Let's Back up to the Beginning

Since I started this blog near the final days of my student teaching, I'd like to back up and tell you how I started this whole experience. Let's begin at the beginning.

First of all, I wasn't even sure I wanted to do my student teaching this Fall semester. I had already applied to graduate school last spring and was accepted into the program. I debated whether to start my master's program this semester (Fall 2009) because the program only accepts new students in the Fall; the other choice was to go ahead and do my student teaching. I was still undecided at registration time in the spring so I decided to apply for a position as a GRA (graduate research assistant). If I didn't get the assistantship, I figured I'd go ahead and do my student teaching. So, decided to go ahead and fill out my student teaching packet. I made my preferred school selections and turned in the application for the student teaching "experience" for the Fall semester.

I was quite surprised that I heard back on my placement so quickly. In May, I got a letter from the placement office telling me that I was being placed at my first choice school—"Hendrickson High." A day or two later I got my first email from "Elphaba"—little did I realize that she was the wicked witch of student teaching. She sent me a very welcoming email, and I was happy that she seemed so warm and welcoming. She invited me to meet with her and the British Literature team at a post-planning meeting in June, which was about a week and a half away. I was excited to be involved so early in my student teaching assignment. Had I known then what I know now, I would have run screaming down the halls of that high school, busted out the front door, and burned the rubber off the bottom of my new comfortable teacher shoes to escape anything to do with her. I should've known we wouldn't get a long. She told me she was a "cat person." I hate cats.

More later . . .