Advice for a student going into student teaching?

So, I have one more semester of college before I graduate—and this last semester is ENTIRELY student teaching.

And guys. I’m terrified.

My mentor teacher is great and I really like her (I had her for my practicum as well), and thankfully I have classmates who were assigned to the same school + even the same grade so I’m not alone.

But those are the main “good parts.” It’s everything else that’s scaring me. It feels like every day I’m bombarded with endless information about how awful the teaching career is/has become. Financial struggles, lack of support, entitled parents, overwork, mistreatment, politics, etc.

My mom works as a teaching aide, and she came home crying and exhausted 3 days out of the first week of school. She’s told me a lot about the state of teaching in our area. Especially since most of her friends are teachers, too.

And the school I’m assigned…is rough. During my practicum—which was only 2 weeks—there were at least 10 fights that had to be broken up. Like 7 fights occurred in one day. The school is underfunded and severely under supported. Those kids need experienced, no-nonsense teachers, and I don’t know if I can handle it. I just know for sure I do NOT want to teach at this specific school.

I have a good “in” to teach at the high school I graduated from; I love the modern/new building and it’s smaller student population. But I don’t know if it would be worth it.

I want to focus on at least just getting through December so I can graduate. My main questions, though, are:

• what are some ways I can get through my student teaching? Some methods to make things easier or any tips so I can keep my sanity (relatively) intact

-if I realize I can’t handle being a teacher, what are some other options I can take? Teaching was pretty much my go-to, and I don’t have a lot of job experience because I was focusing on college. I’m an English major and education minor, so I’ll at least have my English degree.

For those of you go have switched careers, how did you do it? What kinds of jobs did you look for, and what was the learning curve like? I’m not a particularly “ambitious” person; I don’t mind doing something simple, I just want stability and a way to live on my own.