The end of June I completed my student teaching and successful completed the TeachNow Teacher Preparation Certificate program. After 12 weeks of full-time student teaching I was exhausted but so excited to be at the finish line. Amazingly, the school I was student teaching at offered me a position!
After the program finished, I was sent a Certificate of Completion, an unofficial transcript, and after emailing the registrar, my form for the DC office of education. I still needed to do my PRAXIS exams for Elementary Content and Principles of Learning and Teaching, so I had to wait to submit everything. One thing that is important to note about this program is that the PRAXIS exams are completely separate from the program. Studying, scheduling, and testing is entirely on the teacher candidate. Many traditional teacher programs require students to complete the exams before commencing their programs. I see the value in this as it would have been nice to have been ready to submit everything as soon as I finished student teaching!
I will admit that while I was happy to finish the program and have my Saturday evenings back, I missed meeting with the cohort. We still touch in on our group messaging app, but everyone is already fading away into their own lives.
More information on PRAXIS II in Korea in the next post!