I recently got married in October 2020, my husband is in the Air Force and is stationed in San Antonio, Texas. Because of the this, I had the privilege of being able to student teach in the Alamo Heights School District. I did my first 9 weeks of my 16 week placement at Cambridge Elementary School. Cambridge was at about 80% capacity with in person students, I was able to teach about 350 students in person. Cambridge is a school that really takes it pride in building community. The classroom that I was in was in a separate building from the main school, because of this, every morning my mentor teacher and I would walk around the school and check on teachers and students before the main bell rang. Because of COVID, there was not  a lot of interaction between teachers so being able to meet everyone in the morning and chat was a nice start of the day.  While I was there, I was able to teaching weaving unit for the last 5 weeks of my placement there. I taught 1st through 5th grade and I learned a lot from this experience. My mentor teacher let me take over all of her classes so I could have the full experience. Professionally I grew in confidence as a teacher but also I grew as a person. I think before I start my first placement I was really nervous about teaching alone but also teaching to elementary was really new for me. During my last two weeks at Cambridge I learned so much as a teacher that I felt really comfortable taking over and teaching my own lessons. I felt like my mentor teacher really empowered me and help me grow in that aspect while I was there. 

My last 8 weeks of my placement, I was at Alamo Heights High School. I taught Art 1, and also Ceramics 2,3, and 4. Ceramics is one of my favorite mediums to work in, so it was such an amazing experience to be able to work in that environment. Most of my students were in person and I had about two to five students that were online per class period. Many of my class sizes were fairly small, with the largest class that I had about 24 student including the students online. I taught mainly about mixed media sculpture in ceramics, and self portraits in art 1. Alamo Heights School District welcomed me into their community, and I had such a privilege being able to student teach in this district. During my student teaching a thought a lot about my past teachers and what I was like as a student. And something I always remembered was the relationships that I had my teachers. The relationships that I built while at Cambridge and Alamo Heights are something I will remember the most. I believe in building relationships is the top priority as a teacher, I love getting to know my students and how they learn and understand. I value a lot of what I learned during my time about building relationships with students and understanding the in and outs of what it is to become a teacher. I will miss and cherish this placement and I am forever thankful for the students and teachers that I worked with.