Stepping Into the Classroom: My Fifth Grade Student Teaching Experience

Megan Cammack

McKay Student Ambassador

Elementary Education

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Spending a whole semester totaling 65 days or 455 hours as a student teacher in a fifth grade classroom taught me so much. There's something magical and exciting about being in a real elementary classroom teaching everyday after spending so long as a student yourself. It felt like a culminating event that my life so far had been leading to. Teaching gives me purpose, and I couldn't imagine going into any other profession.

I was placed in a fifth grade classroom in Nebo School District with a total of 31 students. Throughout the duration of my time in the BYU elementary education program, I have taught kindergarten, sixth grade, and fifth grade. None of which originally being my "ideal" grade... but wow did I end up loving those grades. I was lucky enough to also have two other friends from my cohort placed in the other fifth grade classrooms at the same school so we were able to lesson plan and do our solo weeks together.

Day in the Life of Student Teaching:

I would wake up, drive 20 minutes, and make it to the school 30 minutes before the bell rang. Say goodmorning to all of the teachers, review lessons that I would be teaching that day, and print out any materials I needed. When the bell rang, I loved greeting my students at the door and saw so many relationships grow because of this. Each day I taught something a little bit different, but after just a couple of weeks I had the schedule down and could teach any of the subjects with little warning. We always had a 30 minute lunch break in the middle of the day. Once all the kids left, we would plan for the next day and go to any faculty meetings. I'd head home and do it all again the next day!

2 Solo Weeks:

I loved my two solo weeks! As a student teacher, you are required to teach two weeks completely on your own, planning and teaching every single lesson. These two weeks helped me grow so much as an educator. I was able to learn how to prioritize my time and organize my lesson planning. I specifically learned how to use many different programs and technology on my own because I just had to figure it out or work my way around it. I felt very prepared to teach for two weeks on my own, with lots of opportunity to teach lessons beforehand with my mentor teacher there to give me feedback and answer any questions that I had. These two weeks gave me a taste of what being the teacher in my own classroom would be like!

Overall, I loved my experience and learned so much. From dress up days to line dancing during recess, I'll never forget my student teaching semester and the people I met there. I learned to give myself grace and just have fun. I had to learn not to stress too much about scores and avoid comparing myself to others. There's always more to learn -- and that's the beauty of becoming an educator! Continuing to learn more yourself and helping the younger generation foster a love of learning.

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