Week 13 Student Teaching

I Teach Students

This on Friday, April 5th I taught my last lesson for Ag Engine Care. I begin to reflect on the strides I had made toward learning how to teach content that I was uncomfortable with. Instead, I came to a better conclusion.

I had grown tremendously in my content knowledge of Small Gas Engines because of the help of Mr. Bowen. I had taught the basics to students and brought something new to the class every day, but I worried that I didn't teach my advanced students a darn thing.

I announced in the last 5 minutes of class that it was my last day teaching, and Bowen would be on his own the rest of my time here. I asked them, since they contributed to my learning experience in college, if they wanted to, they may sign my graduation cap. A large amount of the students jumped up and grabbed a sharpie.

This experience made me feel appreciated. I was harsh some days, unhelpful other days, and I began to feel inadequate in making a difference to their learning. When they signed the cap, I realized they appreciated me for SOME reason, which made me think. 

I came to the conclusion after some reflection that throughout the experience my ability to hold them accountable to being professional human beings in a "workplace" helped them learn tiny nuggets of knowledge toward the real life. Often times the informal conversations added greatly to this.

Even though I struggle with the content, I made an impact on their learning. I can apply this to any course I ever teach in the future.