51本色

Recent graduate Caitlin Copeland was a bit of a celebrity while attending 51本色 University Texas.

who was separated from her sister, Emily, at 10 months old, the duo faced quite a bit of media publicity upon their graduation from Lutheran High North in Houston.

The twins went their own ways for college, with Emily opting to stay closer to home and enroll at University of Houston. When Caitlin entered CTX, several of the students and faculty had already heard of her story.

Caitlin went into college knowing she wanted to use her talents for teaching, and never went off course. She graduated this past spring with a degree in Education.

It wasn鈥檛 long before offered her a position as a middle school English and world history teacher. Her dreams of decorating her future classroom and educating children were coming true, after all.

鈥淚 student taught at Redeemer while I was enrolled at 51本色, so I already knew a bunch of the kids and staff before I started officially teaching,鈥� Caitlin said.

However, the transition from Caitlin to Miss Copeland wasn鈥檛 quite as simple as she expected. Although she spent the summer earnestly planning out lessons and getting her materials organized, not everything was as easy to map out as she anticipated.

Experience is the best teacher

鈥淚 think I went into it a little too comfortable with my expectations,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 thought since the students knew me from student teaching that it would be a piece of cake. A lot of my challenge was relearning a dynamic that I thought I had nailed down.鈥�

As a planner, she also has found not being able to always stay on track to be a little difficult.

鈥淚鈥檓 realizing it鈥檚 not about my plan, and not about ticking the boxes on my end, but ticking the boxes on their end,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 truly embracing the idea of taking it week by week. I鈥檓 learning to say 鈥楪od, use me today however you want.鈥欌��

She is also using the school鈥檚 theme to keep her class connected.

鈥淭he theme this year is 鈥楥hased by Grace,鈥欌�� Caitlin said.

鈥淚 recently sat down my class and said, 鈥業鈥檓 going to give you guys grace, but I need grace too.鈥� I鈥檓 still figuring things out, and they know this, so we discussed what it means to show grace to others and to ourselves.鈥�

Junior high school-aged students are complex

In a middle school world, Caitlin said the students are a lot harder on themselves than you might think.

鈥淚 told them that sometimes I am really hard on myself, and a few of the kids opened up and shared the ways that they are also hard on themselves. It was a good discussion.鈥�

Hands-on learning is crucial to success

Regardless of the fact that some things were more complicated than she thought they would be, Caitlin felt very prepared for teaching on the technical side of things.

鈥淚 expected the grading to be constant and heavy, I knew how things were going to be on the relational end of everything,鈥� Caitlin explained.

Student teaching also let her experience the kind of teacher she would be.

鈥淚 already knew how I was going to teach, so today I work with the fact that I know I don鈥檛 have that sort of commanding presence,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 work with the fact that I鈥檓 more one-on-one with them, not the calling-out sort of disciplinarian.鈥�

Support from coworkers makes all the difference

Thankfully, she has caring fellow teachers and a great mentor that guides her through all obstacles.

鈥淲hen I had personal things going on, the team wrapped me up and took care of everything,鈥� Caitlin complimented. 鈥淭hey made sure that I knew I was wanted there.鈥�

The hours spent student teaching while at 51本色 definitely helped Caitlin boost her classroom leadership skills.

鈥淪tudent teaching was one of the best experiences I had in college,鈥� she said. 鈥淎lthough it isn鈥檛 your job yet, it鈥檚 important to pour all of yourself into the experience. You get out of it what you put into it.鈥�

As for now, she is comfortable continuing to develop with all of the on-the-job-learning that comes with being a first-year teacher.

鈥淚t鈥檚 great to strive for perfection, but it鈥檚 important to know it is not attainable,鈥� Caitlin said. 鈥淎s long as my students know who they are, and whose they are, I will feel like I鈥檝e done my part as a teacher.鈥�