As I get ready to start my student teaching; I am becoming more and more excited about the experience. I spent the last couple of days out of the office attending teacher workshops that were being offered to teaching staff where I would be teaching. The presentation was done very well and was very informative. Like any other field, teaching is constantly evolving and testing new theories and methods of teaching. Some work, others do not. It's important that we take what works and improve upon it, and learn from the methods that don't and examine them to see why they are ineffective.
Many changes have occured in the state of Indiana recently. Two big topics are the elimination of half days from the school schedule as well as ISTEP testing being moved to the spring. The elimination of half days was put in effect in part to help children focus and maximize their schedule. I certainly remember being a little kid and being very excited during half days which probably made me lose some focus. The moving of ISTEP to spring semester is to give teachers more time to prepare their students for testing. It can be hard as a teacher to recieve a new class of students and have them ready to perform admirably on a test in a month or two. With ISTEPS in the spring now, it allows teachers the time to get to know their students and see how the students learn. It also allows much more time to cover the content that the students will be tested on which can lead to increased confidence and performance on the student's part.
As the school year approaches, I am doing all I can to go over all the theories, methods, and lesson plans I can to help myself become a better teacher so that I can feel prepared when I dive head first into the new and exciting world of teaching.