WOW! Junior year has flown by. This year has been so busy but SO incredibly rewarding! I have just completed my second semester of the education program. Junior year has brought me so many surprises, hard realizations, so much fun, and so much knowledge. I have been placed at two different schools in Calhoun County this school year. The first was at Pleasant Valley Elementary in a kindergarten classroom. This was my first experience in a classroom, and it was very different from what I had imagined. I had never seen myself as a kindergarten teacher, so I was very hesitant at first. The sixteen students in this classroom brought me so much joy and so many tears. I was quickly drawn to this group of kids. However, I've heard many people say that kindergarten is a hard grade to teach, and they are right! As happy as they made me, I found myself coming to realize that children this young weren't what was best for me. I wouldn't trade that semester for the world, though. The teacher that I worked with along with her students taught me so much in my six weeks with them.
I went into my second semester in the education program with high hopes. My classmates and I would soon be receiving another placement at a different school, but this time it would be in a first, second, or third-grade classroom. I knew that this is where I saw myself. When I found out that I would be in a second-grade classroom at Alexandria Elementary, the neighboring town from where I grew up, I was overjoyed. Upon my first time entering Mrs. Weaver's classroom, I fell in love. The students immediately greeted me with smiling faces and words of encouragement. Within just a couple of short hours, I had received two cards that students had drawn me; one of these cards deemed me to be the "best teacher ever #2" because I couldn't be placed above her actual teacher, of course. Did I mention that this was on day one? The sweet notes from my students didn't stop there. I received them almost every day, and each child gifted me a handwritten letter on my last day. (Yes, I cried.) Leaving this group of students was one of the harder things that I have had to do in the recent past, but I am so excited to embark on the journey that is my senior year of college. I can't wait to see what the future has to hold for me. For a lack of better words, excited is what I will say that I am, but that is an absolute understatement. Bring on the big kids, science, social studies, and internship! I am ready!
Here are some pictures of my favorite things that I created and did during the 2018-2019 school year:
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| Interactive bulletin board to match upper and lowercase letters, made by a classmate and me-9/25/18 |
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| A puppet I made for my kindergarten practicum placement-9/25/18 |
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| 50th day of school celebration in a skirt that I made-10/24/18 |
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| Charles Ghigna, author of Alabama My Home Sweet Home, and me-11/1/19 |
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| A classmate and me with our signed copies of Glitter the Unicorn Goes to the Moon by 4th grader Callie Chapman-11/2/18 |
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A few classmates, our teacher, and me participating in a STEAM Day at Piedmont Elementary School-12/12/18
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| Teaching a lesson on money-3/8/19 |
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| Teaching second graders how to incorporate adjectives into their writing-3/18/19 |
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| School of Education Showcase-4/16/19 |
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| My cooperating teacher and me on the last day of my second practicum-4/17/19 |
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Surprising my second graders with Coke floats on my last day-4/17/19
Here are some pictures of sweet notes and pictures that I received this year:
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| Portraits of me drawn by my kindergartners |
Two sweet letters from my second graders |
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