Day 15

WOW! Senior project is over and i cannot believe it. Just when i thought Wednesday's class had a lot of pressure on me, today i had even more responsibility. Ms. Hildebrand WAS NOT IN CLASS FROM 9 TO 10! This meant that i was with the kids from about 9 to 9:30 while they were eating snack and working on a giant Connect the Dots paper. This was not difficult to monitor the kids while eating and be in the room without Ms. Hildebrand, but it was scary that she was not even in the school. I have been in the classroom, alone with students working on Fairy Tales, which was much more work than what i did this afternoon, but i was at ease because i knew she was just across the hall if i needed her for anything. Not only was Ms. Hildebrand not in school, but Ms. Jensen, the other second grade teacher, was not in school either! So, after snack and connect the dots i brought the students into the other second grade classroom to do a writing reflection worksheet with their fairly tale partner, on the writing process. I was relieved that i didnt not have to teach anything, but i continued to do what i like best, which is working with just a few students at a time. The classroom got a little wild at some times and i needed to call certain partners closer to me so i could keep a better watch over them. Relatively speaking, the students behaved exceptionally well for having a substitute and i run BOTH classes together in one room. At 10:00 i brought Ms. Hildebrands students to Computer Class, which i didnt stay for today and instead i went to Sports Assembly. Ms. Hildebrand came back after Lunch and red Holes to us for a short period of time, while i put stickers in a box next to everyones names which either said Excellent day, Good day, Poor day, Very poor day, depending on how they each behaved over the entire week. Reading time was short today because it was "Game Friday with Trenny!" The kids and i played various different board games on the floor. I played Jenga for a long time with Aiden, Ryan, Hayden, and DJ for a while, and then i played Aiden, also known as "the chess master," in chess. We didnt have time to finish the game because we needed to head down to the Gym for Andover Idol. This was very entertaining to watch the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders dance, lip sync, or do Cherokee in front of the entire school. Some of the performances were absolutely outstanding and others could have used a little more practice, but all in all it was impressive that any of them even got on stage in front of the whole school. Ms. Hildebrand's class was very respectful during the show and watched intently. It was funny to see some of the girls sing along, clap, and dance in their seats while watching some of the middle schoolers on stage sing. It's like you can see a little bit into the future of the lives of the girls in Ms. Hildebrand's class who know all the words to the songs and sing along. Once Andover Idol ended there was only about 15 minutes until dismissal. Ms. Hildebrand gathered the class together and we all sat on the floor. I figured she was going to read Holes to us, since it was a shortened reading after lunch, but that didn't happen. Ms. Hildebrand presented me with a Curious George book, which had pictures of me and the kids glued into the front cover and all the second graders signatures on the back cover. AND THEN Ms. Hildebrand handed me another gift. It was a photo book with pictures of the me and the students from over the past three weeks and a page designated to each of student for them to put a hand drawn picture in it for me. It was SO kind and thoughtful of them all. I felt like i was going to cry, it was so sweet. I have appreciated all that the kids have thought me and most of all how much Ms. Hildebrand has guided and taught me through these three weeks. We then got all packed up to leave and went out side to the playground for a big group HUG! I am really going to miss the kids!!