I just finished my two weeks of full responsibility student teaching (meaning that I was the only teacher in my class for the past two weeks). I don't think I realized how tired my body was until this morning, when I woke up at 11 am... after sleeping at midnight. Hahaha. I wanted to write about my reflections from this past semester of student teaching, but I don't know where to start.
I could say so much about my experience student teaching or my students, but there are two words that accurately and best describe everything: undeserved grace.
All credit goes to God. He has given me so much undeserved grace. My eternal salvation, my gift as a teacher, the classroom that I was placed in, the students that I had the privilege to teach, and the excellent classroom mentor that I had throughout my student teaching experience--all of that is the fruit of undeserved grace from God. I had a great experience in my classroom and teaching the students. My sucess in these past two weeks is all because of God. So praise Him for sustaining me in the midst of this busy time. As part of my going away present, my students each wrote letters to me. Many of them had said that they had learned so much from me. I praise God for using a broken vessel and imperfect human like me to teach these students--and actually have them learn a thing or two!
Yesterday was my last day at my school. The kids threw me a "surprise" party (a student or two accidently spilled the beans beforehand). I knew I was already going to miss them. What pushed me from tearing up to crying was what they did next. To preface this, the students are not allowed to write on the board. But they did, knowing that my teacher would yell at them. This is what they wrote:
This reminded me of why I love teaching. I love teaching because of the students. It is such a privilege to see young minds grow. The human mind is baffling to me, and makes me stand in awe of God even more.
I'm really going to miss these kids. I already do. And I praise God for everything that He has given me.
--- on another note ---
Praise God for giving me a boyfriend who knows exactly how to pray for me. I thank God for our relationship. :-)
Labels: Teaching