You know you are a first year teacher when...

Your students keep asking you when we are going to stop doing the same things as the class across the hall. I don't know about you guys but I have the best mentor teacher ever. She pretty much just gives me what she does and then I use it in my classroom. The problem is that the kids talk to each other and my students now think that I come up with nothing on my own. Oh well. I am okay with it!

TWS

I feel so far behind from ya'all. Working people? Pregnant people? I am neither and who knows when I will be either. I am currently in the middle of my Teacher Work Sample - that oh so gloriously organized and well thought out piece of work that clearly demonstrates all the learning I've ever acquired throughout my years of hard work at BYU. It's due in a week and a half and I'm surprised I haven't thrown up yet. I have never put in so much effort in all my life as I have so far during my student teaching semester. My whole heart is in this and if I fail, I think I shall never look in a mirror and find a smile. Ok, I'm being dramatic. This is really hard work, but I keep telling myself I just need to take it a day at a time. I'm also trying to complete a Children's Lit course via online. AND I'm trying to complete some travel documents so that my husband and I can teach in China next semester. Lots of stuff. Good stuff. I think I thrive on the overwhelming, stressfulness of life. Well, I'm so happy to hear how ya'all are doing. Keep finding laughs out of little things. Love ya'all!

Kristine Marie Hardy/Kirk
Student Teacher @ Larsen Elementary 4th Grade

PS: Congratulations my beautiful pregnant peers! I'm probably a couple years behind ya!

The Teaching Side of my Life . . .

Just so you all know, I have my own blog as well:

Jessica Leigh

Which you are free to read for a more complete update on my life ;)

As for teaching . . . I've had some interesting adventures!
For those of you who don't know, I'm teaching 1st Grade out in West Valley City (Granite SD) and despite having tagged myself for the older kids -- I love it!

But, I will never name a child Gabriel. Ever.

Why?

We'll summarize it this way:

- He learned in Kindergarten that if he misbehaves enough he "gets" to stay home and play games (it's called suspension -- it's supposed to be a punishment) and had this "reward" within two weeks of school.

- Throwing chairs, climbing on/hanging off/jumping off furniture, breaking other kids crayons, coloring on the cubbies, running away -- all considered normal.

- Try to talk to him -- he'll "turn [his] ears off".

Mind you, he can be absolutely perfect . . . if he ever feels so inclined . . . and that's a big if. (Ok, anytime I'd mention there were only a couple minutes until recess, he'd shape up -- thinking he could somehow still go?)

We tried everything.
So now, he's in a safe school until at least the middle of November.

We've been VERY productive the past couple weeks!

I also have a very wide spread. One boy can't even speak in full sentences (and no, he's not ELL) and a couple are still learning their letters. On the other end of the spectrum, I've got one girl who writes stories in her spare time, spells almost everything correct and I'm constantly giving her altered math assignments.

And I have a 6-year-old "boyfriend". He's my little low boy (not the one who can't speak in full sentences) and he melts your heart. He likes to tell me I'm beautiful :)

6-year-olds are such morale boosters! You get a lot of hugs from these little dears! Even those who are trouble-makers . . . they still love you after you get mad at them.

The other day, they were working on their self-starter and one of them came up randomly to give me a hug -- and they all followed! I felt so loved!

So far, I've also survived SEP Conferences (no yelling parents!) and a VERY WET field trip!

Life is grand, ain't it?

☼☼☼

My life :)

Hey ladies! I'm not teaching right now either. I didn't get a job. I actually didn't even get any interviews. Sad, I know. So... right now I'm working for a cute little family as a nanny 3 days a week. Its actually pretty fun- and I'm sure way less stressful than teaching for now:) I'll just give y'all a few pics of my cute little kids. Right now I'm teaching the four year old how to read. He's SO smart!
Here they are. The older one is four and the younger is about four months. They are so funny!

Then, I just had to put this picture up because it cracks me up. I live with the family and Parker really likes to hang out with me. Yesterday I was in the shower and the whole time he was shouting me name to talk to me. I decided to ignore him, hoping that he would go away if I didn't say anything. When I got out of the shower I looked down and saw this. :) SO FUNNY!

Prego People

I recently went to a fabulous baby shower for Cherish! It was a blast. You all missed out, except Maura :) Can you guess why we are standing in this order?

Alex plus one! ...almost :)

So, nobody is adding amazing teaching things on this (as we all should since we're all applying our amazing new skills right?:) so I'm just going to add me! :) I am not teaching, actually, right now I am a temporary receptionist at a tax firm. This was the perfect job because I'll stop working when I'm 7 months pregnant and that will be plenty! Well, the reason I'm not teaching is pretty obvious, so I thought I'd show off my big gut and let you all know how I'm doing! Besides this kid (he's a boy) eating my ribs all the time recently, it's been a pretty nice pregnancy, as far as pregnancies go! So here's a run through of myweeks! (for those who don't know, a pregnancy lasts 40 weeks)

4 weeks........19 weeks......24 weeks......28 weeks (this is now)

Yes, I look a little funny in the last picture, I didn't take a very good one, so that's what you get! :) I try to wear the same shirt to get a good idea of the change, but I'll be honest with you , 24 weeks looks bigger than 28! (I had a little growth spurt!:) But in the last two pictures you can see me sporting my new haircut! Fun!

So what is everyone else up to?? I want to see pictures of you and your adorable rooms at school, or whatever you are up to!

Thanks again Megan for setting up this blog!! :)

Wacky Wasps!

Hey everyone! I am loving teaching despite all of the stress and work. I have a funny story for you. The other day a wasp followed one of my students in from recess. My kids went crazy over it. They paid a lot more attention to it than to me. Finally I decided that I would use the wasp to my advantage. We have been talking about alliterations so I had my students help me list as many "w" words as we could think of. I then had them write stories about wasps in which they had to include at least 10 other "w" words. It taught me that when unexpected things happen in your classroom you just have to try to turn them into teaching moments. Hope that you are all enjoying teaching and your students! Love, Megan