Blog Every Day in January Day 20: Getting Ready for Student Teaching

We're twenty days into January and I can't believe that I've been derping around writing posts about candles and pizza cats, when I haven't written a single post about the thing I've been thinking about the most: student teaching.

I feel like I've spent the past month preparing for student teaching by...well...by shopping. Getting the clothes I need, the bag I need, the lunch boxes I need. All the things that yes, I do need, but honestly don't matter as much as the stuff that I've been putting off. I've spent the month feeling really scatterbrained in disorganized, and fully avoiding getting things together. It's not that I don't want to think about that stuff, it's just that I haven't really had an outlet to talk about it, and for me part of the process of getting myself into the right mindset for something new is to talk through it with as many people as possible. I've done a lot of explaining to people, and telling them about my placements and what I have to do, but I haven't had a lot of chances to talk to people about the things I'm genuinely nervous about and genuinely excited for.

Fortunately, there are people in my life that are there to ask me real questions about how I'm feeling, and offer advice or let me know that they are feeling the same. I had coffee with my friend Maggie the other day (she starts student teaching tomorrow!!) and talking to her about it was a really great reminder of what I'm about to do--especially because being at home away from school is an easy way for me to disconnect from responsibility, and she kind of brought me back to reality just by being there to talk about her own journey. I've also been preparing some videos for Sisters, Not Twins ahead of time to lighten the load while I student teach, and talking to Melissa about the videos led to the conversation of how worried I was about the workload. She and our friend Lindsay (who has been through student teaching herself) helped me talk through how I'm going to stay on top of my work, and gave me some good advice on keeping up with my portfolio and reminding me to focus on what I will gain from the experience.

So despite all of my anxiety, I've had a lot of support right underneath my nose that I was just not looking towards. My friends at school who are actually about to go through the exact same thing as me are people I've always looked to for advice and support, but there are also friends and family at home who are willing to listen and share. 

Okay, I think this train of thought is going to take more than one entry to cover, so I'm going to end it here and say that tomorrow I will be posting something of a to-do list for myself. I also want to like...actually talk about what I'm excited for and nervous about.

SEE YOU TOMORROW.