Meet a Student Teacher! Claudette Breaux

My name is Claudette Breaux, and I am a senior English literature and EDYS (track two) double major. This semester, I am student teaching in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at Xavier high school. Xavier is a private Catholic school, which was a bit nerve wracking for me. I haven’t been a practicing Catholic in a long time, so attending mass and saying school wide prayers on my first day of student teaching was a bit of a shock. But I’m sure I’ll adjust quickly, if my first week was anything to go by! I am most excited to work with the students. The freshmen have just started Romeo and Juliet, which I can already tell is going to be plenty of fun. Introducing students to Shakespeare for the first time is always amazing. And the seniors are just beginning a unit on mystery novels, which I am looking forward to. I took a semester long course on mystery novels at Beloit, and I love the genre! I can’t wait to read the short mystery stories the students will be writing! Of course, I have my usual teaching jitters that come with teaching a new group of students, and I am worried about how well my teaching style will mesh with my cooperating teacher’s style and the students’ expectations. But my excitement for introducing the students to such fantastic literature outweighs my fears, and I cannot wait to begin actually teaching!