Children in Trees.

At our most recent church picnic... which was yesterday, I had THE most relaxing yet most FUN day I've had in a while. It started off with a huge game of basketball! Mind you there we 4 adults playing and about 14 or 16 kids ranging from age 4 to 16 as well AND we were playing on a half court! It was the most chaotic game I've ever participated in and not to mention I lost my voice for a bit becuase of yelling like a little kid and laughing so hard! Next we move on to the tree. This tree is my new favorite tree. There was about 13 kids in it at once and then Hannah and I. So here are some incredible cute and silly pictures from that. Enjoy

The End.

This is a piece out of my student teaching journal.

I decided I’d write about this whole week because really it was a huge blur and my emotion about the whole week was about the same. I didn’t think it would be true for me what they say about your student teaching. They say that when you get about half way through the semester you hit a wall and it’s just very overwhelming. After I got a feel for what I’d be doing I thought I’d be okay since I could handle the work load and all but what I didn’t take into consideration was how I how feel about the kids.

At times it can be so frustrating with 175 kids! During one of my classes we were talking about stem and leaf plots and they were working on a book assignment that was a little confusing. I don’t know how many times I made it simpler for them and how many times I would tell different students. So I literally stopped everyone, made a big deal of them paying attention and re-told them what one of the question really meant and had them repeat it after me. And what does one student say 2 minutes later?? What does this question mean? When I had JUST told them! It’s frustrating not to show your frustration to the students because I want to make sure they know they can ask me questions, but on the flip side I also want them to pay attention when I ask!

Another issue I had to deal with was taking on the problems of the students. One of the students in my class came up to me after school and told me this was probably her last day and she started crying. And I know a little bit about her home life to get really sad with her. Then I heard about another student who was really upset with something that had happened that he started saying “I want to kill myself” over and over again! So in this aspect I am really just overwhelmed! I’m so attached to these kids and have grown to care about them so much that I hurt with them!

I also took time to talk to one of my students who is failing almost everything and is pretty popular. But this week she’s been coming in after school and getting all her missing work and is so motivated to get her grades up. So I asked her why she’s so motivated when it’s just her and I but as soon as her friends get around she gets this attitude that says I don’t have to do my work because I’m too good for it. She told me she’s distracted by some of the other girls in the class and that when they start talking to her she feels like if they know she wants to get good grades then they won’t be her friend. It was just this whole different side to her I hadn’t seen and I think it’ll be good for her to know that I do care about what she does and that she shouldn’t give in to peer pressure! So we’ll see if it lasts.

So lesson learned? I need to find a way to not take my student’s problems home with me. I think it’s just because I care about people so much, but if I make this a habit I think it’ll be too much for me along the way.

The Snow and the Stars

One weekend full of it all!

The stars were beautiful...

The snow was fun and amazing....

And being surrounded by people who I love and adore is always a major plus too!