This post is getting a bit long, but I will be writing new ones as my journey continues! :)
Thank you for reading! Happy teaching! :)
