From Student to Professional

A lot of my friends are posting about this being the last first week of school for them and the accompanying nostalgia/relief/excitement/trepidation. While I still have one semester of student teaching following this one, I understand and share their sentiments since this will be last semester of "traditional" classes in undergraduate work. However, only two of my classes actually qualify as "traditional" subject-matter classes. The other three comprise the "professional bloc" courses that are the official teacher-training courses to equip me with the skills to succeed as a teacher. After having spent a class period in two of those three classes, I feel a different level of excitement and awareness, not just quantitatively but qualitatively.

Up until this point, I have considered myself a student, which I was. Each semester I gave some thought to the next semester's classes and so forth, not really giving much thought to life after school. However, with each successive professional bloc class I take, I begin to view myself as a teacher and a professional. Gone will be the laid-back-but-diligent (usually) life of a college student, the "easy life" as one professor called it. In its place will be the life of responsibility, work, preparation, and dedication of an adult, specifically an adult teacher. (Interestingly, I learned today that psychologically I'm still considered an adolescent. Go figure).

This professional life is something I am looking forward to, especially now that I have been thinking about it more often. Many of my future posts will probably be on topics relating to my teacher-training, so stay tuned for insights in that regard. For this particular post, I will leave you with one. In my Social Studies Methods class, my professor made the candid point that the job market is slim for social studies teachers. He said we must stop thinking of ourselves as primarily "social studies teachers." Even "teachers" is not sufficient. Primarily, we are "educators." With that perspective, we open ourselves up to not only more job opportunities but a better understanding of who we are as professionals. I will keep you updated on my efforts to develop that new perspective.