After All is Said and Done

Due to an unfortunate nap beginning at 7pm, I am now wide awake at 1am. Tragic. Now there is NO excuse not to work on my TWS. Honestly, I can't even sleep! That is a rare travesty! Rare indeed.

Since today was my last day student teaching, I was full of bitter-sweet feelings. Sad that it was over because I really enjoy teaching. I was also bursting at the brim with relief that I was done with one of the biggest stresses of my degree! (Now to only finish the thorn in my side...)

I was driving here, there and everywhere in South Salt Lake today, grateful that I knew how to navigate to a location with only the address, when I decided I needed to make a list of everything I was grateful for learning from student teaching. I'm sure this list will continue to grow when I can remember things better.

• Games are great ways to learn!
• Don't try to be the kids' friend.
  

You are the teacher; teach. Once they know that you care about how they are doing in your class and in life, they will open up to you. *Story* I was going into the office this morning and ran into one of my more troublesome students, when he asked if today was my last day and what my plans were for after teaching. We had a conversation in the hall for about 3 minutes about summer plans. I really didn't think he would have even 'fessed up to knowing me in a non-class setting, so I was impressed. It just goes to show be the teacher is first, then be cool and play games, and lastly, joke with the kids. They are an absolute riot!

• I can now navigate the Riverton/Sandy/South Jordan/West Jordan/South Salt Lake area with relative ease. Thanks to the brilliant numbering system, I know where I am and which direction I am going when I drive. That doesn't mean that I don't plan an extra 5-10 minutes for travel time to accommodate for the "lost factor", but I can at least get there quick...unless I have the wrong address, but that's another story for another time.
• Talking about sensitive subjects of any kind. My background is pretty normal and drama-free, meaning my parents are still married, I don't have half or step siblings to get along with, I never got involved in the drug/sex scene in high school, and I went to BYU. Pretty cushy if you ask me, so I had to be really aware of how my view on things was probably different than most of the students. My wonderful mentor teacher uses some phrases that I will probably use every day teaching: "good, bad, or otherwise" and "King/Queen judge of all" and "holy schmack, shamoly, etc". She was so fun to be with and the kids really like her. If I could record her laugh, I would. The first time I heard it, I was typing lesson plans in the back of the room and my head snapped up and I thought, "Did she really just snort? Why aren't the kids laughing at her?" It was pretty dang hilarious. Her laugh is a high-pitch snort/HA. It's hard to explain, but it's so funny! It's probably the best reaction you can give to a student who has said something totally inappropriate yet funny. She was a GREAT mentor teacher!
• Freeway driving can be pretty crazy and scary, especially along the point of the mountain and when traveling at high speeds. I now feel comfortable going really fast (I won't say how fast) on the freeway. Not like I drove it every day, but that's the next bullet.
• Since I am not a happy-go-lucky person without a full night's rest, I stayed in West Jordan with my grandma and Tim's aunt during the week and lived with Tim on the weekend. It pretty much sucked, I'm not going to lie, but I was able to help my grandma out after her foot surgery and develop a closer relationship with her and her sisters. It was really fun perusing her turquoise collection for some pieces to wear and look at her wedding dress and hear stories from when she was growing up or when she went to Hawaii a few years ago.
  
• The high school I was at offered some pretty sweet classes: photography, ceramics, calligraphy, just to name the ones I hear about. When I heard about a few of those classes, I was tempted to ask if teachers could sign up for those classes!
• Gauged ears are gross. Seriously. Ewwww!
• Cell phones and ipods drive me bonkers. Yes, I am one of those teachers who threatens to take them. I almost got a few, but they put them away before I could reach their desk. Lucky for them...
  

I just got the best idea ever! I need to get an old cell phone, smash it to smithereens, put those pieces in a nice pretty shadow box with a sign that says "No cell phones....or else". I am so mean, it's almost funny!

Wow! This is probably the longest post in Jones blog history. I'll end with a picture that one of the students drew at the request of my mentor teacher. My teacher asked one kid in each class who was artistically talented to draw a picture of some kind for a thank you note that all the students were going to sign. Some of the comments in those cards were pretty dang funny, but you had to be their teacher to understand them.