lessons

During student teaching, I was at Tointon Academy of Pre-Engineering for 16 weeks!

My first placement, I worked within the middle school teaching 6th and 7th graders (Industrial arts and STEM). My student teaching experience started with a unique twist. A few days before I was to start, my host teacher called me to inform me that she had been injured and wouldn’t be able to teach for the next 2 months. I was then contacted by the school who let me know that they would like to have me in as a long-term sub. 3 days later I was the art teacher at Tointon Middle school! I felt like I was truly thrown into the deep end with this situation, but I am so grateful for it as I learned extremely quickly. This placement was a blur of lesson planning, grading, and learning how to be a good teacher, but I’m thankful for the support of my secondary host teacher, Kristen Maldonado, who supported me at every step of the way. I learned so much about how to manage a classroom from this placement, and by the time I went to my second placement, I was truly confident for the first time.

My second placement, I worked in the elementary school doing general art with Kindergarten-Fifth grade. This placement, I began fine tuning all of the skills I had learned in the middle school. Instead of having to manage behaviors all day, I was able to learn about structuring classes, managing materials, and building relationships. I learned that by having firm boundaries with my students, and clear expectations, I was able to go the extra mile and be the teacher I always thought I could be.