Originally published 092623

2001: A Student Teaching Odyssey

The bell rang, and the kids filed out.

Dan (the Master Teacher) put his arm around my shoulder and said, “Maybe we should write this off as a learning experience.”

Translation: It’s been three weeks, and you really suck at teaching.

We’d gambled our future on this career change.

I had to land a job so Susan could begin working on her credential.

Sucking at teaching wasn’t an option.

Pressure brought the problem into focus.

A moment of clarity, and yeah, I can do that.

After what became a surprisingly successful student teaching gig at Parkway Middle School, Dan shook my hand and said with a smile, “You work too hard.”

It may have appeared that way, but it wasn’t really work.

Inventing a way to survive (and then thrive) in a hostile work environment became an epic quest.

The conflict wasn’t with Dan or the kids.

It was school.

School sucks.

Other than PE and art, I’d never liked school. I couldn’t successfully employ traditional teaching methods because I couldn’t find the beat.

Direct instruction was my Goldilocks dilemma. “Just right” for some kids was too this or too that for others (and I knew what that felt like).

I wasn’t prepared to see that so clearly (from the front of the room), and I didn’t handle the dissonance well.

I spent an inordinate amount of time refining and updating my prototype (017).

I featured it in the interview for the second-semester gig at Valhalla.

Which led directly to another learning experience (014).

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Context: My first student teaching assignment had been an unmitigated disaster (044). This was (literally) my last chance. Dan gave me permission to try asynchronous instruction. The prototype was guided by necessity (inspiration born of desperation).

Featured Image: Think of our education system as a large corporation, and students as the employees.

My words. Image from 049.

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