Complete Dork

I am a dork. I am sure this doesn't take a lot of convincing, especially those of you who know me well. Actually, even those who have just gotten to know me could probably tell too! I have the most ridiculous laugh, I stumble over my words and often times my own feet, I have strange addictions to cardigans, Harry Potter, and baking. I fully embrace my dork-hood, I do!

Julia and I were talking last night about how important it is to be a dork when you are a teacher. Maybe this isn't true for every single teacher, but for us, we feel it is important. We share stories each and everyday when we get home, which is always fun to discuss and compare, especially since we have such different age groups. We also give each other ideas for lessons or ask for the other's opinion on a situation. We both get totally excited for each other when we come up with a totally awesome lesson plan. Just tonight Julia was helping me rifle through our fridge and cupboards to find foods imported from other countries for a lesson I am teaching this week in Social Studies!

Side note: my roommate rocks.

When your career is centered around teaching children, you have to be excited about what you're teaching, otherwise why should they be excited about it? I love amping my kids up for a lesson in little ways, whether it be by showing them an object and having them guess what it may have to do with what we are learning, counting m&m's in math instead of blocks, or passing a ball around to have different students answer. It is easy for a school day to become one big long routine, I am constantly challenging myself to find little ways to keep the day interesting. This can sometimes include spelling words in accents. I know, I am a dork. But if it helps them to remember something better, I am all for it.

I love when we are doing an activity and I hear "This is so cool!" "We gotta do this again!" "This is the best subject ever!" I will pretty much do anything I can to get my students to learn, and not only that, but to ENJOY learning. If I can accomplish that, I will be over the moon excited and feel as though I have accomplished what I set out to do when I decided to become a teacher.

We studied the story of the wise men in Bible this past week, so I had the students make boxes from construction paper and fill them with pieces of paper, on which they had written gifts they could give to Jesus. They turned out wonderfully!