Entering the Role of Student Teacher

Dear Future Teachers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful summer! Mine has been filled with my undergraduate commencement ceremony from UNC-Chapel Hill, trips visiting my family in Puerto Rico, and preparing to enter the Master of Arts in Teaching program as a graduate student at UNC!

Although I've taken a bit of a break from the site, I'm excited to return to writing as an official Student Teacher. Starting this blog in the summer of 2020, the prospect of student teaching seemed so far away. Now that it's finally here, I am thrilled to get into the final leg of my journey before becoming a licensed educator.

As I begin the 2022-2023 school year, the Dear Future Teachers site will be taking a bit of a shift in content. I plan to upload weekly reflections/tips/aspects of life as a student teacher for all of you wonderful people who are going to be student-teaching in the future! I also hope to provide tips and tricks, or simply relay my experiences while I prepare for taking the PRAXIS, completing my edTPA, and applying for a teaching job.

While I haven't started working with my students just yet, I want to give a rundown of how the MAT at UNC-Chapel Hill works, and share some details of my teaching placement!

Since the MAT program is an accelerated graduate program, I will be graduating within one academic year rather than two. Given the quick pace, our grad classes actually began this summer! As I publish this blog post, I am finishing up a class on working with English Language Learners right now. A large portion of our class was spent learning about dual language education, two-way language immersion classes, and the SIOP model! (I hope to share some more insight and explanations on these specific concepts soon).

The MAT program follows an immersive learning model, so I will actually be in my Student Teaching placement for the entire academic year. Starting this Fall, I will be spending my Monday's and Tuesday's taking classes, Wednesday's and Thursday's at my student teaching site, and attending meetings or completing online work on Friday's! In the winter I am slated to take my PRAXIS exams that are required before I can apply for licensure. During the Spring semester, I will be working full-time as a Student Teacher and completing my edTPA requirements! It's going to be a busy, but meaningful year!

Now comes the exciting part: my student teaching placement! This year I am elated to announce that I am placed in a 5th grade classroom (I just can't get enough of this age group!) For privacy and safety concerns, I will not be sharing the name of the school or my mentor teacher, but I am overjoyed to be able to share this journey with you all!

Our official start of the Fall semester is not until mid-August, so stay tuned for more details to come!

Much Love,

Emily B.