Elementary Appreciation

To start off my journey of Appreciation and Thanks, we shall start at Crippen Elementary School:

In Kindergarten I was part of the afternoon class, back when it was only a half day program. My mom would drop me off after I missed the bus too many times and the driver quit driving by my house. Before the afternoon class started Ms. Anderson took a group of us outside to play while the other kids were still getting there and eating lunch. Now this might sound like the normal job of a Kindergarten teacher, but Ms. Anderson wasn't my teacher. To be honest I have no idea what her actual job title was, but I still remember some of the conversations we would have in the mornings. I remember that we made frog hotels in the sandbox outside. Thank you for all that you did.

In first grade I had Ms. Newcum. I learned a lot that year, and did some pretty questionable things to my teacher... I was "that kid". Highlights of that year include learning how to spell together: to-get-her, rainbow spelling words, and me planning a Hawaiian themed wedding for her to my uncle (that never happened). Honestly if I had to teach first grade Casey, I would have quit by now. Ms. Newcum you are a saint and thank you for putting up with me and being one of the best examples of how to be patient with a mischievous kid.

In second grade I had Mr. Grevenberg, or Mr. G. His class was out in the portable buildings and that's were I fell and scrapped my leg on the wooden walkway they put up. I remember the school had a Halloween Parade that year and each grade level was assigned a math topic to dress up as. Second grade got dominoes, and Mr. G thought that was lame, so he petitioned the principal and our class was able to change to the Math Army, and we went all out with it. We all dressed up in camo, we had war paint on, some kids brought their jeeps and drove them down the halls. It was awesome! Thank you Mr. G for making math fun.

Before I move on I also want to talk about my GT teacher: Ms. Meier. I only had her for one year, but it was awesome. I remember we did this Iditarod project where we tracked the dog races. There was something else about totem poles but still very cool stuff. Ms. Meier is also one of those teachers who is always willing to give advice to a new teacher like myself. Thank you Ms. Meier for being a help to my past and my present.

For third grade on I was at Kings Manor Elementary. My third grade teacher was Ms. Montgomery, I don't remember much about that year, only that on the last day of school I picked her up because she was tiny. I would like to formally apologize... My bad

Fourth grade is also kind of a blur, I had Ms. Brewster but nothing sticks out.

Fifth grade I had several teachers. Homeroom was Ms. Bradshaw and I remember she was obsessed with the Texans. I think it was her first year teaching, and I remember she got us to do this project and the Texans Kids Training Camp got to come to our school. It was fun. I also remember that there was this girl in our class who wasn't so well off financially and Ms. Bradshaw secretly went out and got her a birthday cake to share with the class at lunch. I know that girl will never be able to say thank you for that, but on her behalf, thanks Ms. Bradshaw.

Ms. Jones was reading and I remember that we did Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes and when we finished reading the book we actually tried to make 1,000 cranes to send to some children's cancer hospital. I still know how to make the crane, and I've been trying to teach some of my students how to do it. That was a cool idea Ms. Jones. I also remember when you brought your son's dead hamster because you had to return it to the pet store one day... That wasn't so cool...

My math teacher was Ms. Graham. I mostly remember being mad at you because you went on maternity leave and left us with the mean substitute, but I still like to think you named your daughter after me, even though you spelled it wrong!

My science teacher was Ms. Baker, and she's one of the main reasons that I wanted to become a science teacher. I remember doing all kinds of awesome experiments in her class. We did pendulums, we did chemical changes, I remember we set corn starch of fire with a blow torch! It. Was. Awesome. She's the kind of science teacher that I wanted to be, but I haven't had a chance to prove myself in that field yet. Way to make science come alive Ms. Baker!

I can't finish without talking about Mr. Kanaday (I think) the GT teacher I had for 5th grade. He had us do all these projects that were about China and Egypt and after each unit we got to go on these really cool field trips. Definitely an enrichment opportunity for children who needed to dive deeper!