{Student Teaching}

Hi Everyone!

So it has been a LONG time since I have posted anything. Life has been super crazy this semester, but oh what a semester it has been! I just finished student teaching last week and am here to give a recap of everything that happened. I had many funny, happy, sad, trying and unforgettable moments.

To start off, I student taught at Westlake High School and Mapleton Junior High. I loved both schools so much. I had the best students a student teacher could have asked for.

Yes Jr. High and High school are completely different. Different in a good way, but different.

Here are some highlights and happiness from this past semester, enjoy!

At the jr. high, we talked about cyberbullying (which is a huge problem in jr. high and high school right now). After our lesson, I had each member in my classes write one positive thing that they would like to share with the entire wall. We then put them up in the hallway to make an optimism wall. I often found students glancing at this wall everyday in between class, which made my day!

I even was quoted on the wall! It turns out the lesson stuck :)

On my last day of class, I had a party with all of the classes. I brought the students goodbye presents and some of them brought presents in for me too! I now have a glimpse of how elementary teachers feel at Christmas and the end of the year :)

But seriously how cute is this Elephant!!! I had to unfold it to get to the sweet note the student left, but it was awesome!

The last unit that I taught was alcohol, tobacco and other drugs prevention. After teaching a lesson about things students could do to live above the influence, I had the students make posters for me to hang around the class. One student asked if she could make hers during her art class. The next day, this is what she handed me. beautiful.

Apparently I am a super hero {who has long flowy hair}. I save the world from teenagers being addicted to caffeine :)

This was part of a note that one student gave me on my last day of school. It made me smile and think to myself, teachers really are superheros.

Probably the best surprise of the entire semester was my dad calling and saying he fixed my little car. He surprised me with it on my last day of teaching. I was so excited to have my car fixed. I am so grateful for a dad who can fix everything {he even had the peeling hood fixed and repainted!!}. He really is the best dad in the whole world. So our little family is back to two cars and oh how enjoyable it is!

So, that is just a little glimpse into this past semester. It was the hardest semester that I have had in collage but it really was the best. I had some of the hardest trials during student teaching, but it was all worth it when I received a dozen notes and letters telling me I was the best student teacher the students had had. I love having students leave secret notes on the whiteboard (which lets be honest, writing on a white board in jr. high and high school was the coolest thing ever!)

I really love teaching and I love helping students create behavior changes in their life. This is really what I went to college for. So, we are crossing our fingers that I find a teaching job and get to do this again for years to come!!!