Hello friends!

Over a month ago, I promised I would get better at posting, but that didn’t happen. To be completely honest, a lot of it had to do with me being lazy. Add that together with writer’s block and business and here we are. I will point out though… it wasn’t a full year this time.

Anywho, this seemed like a great opportunity to create a new section here on the blog! Without further ado, let me introduce you to the “Student Teaching Files.” The last month and a half have been a blast, but they’ve been a little crazy too. I can’t wait to share some stories with you all here very soon.

You will get to hear about some highs, some lows, some things that my students have said or done, and some of the things I have learned along the way. For now, I will include a story and a picture from today.

At the beginning of the year in kindergarten, we have a letter of the day. Each day we do a letter song and then the students list words that start with that letter. I then do my best to draw whatever they say. I often say “Miss M is not an artist, but I’m going to try my best!” And the students will say “best” at the same time I do. It’s just the encouragement I need to attempt to draw. Some students say I’m doing great, but others will say that I am doing a really bad job and laugh at my art. And honestly, some haven’t been great, so I am often laughing too.

Today was the letter “T.” We had a lot of ideas (some ideas didn’t even make it on the poster this time). Students will often list classmate names, friends at school, and/or siblings to include on the poster. So we have that, we had a couple of words from our morning work at the beginning of the day, and other ones were fun words that students came up with on the spot.

In the bottom right is one of the funniest ones from the day. My students love to say “Miss M is going to have a hard time drawing this one” or “Uh oh! Miss M is in trouble!” So today, I hear one of my kinders say “Miss M is going to have a hard time with this one.” He then proceeds to say “turd.” I looked at my mentor teacher to know if it was okay to draw it. I got the nod of approval and I am trying to hold back the laughter. I ask if I can draw it like the emoji. My kinders say no. So I did what I thought they wanted.

I asked the student that said “turd” if I did it right. The student looks up at me and says “No, you need to make it swirly.” So… I tried my best, and what you see is what I did. My students thought it was the funniest thing that I drew it on our poster. There was a lot of laughter and students started having a hard time having calm bodies. The combination of it being Friday and seeing one of their teachers draw a turd on their poster might have been a little too much for them… but it was a blast!

Also, I would like to point out that my drawings have gotten better. They were a lot worse when I first started. I promise to share some more pictures of letter posters and talk more about what we do with them soon. But for now, please remember that I am not an artist, I am getting better, but what matters (for me and my students) is that we are trying our best.

Let the student teaching adventures continue!

-Brenna (aka Miss M)