Whale Tales

Last week I received an email informing me that I had graduated from WGU's online teaching program. It seemed slightly anti-climatic to just get an email, but I was grateful nonetheless. Its been a long haul, but I'm finished. The last part of my schooling consisted of a four month student teaching experience which I did in Brenda Shelby's second grade class at East Primary. It was fantastic. I learned so much from watching excellent teachers in action and from making my fair share of mistakes. One highlight for me was creating and teaching a unit on the ocean. On Whale Day, we went down to the gym and measured out how long a blue whale is (28 second graders with their arms stretched out). Did you know that a blue whale's tongue weighs as much as an elephant?! Its sure fun to watch kids get excited about what they're learning and this was a really enthusiastic class. Here's a picture of me showing the kids where I'll be teaching next year, along with a couple from our field trip to the Newport Aquarium.