I Teach Because

The other day I started reading Teach for America blogs again.  One of them was from a kindergarten teacher who talked about the slump that she was in.  One of her students was frustrated when he couldn't draw his 3 the right way.  In her haste to help the teacher said, "It's not that you can't, you just can't YET." That's how I feel a lot of the time with my kids.  Last week one of my professors gave me some books on classroom management and a curriculum called Tribes.  It's about splitting the class into smaller groups to teach them the value of a hidden curriculum with ideas on different weekly life skills such as cooperation and responsibility.  Each day we will do a community circle with a new activity. To say I'm excited would be an understatement.  I can't wait to get back and redo my entire classroom with more kinder friendly ideas!

I titled this post for a reason so here's my recent list.

I teach because.....

these kids are lovable and capable.
these kids make everything in life seem so much better.
these kids come in barely knowing their alphabet and leave kindergarten knowing how to read.
these kids are the future of their community.

Me and some of my kids ice skating the day that I left :)

One of my kids and my favorite third grade teacher, Miss Claire, sneaking into the picture

 POTHOLDER HEADBANDS!

This is the dog that Claire and I somewhat adopted a for couple of weeks while we waited for a volunteer to take her home for Christmas.  Well, Claire kept her for most of the time and I babysat when she was otherwise occupied :)  We named her Weekend since she originally was supposed to be a weekend dog, but this puppy definitely stole our hearts along the way.