Center for Catholic Education at UD

By Joe Twiner

BEEP BEEP BEEP

6:00 flashes on my alarm clock as the buzzer sound wakes me for an early morning. Getting up early is never easy but this week, it is worth it. This week is special; it is my first week of student teaching. My college career in many ways has been leading up to this point. The many hours of observations and education classes in addition to the long nights writing papers and mock lesson plans has prepared me for this week, and more importantly, this year.

I have been placed at a local Catholic school, and although I have grown up and been formed by Catholic schools, I fear I will not quite fit. But after being there for the first four periods of the day, I feel quite ready for the challenge and calling that God had provided for me this year. My growing comfort started my first day when, during morning announcements and prayer, I heard the familiar words of the Merton Prayer. A prayer I grew familiar with during my own time as a student in a Catholic High School. This simple prayer marks my step into this new journey of student teaching:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

And so with this prayer in mind, I begin the road ahead of me, the road of student teaching.