Student Teaching

I was doing the final part of my Bachelors degree in Elementary Education from January 5th to March 22nd. This was the final battle for me in getting this degree, and I was oh so excited to be done with it. In order to complete my degree I needed to do the full time teaching and submit a final portfolio or teacher work sample that when finished, is roughly 80-100 pages of work. Basically a small novel.. sounds like so much fun right?! Being pregnant didn't make it too much easier as morning sickness hit me hard this time around, and my energy was dwindling at times. But to be so close to the end, I just put a smile on my face and got through it knowing it would be better soon.

Honestly, I absolutely loved my students and loved to teach, it felt good to be doing this again and hopefully making a difference in these children's lives. I loved being around their enthusiasm and watching them see concepts for the first time and I loved that we truly learned from each other and had fun while doing it. I taught both 5th and 6th grade with roughly 60 students. I did learn very quickly of a few adjustments that I had to make that I'd definitely taken for granted such as:

• Waking up at 8:30 a.m.--heavenly
• Fresh lunch at home, NOT a frozen meal (no time for anything else)
• If needed, an afternoon nap or relaxing time when Kate naps
• More time to do homework (didn't love the 3:30 am work nights on a school night)
• Most important...More time with Kate..that was tough to adjust to..

Kate really had a hard time in the beginning, she would cry every time she was dropped off which just killed me. Won't deny had a few really rough days when I had to see that.. Kate was being watching 4 times a week by my sister, Becca, and once a week by my sister in law, Natalie, and then my other sister in law, Jo, helped out in the end too by watching Kate a few times. So grateful to have family to help. It seemed to go by really slow at first, January was a slow month, but it helped with Kate's birthday. The February I had my birthday and finding out what we were having to look forward too and March..well that just meant that I was almost done! By March, Kate would wake up in the morning and say things like "Stay with Mommy today? No go to Beccas?" and it would just make my heart sink. I was just ready to be able to say "Yep! You're with me today!" to her usual morning requests. 

The fun moments during this time such as:

                                                            Making cookies for Valentines Day

Date night for my 26th Birthday--19 weeks along

Taking Kate on the carousel at South Towne Mall

IT'S A GIRL!!!

It's just so funny  how teaching and having a career can be so different when you have kids..before Kate I couldn't wait to have a career and now, I couldn't wait just to be home with her. I now feel like I would rather be home with Kate, teaching her as I have and being there with my children to watch every moment of them as they grow, rather than going to work all day. Don't get me wrong though, I absolutely love teaching and still miss many of my students.. I guess I just understand now what I have been taught in church and that is the importance of a mom at home and how incredibly valuable raising children is.