Best Day

Last school year was a very challenging year for me. I had numerous behavior students and
special education students in my classroom which made some days a challenge to get
the simplest activities done. There were days that I sat at my desk not sure what to do next.
At the same time, my passion for trying new things as a teacher, being innovative, and
collaborating with my peers never wavered. 

 Last year we decided to incorporate a fairy tale unit into some of the activities we were already doing.  After brainstorming fun projects with some of my team members we thought of some great stem projects to do with our classes. One that I was most excited/terrified for was our castle project. In the past, another teacher had painted recyclables by what kind of 3D shapes they were. They also studied  different types of famous buildings and talked alot about architecture. At the end of their project they became architects and created their own buildings with the recyclables. Through collaboration we decided to turn this idea into a castle project instead.

I was a bit nervous to start this project with the class I had because there wer a lot of messy and demanding steps that went into the project. There was a ton of prep that went into this project that took extra time and effort on my part. Also, I knew that if we were going to be painting these recyclables, it could be a huge mess and disaster. Even with all my trepidation, I was excited to get started with the project. The morning we started I was shocked how well my class was doing. 

They were all very excited and engaged in our project. They loved getting to sort all the items and painting them. There were so many recyclables to paint and I will never forget when after an hour of working one of the students in my class came up to me and said: “this is the best day ever!” I'll never the look of excitement on her face that day. It made me so happy because at that moment I knew all the stress, planning, and hard work was worth it. It reminded me that even through some days can be hard and I want to give up I can’t, I have to remember that every project I plan or interaction I have with my students affects them.