{Learning from my Students}

I love Student Teaching.

Yes it is hard work.

No I do not enjoy my break from Hannah.

Nevertheless I really do love teaching. My mentor teacher Jasmine Bauer is way more than I could have ever expected. She is so awesome. Not only is she an awesome teacher and someone I am learning SO MUCH from, she is also very approachable, understanding, and personable. I feel so grateful to have someone that I can trust and truly enjoy on a daily basis.

The kids are so fun it is ridiculous. Yesterday while I was teaching the concept of rounding in math, I had the kids get out their personal whiteboards and answer silently by writing down the answer and holding it up for me to check. They were rounding to the nearest hundred and the number given was 892 so they all wrote down 900 and held it up for me to see. One girl {bless her heart} has a problem with sometimes writing letters and numbers backwards and wrote "P00" it took great self discipline to hold in my laughter. I know...real mature Mrs. Turney...but you picture an 8 year old holding up a sign above them that says P00 and you tell me that isn't a great mental image.

We have a marble jar in our class. When the class is being especially good, they receive marbles. When the jar is full the class gets a party. The boy with the job as the marble jar person has been a little sneaky. He may slip in an extra marble here or there...or when the class has their bad moments and they lose marbles he may not be honest with the amount he takes out. When we addressed it with his father, he told his son that he needed to write an apology to Mrs. Bauer and Mrs. Turney. Then he asked us as the teachers to please allow his son to address the class. Cole got up and said "I'd like to apologize to everyone in class...I haven't been honest in my job as marble person. I am sorry and I want you to forgive me." Here he stood shaking in his shoes tears streaming down and his voice was cracking. I felt like crying for him...both tears of sadness, because I know how hard it is to do something like that, and tears of happiness, because he doesn't know how lucky he is for a Dad who cares enough to make him have a concequence for his actions and doesn't make excuses for him (his parents are going through a divorce so he COULD have tried to make excuses). It made me think of MY parents and how they would have done the same thing. It made me want to be that kind of parent.

I enjoy my time with my fellow interns. Part of me wishes that I had a couple years to join them out in the field. I truly belong teaching...but not now. I realize that even though I have such a passion for it, I know that right now my classroom has only one student. She has a lot to learn and I have a lot to teach her. One of my students came up to tell me "Mrs. Turney, last year my mom got fired and lost her job for a couple of months...that was the best track break of my life. I got to spend EVERY DAY with my mom!" It kind of put me in my place.

So I'm doing well, Adam just went on track break after six weeks of paternity leave, after three months of summer break. He hasn't taught since June and is getting anxious to get back to his classroom. He's really enjoyed his time with Hannah though and I'm grateful they have been able to bond so closely. She loves her daddy so much!