If you have spent one day in the classroom, you've already found out that being in charge of your own class can be very different from what you were taught in your college preparation. While your college coursework most likely touched on many of the issues you will be faced with, these issues appear differently in reality. In college, you study each issue one at a time. In the actual classroom, you are faced with many challenges all at once. Also, you are no longer given the luxury of having time to think about how to handle them. They are happening right now! You have to act. This doesn't mean that what you learned is useless. To the contrary, if you can keep a cool head, you will find yourself quickly thinking about and implementing much of what you learned in your coursework. Every situation is different and you'll have to be flexible and creative, adapting what you know in theory to what works best in practice. It's also very natural to fall back on how you were taught, both in your college training as well as in your own K-12 years. If your teachers modeled certain behaviors, you'll probably find it natural to consider behaving in some of the same ways. Imagine how your own behavior is affecting your students now. An important aspect of connecting theory to practice is to regularly spend some time reflecting on your teaching. Think about what works and what doesn't and why. Consider what you were taught and how you can blend it into your everyday teaching. All of this will combine with your own personal style to make you the unique teacher that you are.