Touch the Future - Teach!

   The end of the fall semester is always an exciting time for our education students and faculty. It marks the end of formal classes meant to prepare students for their semester of student teaching which will begin in January. Students have their teaching assignments and the holiday break gives them a few final weeks to pour over texts they will be using, dream a bit about how they want their curriculum units to unfold, and put the final touches on their professional teaching wardrobes. It is a time of anticipation. While this interim time period does signal the end in some ways,  it also marks the exciting start of our students' professional lives.

   As faculty, it is now time to step back a bit and allow our students to demonstrate what they have learned. While we'll still be available to offer support and advice from time to time, we are confident that every student we have placed for student teaching has the potential to be successful in the classroom. We'll miss the quick little visits in our offices for advice on a lesson plan, the class discussions where we dissect a teaching strategy gone awry, the recounting of encounters with students during field placements, and the general sense of excitment as student teaching draws nearer and nearer.

   It is time! You have been well prepared and you have our support and confidence. The end and the beginning is where we are right now. Touch the future - teach!