I have been going to school my entire life. In December, I graduated with my Master’s degree and in January I began teaching College-level English! Well, I’ve been teaching for a full month now so let me tell you how it feels:
A Month in Teaching – Gif-Style
The morning of your first class, you feel giddy inside! Everything you’ve worked for is finally here.
Then, all of the sudden, you’re there, they’re there, and you realize that you are the adult. Even if some of your students are older than you (like 10 years older than you), you are the adult and it’s time to do adulting things, like oh I don’t know, teaching!
So you finally spit out your own name which you’re not even sure if you spelled it right and then…
Your student’s have hard names and let’s be honest, you’re not all that great with names to begin with (remember, you nearly forgot how to spell yours)
But you do it, you get through your first day, and before you know it, you even get through your first week! And maybe you’re not the cool, calm, collected professor you set out to be (it’s hard to be that when you’re phone goes off in class and you can’t get it to stop ringing), but maybe you’re the approachable professor that will actually make a difference in your student’s lives.
And even though no one is an English major, you still want them to understand the beauty of writing!
So you keep at it and you totally light up when that one student who was really struggling just gets it!
But let’s be honest, there will always be those students who come to class, who haven’t done the reading, who haven’t asked questions, and are still texting on their phone. So you just look at them like:
Oh, and don’t forget! When you get that first big assignment in from your students and then realize that you will be spending your entire weekend grading.
And that’s all folks, I’ll have to do a new one of these once I finish my first semester!