Student Teaching Comes to End...Lessons From the Field

It was not until my final day of student teaching that I realized how connected I felt to the students in room 236. After collecting their exit surveys, I began to tell them how much I enjoyed teaching them but could not finish because I got too choked up. The students quickly noticed and exclaimed “Aww Ms. Fuller don’t cry,” then ran and hugged me. While, they stressed me out continually and often left me feeling drained simply put,  my ninth graders have taught me a lot. Like it is okay to discipline a student, they will get over it. Give students clear directions; while simultaneously allowing for creative freedom. Be intolerant of disrespect to their classmates. Love them as if they are your own but allow them to mistakes and learn from them. Have something to say and they will listen.

From the students in room 236, I also learned the importance of building caring relationships. In the article “Moral Education, ” Nell Noddings explains that, “The cared- for is essential to the relation. What the cared for contribute to the relation is a responsiveness that completes the caring. This responsiveness need not take the form of gratitude or even direct acknowledgement. Rather, the cared-for shows either in direct response to the one caring or in spontaneous delight and happy growth before her eyes that the caring has been received. The caring is completed when the cared for receives the caring.”(10) On the last day through a hand made card(pictured below), one of my students revealed to me her acceptance of my caring.