Over the last two weeks, I have grown to realize student teaching is parallel to nature. When you are walking and exploring the great outdoors, there are times when you find yourself in a valley, looking up at the daunting task of climbing the impending mammoth mountain in front of you.

At times like these, thoughts of uncertainty fill your head and you wonder if you have what it takes to make it to the mountain top or if it’s worth your time to try. Deciding not to give up, you rely on the training you received from your instructors prior to your journey. Choosing to forge ahead, you make it past the many challenges and obstacles you encounter.

After confronting these difficulties, you reach the summit of the mountain and examine the tough and hard path you just climbed. Gazing at the trail, you see how beautiful the landscape before you is and you are grateful you didn’t give up. Furthermore, you know the voyage to the top is what you were meant to do.

Being a student teacher, you experience voyages similar to the one in nature — however, for me the landscape before me is my classroom.

One of the biggest obstacles I had to overcome in my journey over the last two weeks was managing the instruction time during each lesson. I struggled, and still do from time to time, with judging at what pace to instruct the students. The flow and rate of the class is crucial to covering all the material the students need to learn and understand.

The pacing of the class is important because at the end of the semester the students must take the state VoCATS test for career and technical education classes. The test is on the state curriculum, which must be covered at some point during the course of the semester. To be able to go over all the material the teacher must pace themselves to ensure they teach all the information before the test. Students must be taught the material — not teaching it is not an option.

There have been days in which I haven’t covered certain material as in depth as I should, going over it practically in a single breath; conversely, there has been material I have spent way too much time on, taking what should be a simple lesson and turning it into an epoch.

It’s this challenge of timing in the classroom that causes me frustration. Teaching to a pace which is unfamiliar to me makes me nervous and makes me question whether I am doing a good job or if I belong. The main frustration and uncertainty stems from not exactly knowing when to elaborate and when to simply move on. My hope is I will get better in this area as time goes by.

Then there are the days in which I hit the nail on the head and the lesson and its application go by without many issues. It’s these days that I feel myself beginning to climb out of the valley and ascend to the mountain peak. These days aren’t consistent — something which I’m striving for — however they give me much needed reinforcement that I can teach.

It’s these successful days that I hope becomes more frequent because I need that to strengthen my confidence as a future educator. It’s this confidence and reinforcement I’m so eager and anxious to obtain, just as the magnificent view of the valley is what I yearned for while climbing the mountainside.

Just like the journey from the valley floor to the top of the mountain was hard and challenging, so is student teaching. Mentally, I prepared myself for this task, but until I got out into the classroom I didn’t fully realize it.

For now, I’m enjoying the mountain top, but as I look to the other side of the mountain what do I see before me? Yet another valley and mountain to climb.