Coming to Terms with My Profession

Finally, here I sit in my last set of classes before my student teaching block. I've been dreaming of this moment for years and yet now that I'm here, I'm experiencing a whole line of emotions I wasn't prepared for. It wasn't that I didn't face the reality of it til now, it was just that I didn't actually accept the reality of it until now. The past three years of my education I've just been absorbing facts and ideas and soon they'll actually all go into practice. I'm nervous and a little afraid, but my excitement outweighs all the rest. I cannot wait to finally get into a classroom!
When we made the list of the things that scares us in class, I suddenly realized that I'm not the only one that experiences these same fears. The fact that these emotions are being experienced by all of us is a great comfort. I am not alone! Nevertheless, there are still a few things that worry me greatly. Those being: the emotional concerns of my students, connecting relativity, and strategies to use with struggling students. I think the last one is my biggest concern. I'm worried that I'll have such a large spectrum of learning abilities in my class that I won't be able to devise a plan to reach all of them. I have a hard time accepting the fact that I might have to just keep moving on while a few of my students struggle to keep up.
Last semester when I took 487, I rekindled my love for writing and began to see all of the possibilities of how writing could be used in the classroom. The freedom of writing makes me believe that I can use this technique to harness the creativity of my students. And likewise from 486, I cannot wait to start teaching all sorts of different methods of storytelling (novels, graphic novels, poetry, etc). These two classes I felt most prepared me for the field thus far in my time at Millersville.
I'm excited to face the challenges that teaching will bring me. It'll be hard work, but I'm ready to continue growing and furthering my education while I help my students expand their own horizons and prepare them for their futures. Bring it on!