Teaching 7th grade Science has been one of the most difficult and most rewarding things I’ve ever done.
It’s so odd to think that this is the last post in this series (at least for a while) that I’ll write. As I look around at my mostly bare classroom and listen to each group of students come in and say “it looks so empty!” with a frown, I can’t help but get a bit nostalgic.
I came to this classroom just out of college, excited, enthusiastic, and idealistic. Although I’m not as idealistic as I once was, I can say with pride that I’ve worked hard to make my classroom an emotionally safe space for students to learn and thrive. While it’s easiest to remember the difficulties – and there were many – it’s more important to remember the growth I’ve witnessed here, both in the students and in myself.
In the three years I’ve basically lived in this building I’ve become so much more confident in both my ability as an educator and in my own assertiveness. I’ve watched about 450 students grow two, three, or even six inches taller and leagues more confident in their own abilities. I’ve had great victories and even greater failures – specifically in lesson planning – and with every failure I grew stronger.
I’ve met some truly fantastic individuals in students, teachers, and administrators. Each one reminded me that everyone you come across has something to teach you & something to learn from you.
Garrett and I have been planning for location independence for over a year, but even through this transition, it feels so unreal to me. I will truly miss my kids and the friends I’ve come to know while here, but I’m also very excited for the next chapter of our lives!
Now, enough of the serious (because who’s crying right now? It’s definitely NOT me…) and please enjoy some quotes from the past few weeks in my classroom!
*names have been changed to protect the identities of my darlin’ kiddos* XD
Things I Heard:
“What’s that food that’s orange and it’s a ball?”… “An orange?!”
“Mrs. Oden, do you have armpit hairs?!?”
“Did plastic come from living things?…”
“Mrs. Oden, John needs medical help!” “Yeah I hit my head on a rock”
“I ate a piece of my eraser because I’m a savage.”
“Can you breed a Chihuahua with a Great Dane?”
“Mrs. Oden, does color have a smell?”
*while drawing a dog grabs his face and says* “Oh my gosh my dog is disabled!”
“My mom tried to buy a pig one time…it didn’t work out well”
“Bro, Mrs. Oden! Check this out!”
“I named my dog Goat Milk!”
“Wait, where in the alphabet is J? It comes right after E right?”
Singing: “Bill Nye the Russian spy”
“Mrs., when you travel are you gonna fight ISIS???”
“You don’t put a bathing suit on your lips!!!”
“My mom thinks you’re a cool lady!”
“You’ve GOT to make a YouTube Channel!” x 3,000…
Things I Said:
To kids having a contest holding their breath: “If you pass out you’re not going to the nurse.”
“You don’t have any chin hairs! Stop looking for them and get back to work!”
“Just don’t drink bleach and get back to work!”
“Why are you singing the Farmer’s Only Commercial Song?!”
“I’m about to take away your Skittlefish privileges!”
“Guys, stop fighting over the pencil sharpener!”
“Flowers don’t have threesomes, & that is NOT what we are talking about!!!”
Conversations with Students:
“What are you doing???”
“I was just counting the number of times you said “crap” in this class so far.”
“Yeah…I’m a mess today.”
“Would you die if you ate straight up carbon?”
“Straight up solid carbon is coal.”
“So basically I have coal in my body?”
“No.”
“Oh, good. I was scared.”
“Wait, what if there was a green lemon?!?”
Rest of the table: “those are called limes….”
“Sharing is caring!”
“What if I don’t wanna share, but I really do care??…”
“Can my dog have shoes?”
“Why does your dog need shoes?!”
“He’s a hunting dog DUH…he needs his timberlands!”
“Mrs. Oden h, w do you spell banana?”
“This is bananas! B-A-N-A-N-A-S! Go go bananas!”
