Lessons Learned

My first semester in a classroom has been an exciting one. The particular room I was in at first did not seem to be the ideal one to observe. The students in my class were taking freshman English for the second or third time and did not seem to have any interest in passing the class. However, before I realized it, I caught myself enjoying being in this class.

The first thing I learned this semester was that every student can try when they want to. My teacher asked me to work with a boy who did not usually turn in any week. I was to work with him on a character analysis essay. He seemed very enthusiastic about it when we were talking, but I figured he would go home and forget about the assignment and never finish it. However, the next week I walked into class and he came up to me and said, "Hey did you hear? I turned in my paper!" He now turns in most of his work.

The second thing I learned was that you can have fun joking with your class. Though the class I am in is a rowdy one and I am sure my teacher gets frustrated them, she always seems to be in good spirits and does her best to joke around and be nice to them, rather than scold them.

The last thing I learned about during this experience is that I truly believe teaching is what I will spend the rest of my life doing. I was unsure going into all of this, but seeing and experiencing the classroom has made up my mind that teaching is not only what I will do for my career, but I will also actually enjoy doing it.