Things are starting to wind down.

We are almost halfway through November. Soon Thanksgiving will be here and a few days later, the end of my pre-student teaching.

I have taught my required lessons for this semester, but I am still co-teaching with D. She offers wonderful advice and pushes me to be a better instructor. I wish my other CTs would have put in half the effort D. has put in with me, I have grown so much in this class.

We have started Unit 21. The final unit before the semester ends. D. and I switched our parts around a bit during this class. I teach for the first portion, she teaches the second portion. I cover phonemics, spelling, and vocab.

This stuff is known to me in an overview. This class breaks down that overview into smaller pieces. I must say, I have learned SO MUCH  in teaching these lessons alone. I did not realize how much of an overview I had over English. This class addresses the little 'nuts and bolts' of English. It truly shows the students how to break a part the English language and to make sense of it.

I think that has been a pretty large struggle with this class personally. I felt as though I should have already known most of this. I didn't. I never studied what a predicate nominative was, I never studied vowel digraphs. These (and many more) terms were foreign. I felt like a big joke. I felt like my college career was a joke.

While I was teaching myself the basics of the English language, I also learned something that every teacher should learn, humility. I learned that I will not know everything, and I will learn something new everyday in my classroom. I learned not to be ashamed of what I didn't know and to strive to better myself. It is okay to say "I do not know", "I will find out", or "That is a great question, I will let you know!". It is important to provide the reassurance that you too are a person, not some sort of English whiz there to break a part your incorrect use of a word, your funky sentence, or to chastise you on spelling. We all are people, we all make mistakes, simply be honest with yourself, improve, and strive for success. Isn't that what we ask our students to do anyways?

-Ms. H.