Why I Do what I Do

I started my second practicum last week, and I am absolutely LOVING it. I could talk for like three days straight about everything I've been doing in the schools and how much fun it is, but instead I'll just give a brief synopsis. Since I am in 4th grade, here are my

Top 4 Reasons: Why I do what I do.

4. Teacher camaraderie. The teachers at this school are super-nice to me. We all sit together during lunch and talk about everything from church to cooking blogs to the kids in our classes to lesson ideas to whatever else. My mentor teacher is old enough to be my sister. Charlotte's is old enough to be my mother. The other one is old enough to be my grandma. Someone brings treats almost every day. (Today it was me. Yeah! Contributing!) They are so sweet and ask me how I'm doing and if I need any help and are always happy to offer advice. I will miss them when this is over!

3. Read-Aloud. Right now, I am in charge of doing the read-aloud every day after lunch. We are reading "Running out of Time" by Margaret Peterson Haddix. The kids in my class are so cute about it and every day when they come in from lunch, they act like it's a new thing that we are having read-aloud. They pump their fists and rush over to the rug and sit in front of my chair and throw their hands in the air to review what we read the day before. When read-aloud time is up, they sigh like it's the end of the world. They hold up one finger and mouth "Just one more page?" all pleadingly. They are dang cute.

2. Recess. Do you remember how much you loved recess in elementary school? Let me let you in on a secret: it's even BETTER when you are the grown-up. Today my teacher had recess duty so I went with her. Parker ran over to us immediately.

"No way!" he said. "Miss Connor, you finally get to come to recess!"

"I know!" I said, just as excited. "What do you do at recess time?"

He bounced ahead, happy to show me around. At this school, there is a huge blacktop. A couple portables are parked on it, but that just means the kids can play fun games where they run and hide and sneak around the portables. The playground is new, and slides, monkey bars, swing sets, and zip-lines sprawl over a huge field of fresh mulch.

Jaden R., Jaden T., Emilee, Emma, Harley, and some of the other kids came and joined us at the monkey bars. They all wanted to show me their awesome tricks, which all had awesome names. I saw them "caterpillar," "double-face ninja," and "slip-n-flip." They flung themselves fearlessly at the bars, reaching and tucking at just the right second.

I asked how they knew how to do so many cool tricks. "It kind of just comes naturally for us, I think," Harley said.

Then they all wanted me to try, so I asked them to teach me. They told me they'd start me with an easy one and just to grab on, pull myself up, and hook my feet on the bars. They laughed when I tried and couldn't hook my feet. I laughed too, because when kids laugh at you, they're not being mean.

"I can't believe you just did that!" Jaden R. said.

"Yeah, I've never seen a teacher on the monkey bars before!" said Parker. "I've just seen a teacher play basketball and sometimes jump rope." I wondered a little bit if I was not supposed to be on the monkey bars. Then I decided it didn't matter. I'm not a real teacher here. Not yet, anyway :)

1. And This is the #1 reason why I do what I do:

How cute is that??