School Kidz! (and Mom)

After 11 years of being a stay at home mom, I went back to full time work... for 4.5 months. I had the opportunity to be a temporary 4th grade teacher to cover a maternity leave. I was hired as a full time teacher, but only for the first semester. I forgot how much teachers work!!! Many times Josh would ask me why I was working at home. I was in my element and I loved it, but it was a lot with four kids. The experience showed me I can do it if I want to in the future, but I now know what to expect. I LOVED being in the school with my kids, and hope to someday work in the school with them again.

Trexton on the other hand, did not love that he had to go to full time preschool without me. He made friends and had fun, but ultimately, I am his favorite. In fact, he came to my classroom most mornings and had morning meeting with my 4th graders. It only lasted 15 minutes because they went to their Portuguese and PLL class. After sending the 4th graders off with my teaching assistant, I would take Trexton to his class. The 4th grade students absolutely love Trexton.

Before I dive too deep into the semester I taught, I want to touch base on Trexton's preschool before this school year. As mentioned in my last post, Trexton did a two day a week preschool for 3 hours each day with his friend. I would take a day and my friend would take a day. The two boys did all sorts of fun crafts and activities. We took so many pictures, and I wanted to blog about his experience, but never did. Here are some of the pictures that were taken during his co-op preschool.

This last semester he still did many fun craft and activities, but he just got tired of being in school for 7 hours every day. It is a lot for a 4 year old. His teachers were great, and they shared many awesome photos.

Every day Trexton would wake up and say, "What day is it?" He came to know that Monday through Friday we go to school and Sunday was church day. The first day of break, he woke up saying, "I don't want to go to school. Can I sleep in?" When I told him he was done with K4, he said, "Yay!" haha He was excited to start school with the kids, though. I think we were all excited for the new school year.

The first two weeks of school were interesting. I had a bad herniated disc. I did special excersizes every night and lunch to make my back finally feel better. It was a crazy couple of weeks. The rest of the semester was busy, but it was good. We did a lot of "extra" things that needed to be done during the school year, but not necessarily the first semester. It just worked out that way. We did a 4th grade led assembly, published books, and even went to the orphanage to deliver gifts that the students bought. I love that Avenly was a fourth grader because she is the only "student" that I can really post pictures of. Here are a few from the book signing and orphanage visit:

My birthday happen to also land during this semester. My birthday was just a few days before my teaching assistant's bithday, so the moms of the class were so awesome and bought us cakes and cupcakes to share with the class. They also bought me a $120 dress.

The fourth grade team decided to dress up as pirates for Halloween. I can't blog about my semester and not share the photo.

I wish I could share the picture of the students all giving me a massive hug my last day. They were such good students and I love them all. I will miss teaching them. They were sad that I will not be their teacher next semester. They wrote me cards and almost all students said something about missing Trexton, too. I am glad that I will still get to see them next semester because Avenly is still in 4th grade. It was a busy but awesome semester of teaching!