Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Portrait of a Third Grade Teacher

Today was the last day of my fifth year of teaching.  I sent home 26 little babies home for the summer, only to come back as fourth graders.  With summer at the tips of our fingertips the past week, engaging activities to do with them were hard to come up with.  At one point, I decided to throw caution to the wind and I assigned my students the task of drawing their teacher. 

Here is what they came up with:

Above is obviously me on a good day.  Below is me on a bad day.

Some drew me uber skinny in an effort to boost my self confidence:






And some kept my self confidence in check by highlighting my wrinkles and bushy brows:


Some needed to label me, to make sure I knew who I was looking at:







Some showed that they paid close attention to my little peccadilloes and drew me teaching with my glasses off, which I am prone to do, given that my specs give me a headache while I'm teaching.



A couple of kids drew me with my baby, almost an honorary member of the class, given that I talk so much about him.






I will leave you with my favorite; one that shows what I strive to do every day, and that's cheer for my kids:
Plus, it shows my freckles.  This kid paid attention.  (And don't you love the exclamation points on either end?)

When I thought about how I could best draw my students, all the lines became blurry for me and I wondered how this artistically challenged person could do them justice.  Instead of trying to replicate all their pretty faces, I drew a feeling:

I {heart} them. 


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9 comments:

Donna Urso said...

Hi Gin, Lovely post. I was a first grade teacher for ten years. I know what you mean about the last day of school. Enjoy your summer.

Stephanie in Suburbia said...

This is really sweet! Happy summer to you!

BNM said...

aww i love this! I cant wait until I graduate and get my own classroom!!! Kids are awesome

Jess and Matt said...

oh my gosh, I LOVE this. I laughed out loud for real. Kids are so dang cute. I love the character each individual drawing had. Thanks for posting those; they totally made my night.

City Life to Ranching Wife said...

I love this post. These pics say alot..one of which is that you are a great teacher that loves her kids. Awesome!

Anonymous said...

Oh. Em. Gee. This is one of your cutest posts for sure! I used to work for Project GRAD in Houston and tutored inner city third graders in reading. They called me Miss Eve (before I was married) and I wish I had kept the drawings they did of me! So dang cute; you must be an awesome teacher! :-)

....Happy Summer to you!

Kristy @Loveandblasphemy said...

Oh, those are great! It IS so hard to keep everyone engaged at the end of a school year. Whew. You did it! Enjoy your summer!

Laurie said...

That is just too cute!!!!! lol!

kids here get out around June 22nd, due to all the snow/ice days. can you imagine?!?

Anonymous said...

Your heart is so big Gin, bigger than most. Thank God we have you in this world. Even if you're only in one classroom, you're changing the lives of many children. GO YOU!

And this is why you have been reciprocated upon! Yay, I finally handed out Lovely Blog Awards...and you get one! http://retrohipmama.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/and-the-lovely-blog-awards-go-to/

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