Student Teaching...check

I wish I could post the cutest picture of my classes and tell you their crazy names, but that is all legal issues or what not and I am not allowed. But I will still tell you some of my favorite stories....

1. Girl walking around with a imaginary bird perched on her arm. Miss M can you watch her during PE. Sure. Just put her on the laptop and she will be fine.
2. Singing and dancing to I'm sexy and I know it- oh the little boy who wears a shirt, tie, and little vest everyday :)
3. Miss. M you have a big nose!
4. Look these monkeys are drunk...wohoowowoo
5. Doing the cha- cha as a way to practice the /ch/ sound
6. HE UNDERSTANDS MISSING ADDENDS! who would have thought. First one to turn in paper and get them all right! Way to go N.
7. One student to another...Can we please not talk about dinosaurs today!
8. I can't do it...I'm hallucinating!
9. The daily hugs in the hallway!
10. Students screaming MISS M down the hallway
11. Getting a 1 on DIBELS!!
12. Benchmarking on Dibels :)
13. Being observed- Miss M we don't want you to get fired, we will be good.
14. Playing air hockey with my favorite little man
15. My tattle tellers- Miss M. he is almost touching me!!!

There are like a thousand more great times and memories from student teaching. I have not loved every minute of it, but as an overall experience I loved it. I will not lie but say that at the beginning I wanted to quit because it was not what I had imagined. But I don't quit anything and I got over those things and stuck it out everyday. Some days were hard for me to go to, but I went every single one and decided that if I wanted to to be a good experience I had to think of it as that. When my attitude changed, my mood changed also. I was able to work with amazing teachers and faculty at a very difficult school.

I am one of those people who try and brush off compliments because I can't be as good as they are making it sound. I have had both of my teachers tell me how natural teaching comes to me and how awesome I am in the classroom. "People teach at West Kearns because they want to make a difference." My teacher told me that and I have been thinking of that alot. Isn't that why we go into teaching anyway, we want to make a difference in children's lives? As I have been at West Kearns I have realized that it takes a special kind of teacher to come here everyday. These students are not easy to handle. Most are in gangs, have broken families, or have the whole extended family living together, most of parents or family in jail. These are not uncommon things to hear everyday coming to school. You try to explain that divorce is for the better most of the time when parents are apart, this doesn't mean they love you any less. You try and teach them English when they are only talking spanish in the home, you make up homework every week for them to complete but most parents cant even help with it. You never really know who is going to be in your class the next day. Students and families move all the time, some to different neighborhoods, and some to Mexico.

I have seen the benefits of being a Title One school and the awesome extra resources we get, but that means that overall we have a very low school. I have seen behind the scenes in what makes the school run with a variety of teams that make school decisions. I have seen teams that work well together and teams that don't. I have seen the help of push in and pull out services. I have seen the impact of differentiated instruction, even though I am not a fan of template making! I have seen amazing supports to help behavior students. I have seen the difference in students when you show them that you care and love them. I have seen where silliness can get you with young students. I feel as though I have seen it all, and yet I have seen nothing yet.

Thankyou West Kearns Elementary School for such an amazing experience and I am grateful to continue working there until the end of the school year.

 Template making Friday's. We are awesome at differentiating instruction

 we are so elementary teachers!

Ms. Bunk made the best bulletin board! Great motivator to do better on Dibels