Day 4: What were you most worried about as you approached your first day as a teacher?

My biggest fear when I started student teaching last Fall was that I wasn’t going to be good at it. Looking back I realize that it was kind of silly, but I was worried that after four years of study in music, pedagogy, educational psychology, special education, and over 100 hours of in classroom experience that I would, well, suck at it!

I know that the real first day will present another set of worries and fears and that every first day for the rest of my career will begin again with new concerns.

I started student teaching on a Tuesday after a day off of school. I was assigned to teach 5-12 Band and K-6 General Music! So. Many. Kids! Names whizzed by me, teachers came and went, and it was very intimidating. But as that first week went on, I realized that I was ready. I was not a college student when I was in that building. I wasn’t a recipient, but a moderator of knowledge in that building.

By the time my second first day came along, I was ready. I jumped into my second placement in 6-12 Band and Choir headfirst and didn’t look back. I was still nervous. I worried that I wouldn’t fit into the public school community, that I wouldn’t connect with the students, that I would not like my new cooperating teachers, or that I would somehow embarrass myself right off the bat.

Luckily, none of that happened. I fell in love with teaching in my second placement. I liked it before, but that’s when I really became a teacher.