Last Day of School

Second grade has been crazy, but man am I ever glad it is over... it has been rewarding to have had the immediate and direct impact on the lives of the kids in this second grade class. I had them for a month. I came to them in the middle of a very chaotic period with different substitutes everyday and no real classroom community established other than one of meanness and bickering. I understand why they their behavior was so miserable and why learning had not been occuring! I felt for them. They missed out on a lot, second grade is such a fun year and they missed it. They did not have a healthy classroom setting. There was no discipline or structure set in place. Thus learning had not really been happening (on average their state test scores show that they are a year behind their peers). While I was not able to teach them a lot academically, I feel like I came in and created the stability, structure, and expectations that they needed in order to be in a place where each student felt welcome. It took a lot of compassion, patients, sensitivity, and VERY high expectations, but I feel I was pretty successful. It began with the first 45 minutes I had with them and learning to walk from the cafeteria to the classroom without pushing, shoving, and talking. Not one student was sent to the office while in my care whereas prior to me coming, the office staff saw a few of them everyday. I provided them one teacher for 1 month so that each day the little boys and girls came to class and knew Mr. Street would be there to pick them up from the cafeteria and then walk them to class and shake their hand and say good morning while they waited, sometimes too eagerly, to walk into my room and begin an actual routine. I have enjoyed these energetic and somewhat crazy ninos and ninas, but it is time to move up the ladder to 5TH GRADE!

I get to follow my 4th grade scholars to 5th grade next year and teach them Reading, Social Studies, and a little bit of Science, I couldn't be more excited! I will be able to have my same classroom and seriously cannot wait to begin...5th grade is an exciting period. I have such fond memories of my time in 5th grade (gosh, 13 years ago!)

Above are some pictures of my stint in 2nd grade.