For any of my friends that are student teaching next semester let me start off by telling you the power of a hug. I have a student in my class that drives me up the wall. He never, ever feels like doing work and my University Supervisor always says, "Kirsten, why did you just let him do what he wants?" I have tried everything I could think of to get him to work. He wants computer time so I bribed him with it. If he did all of his work then I'd let him have free time on the computer. That didn't work. No matter what bribe I'd give him he'd NEVER do his work. Every random Monday he would actually give no problem at all. We assumed it is the day he's getting his medication and we would give him ultimate rewards for doing such a great job. This literally happened MAYBE once a month. Last week I realized how much time I spend scolding him and showing my frustration and I felt awful. Who knows what he's hearing at home, too. As the other students were eating breakfast I called him over to me and gave him a big hug. He looked at me with a huge smile on his face and said, "Now Ms. Kirsten, what was that for?" and I just said, "You looked like you needed a hug and I did too." I had absolutely NO problems with him all day. Maybe it wasn't my hug that did it, but his smile that morning makes me think it was. I'm going to test my theory again Monday.
So, I have this kid in my class. He is too stinkin' cute. There's a little girl in one of the other 2nd grade classes that finds me every. single. day to say, "Hey will you tell him I said hi!" The first time she ever did that I asked him if it was his girlfriend. His response? "Ms. Kirsten, she was my girlfriend last year but she always asked for my snack at recess and I got tired of it so I broke up with her." How adorable is that response? I said, "Geez, girls are just too demanding, huh?" to which I heard, "Yeah, tell me about it. All they do is say 'give me this' and 'give me that'." Same child also told me he climbed Mt. Everest over the summer and that it is located in New York City.
As the semester comes to a close next Friday I am preparing little goodie bags for them. I am so sad that I have to leave them, but so ready to graduate!
They will each get a handful of Hershey Hugs so they can feel extra love from me after I leave and some Smarties since they are such smarties. My students love seeing pictures of themselves and are constantly trying to take pictures with me so I made each one a keychain with a picture of the two of us in it. I often felt so stressed and they had times where they didn't love me AS much so since they are sometimes sweetTARTS they get sweetTART candy canes. I also found a lot of stuff with the idea that they are #1 so I got a bookmark, pencil, and sucker all saying that. I got a lot of the stuff from Oriental Trading.
So to my friends going through student teaching next semester, I hope you ladies have as much fun as I did and just know that a simple hug is something that will make the students feel spoiled and loved.
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