My last day at the middle school was last Thursday. I felt so loved by the students and left feeling satisfied with my teaching and very happy with the relationships I developed with the students. One of the students who is considered by other teachers a "troublemaker" just stole my heart from the beginning. He is a short little guy with a tough personality. I remember one of my first days he wasn't doing his math homework and I asked him if he was planning on doing it at home and getting help from his parents. He told me his parents can't help him cause they don't know how to do the math he is doing. That broke my heart. He had a para educator who would help him and a few other students during math class. I found that most of the time he just needed instructions repeated one more time and then he would get right to his work. One of my last days after math class he went up to my cooperating teacher and asked him "Did you plan that math lesson or did Mrs. Giles?" my cooperating teacher told him that I had planned it and this student responded with "Oh that's why it was so fun." My cooperating teacher was a little insulted by that comment but we laughed about it and it was a huge compliment to me. That lesson they were learning about area of rectangular prisms and how to find it. They used blocks and dice to fill up a box and then would count how many cubes it took to fill it up. They then figured that they knew how to find the area of the base (length x width) and then they just had to multiply that by the height of the rectangle. I found it is so important to use manipulatives and to have kids working together and it really makes a lesson so much better.
My last day this student came in before school to get help with math. As I was helping him I told him I was going to miss him and this tough little guy just said really sweet like "Same here!" The students made me a big card and they all wrote on it. So sweet. Some of the girls stayed for a bit during my lunch period and before they left gave me hugs. Here are some of my favorite notes on the card:
The student who made the front of the card has better handwriting than I do! That's a 6th graders handwriting!
Why? Why? Why? This totally is how this student talks she's hilarious :)
U Rock! Totally reminds me something you would write in your friend's 6th grade year book.
This one says: Thank you for making there be something to look forward to in math. I hope you have a great time in wherever you are. Thank you for making my year :)
This cracks me up: "Thanx you For your vist"
My cooperating teacher had told the students since the beginning of the year if they got a class average of 90% on their math test they would get a smoothie party. Two weeks before I left they earned one :)
You were definitely born to teach! Love ya Linds xo
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