Today was certainly a day to remember. It was my last day with the kiddos, but it was also our field trip to Indianapolis to the Children’s Museum! We had to be at the school at 6:30 to depart. The kids were all very excited. They were very good on the way there, especially quiet the first hour or so. After we stopped at the rest stop, had the chance to wake up a bit, and get a snack in their systems, they livened up a bit.

Our time at the museum was great! There was a lot to see and do, a whole 4 levels! It was great to see the students so excited. My cooperating teacher and I got to travel from group to group. I received many hugs from students accompanied with quotes such as, “I’m giving you extra hugs today since it’s your last day.”

On the way home, the real adventure began. After driving for like 20 minutes, we came to a halt. Long story short, there was a huge accident that involved fatalities. Both lanes, on either side of the highway were shut down. We were stuck on the highway, not moving more than 20 feet for 4 hours. While it sounds unfortunate, it was amazing to see the students, chaperones, and teachers come together and make the most out of an unfortunate circumstance. During those hours, I was thankful to have more time with the kids I’ve developed relationships with and love a co-op who I greatly admire. It for sure will be a last day to remember forever. I have never been good at goodbyes. This was no different. 26 lives that I’ve had the privilege to be a part of has been incredible. I am thankful to the University of Illinois and College of Education for this wonderful, truly life changing student teaching experience.

I can’t believe my last week of full takeover has ended. The past 4 weeks have brought their fair share of stress, business, tasks to complete, papers to grade, lessons to teach, and laughs.

One of the most rewarding parts was seeing how much the students seemed to value me as a teacher. It was satisfying to see how much progress I was able to make with the students over 4 weeks. It is going to be hard for me to take a step back since being full force is all I have known for the past 4 weeks. The hardest part I would say was either prior to starting takeover when having to plan a sequence of lessons spanning the course of multiple weeks or in the beginning. One aspect that was kind of nice was since I had planned, I was able to adjust more as I went. For example, early on in the semester, when given lessons by my co-op to teach, I sometimes felt like I needed to get it all in. But this time, it was nice to know that if I did not achieve what I needed to, then we had the next day to pick up where we left off. Fully taking over definitely forced me to embrace flexibility.