How can I get ready for teaching?

What are they asking you to give lessons of? What kind of teacher do you want to be? You will learn a lot about teaching while you are obtaining your degree. You will have a curriculum to follow for the information you are to teach and it will be your responsibility to come up with the lesson plans for your students and then teach the information in your lesson plan. Since you are not a teacher yet, there is nothing wrong with not trying to teach people if you don’t feel ready.

Try reading Teaching with Your Mouth Shut, by Don Finkel.

(Disclaimer. He is my brother, but the book is filled with wonderful ideas about teaching, other than the obvious one, which is to know your subject.)

One thing to factor in is the dynamics of having a student. Just jump in. You will know more than the people who are trying to learn something; it is much easier than you think.

However, I can still remember the hours before my first day as a teacher. I was a sweaty mess, until I entered the classroom.

learn active passive discipline techniques. I had little kids hug me in the morning and h school kids cuss me out in the pm.

@jazmina88: What are active/passive discipline techniques? Master teachers generally do not need to discipline their students.

@Seaofclouds has it exactly right.

On a long enough timeline, it is pretty much guaranteed that you will teach the wrong thing and that you won’t be effective enough in your teaching. Perhaps thinking about teaching as a profession like thinking about medicine or law (i.e. “practicing” your discipline) will help or defining what success looks like in a way that takes into account these inevitable errors.

I think a little concern is healthy. I’ve been teaching for five years (by no means is that mastery, but I’ve got a little under my belt), and every school year heck, every Sunday I find myself getting worried about whether I am being as effective as I can be with my students. You will make mistakes – we all do. It’s being able to recover from them and move on that is important.
I agree with @gailcalled – getting a little practice with one-on-one tutoring can only help you in the long run. It will give you lots of help with individualized instruction, which is becoming more and more important in the US.

@IMSORRY
In the “for what it’s worth” dept, I will say that you must know your strengths. Don’t accept any position that you feel you are not at all adequate for. We are all challenged in our work to get better, use more technology in the classroom, keep all students ‘on task’ and interested in the lesson (as if that were doable), learn to discipline with positive reinforcement, and on and on.

I’ve taught 15 years, but I cannot teach science or history even one-on-one, unless I was asked to teach the one lesson that happened to be something I know well [e.g., the French Revolution], but I certainly couldn’t teach either subject for a year, or take money for tutoring someone for weeks or months at a time.

If you know what you are being asked to tutor, and you HAVE THE TIME, you might want to give it a shot while being up front about whether you will be able to produce the results that they expect. We are all individuals and we function best in different situations. Do have more confidence in yourself! You will be surprised at how well you do.

Have a great time, and welcome to the best job in the world!

The only way you can become confident is to teach. I’m just finishing my 2nd year of teaching and although I feel like I know what I’m doing I’m still learning every day. It’s a ridiculous game of juggling…
Best book to read is: How to Survive Your First Year in Teaching