 So today I have a special guest, Jenna Burr from Jenny with teaching! Hi! And we are going to be doing the end of the year teaching tag created by Darren Nakakihara and there is a hashtag, I teach so strong. Is that what it was? Sure. Crap. Teach so strong. I don't know. Yeah. I teach. No, I teach so hard. Hashtag, I teach so hard. It's hard, okay? Life is hard. There are hashtags. There are 14 questions. Jennifer is going to interview me and ask me the questions. And if you would like to see Jennifer's answers to this tag, you can go on over to her channel, which will be linked down below and you can see all of her responses. So, we're going to get started. Alright, so question number one. What grade do you teach and how long have you taught that grade? I currently teach fourth grade and I have been teaching fourth grade for four years. This was my golden year and it was seriously the best year ever. Stay with the same kids. This is my best year ever t-shirt from Lipstick and Littles. Go follow her on Instagram and buy some shirts. She's so good. Yes, she's so good. Continue. Alright, number two. What adjective best describes you as a teacher and why? I would say silly. Yeah. Because if I'm not being super serious and like really nailing down teaching, I'm being silly with my students and I'm being their friend and I'm having fun with them. I've seen both sides. Yeah. And everything I do is silly. I think they would tell. If you're a student and you're watching this and you agree, put thumbs up emoji. The dogs are going to get out the window and we're in the second door. You're not going to be flying. You're going to be with the big old ears. Question number three. If your life as a teacher was made into a movie, what movie star would play you? Kate Hudson. Oh. Because everybody says I look like her. I don't really think so but I love Kate Hudson. Yeah, she would be. That's a good one. Number four. Think of my lessons from this year that you're especially proud of and what made it so special. I'm not going to pick one specific lesson but I will talk about the most successful lessons and why they were successful. The most engaged my kids were ever was when I used music or Kagan strategies. Yeah. And I have the little emoji. Oh yeah, from actually Schroeder. Is that her? Schroeder shenanigans seconds, yes. They're like little emoji partner cards and you pass them out and then they have to match them up. Either that or I use the class dojo toolbox and I put them in random groups and I use music to have them rotate around and things like that. So like using the Kagan strategies. Anytime I use them my kids are super engaged the entire time I'm using them. And there's no brainers because you can use them with any content. Yeah, anytime, anywhere. I'm not going to just pick one lesson. Yeah, that's it. It's the components of the list. Number five. Tell us about a student that you think you'll likely remember forever from this year. I know it's like really hard to like this group is amazing. They stand out. But I have to pick. I wish I could pick all of them. I know. But I feel like the twins and they know who they are. Yes. Yeah, I was like wait who's the twins? I'll never forget, literally the twins. I'll never forget Aiden, Mandy's son because he's like my little buddy. Yeah. He's outside of the classroom. Yeah, it's different when it's like a teacher. You see them. Yeah. A friend's child. A different way. But the twins. How was it having them together? That's amazing. And the reason why is because they have so much personality. They are so funny. They make me laugh. They come from a hilarious family. They do. Like their mom, their mom and I are friends on Facebook now. Dad's funny. And their dad came on all our field trips. And just their personalities like we got along so well. Here's an example. I always joke with my students and when they sneeze, I always say one more and you owe me a donut. Because it helps them stop sneezing. Yeah. Today, one of them brought me a donut. They really, I owed you a donut. So here you go. I have a student that sneezes a lot. I feel like I'm in a bakery with them. Oh yeah. Oh it's all the time. So this is their funny personality. And I always play their favorite songs. It's just like their energy that they give. I really appreciate music. They really do. So those two. Because their brother and sister, I couldn't choose one without them. Let's see. Number six. At this point in the year, how do you feel about the teaching profession? I'll be honest with you. At this point of the year, I'm like done. And that's why I keep all of my like long lasting projects till the end. Because I'm so over, like, planning. Planning. I'm over grading. I'm over, you know, having to over stuff. Yeah. And they're over it too. And I'm over like monitoring and like giving specific feedback. And it's just I have to pack my room and I have to do all these other things. It's not like I'm checked out. I always give them like these projects at the end because it keeps them busy. It keeps them engaged. It keeps them learning. And, you know, I'm able to stay sane because I'm not having to deal with like all these other, you know, different things. So I would definitely say that the last like month of teaching is the hardest. Yeah. It's the funnest. It can be the funnest but it's really hard. So number seven. How do you keep your job fun and engaging no matter how long you've been teaching? I would say music. Yes. Music keeps everything engaging. Like you said, choosing to do different activities, a lot more art projects. Yeah. Keep it engaging. Um, engaging for me, I would say these like bigger projects. Oh, and a novel study. Yeah. Do a novel study. Even do one you've never done before. Yeah. Because then it's surprising you. Mm-hmm. In addition to the students. They're reading the book this year, which is just as a read aloud. Mm-hmm. And I'm now going to make it part of my. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to make it a novel study next year. And to like, like I said before, it's like a long lasting assignment instead of being just like a quick lesson because you've covered all the standards by now and you can use them. You can apply them with um, split studies. And like I said, if you do something you haven't done before, then you're reading it along with them and you can be just as surprised by the content as they are. Yeah. That's true. All right. Number eight. What has surprised you the most since the school year started? I would say what a big impact leaving from maternity leave has on kids? Yeah. Um, individuals. Just as individuals. Like I have a couple of students that really struggle when I left. Um, just because of their, you know, learning needs and personality needs and a couple of them have, you know, come back from it and they're fine. But there was a really big struggle at the beginning, you know, just trying to get them back on track and just the loss of like what has been learned like last year. And I don't like to harp and like focus on standardized testing, but like this year, all of my, like my growth was exceeded on our Galileo district assessment. And this year we've just maintained, which is still good. And you know, it's positive. They didn't all drop down, but like that time was wasted. Even though I had a great long-term sub, the fact that she left like not even in the middle, like closer to the beginning and then that second sub really did not do anything standards based with them. They really missed out on practicing standards and like really learning how to, you know, work with them. So it was that community. Yeah. And it was just really hard. So I'm glad it was with this group though, because if it was another group, it would have been a complete disaster. Yeah. Number 11, what is the last thing you took a picture of and show us? Hopefully it's more exciting. It's probably cash. It's the tag. Oh! Does that count? The last picture was this Mother's Day card that my son's babysitter made me and put on the door because my Mother's Day was kind of boring. I was all by myself and she made a cute little and then no one before that. Cash! In this little hungry caterpillar outfit. Number 12, sing the last song you listened to. It was a... I close my eyes and I can see a world waiting for me. Oh, I know. That's from... That's from the first showman. We were listening to the greatest showman in class. Oh, I did walk in. You guys were listening to that. Um, let's see. Number 13, complete the sentence. If I weren't a t-shirt. If I weren't a t-shirt. If I weren't a teacher. Okay. If I weren't a teacher, I'd be... I would be on Broadway. Oh my God! That was my other dream. That was your perfect job. That was my other dream. Performing somewhere. Whatever. Performing. That is... I would be awful. I'll be the stage hand in the back. Fix your dress. Number 14, the last one. Who is your teaching hero? And tell them one thing that you really appreciate about them. Well, technically, you are my teaching hero. And it's not just because... You're too nice. It's not just because you're my friend. It's not just because you're in this video with me. It's because of all the things you've shared with me and taught me over these last two years of our friendship. You seriously are like my mentor. I wish that you had been my mentor teacher when I was doing teaching. And just all of the like management tips that you've given me. All of the instructional tips you've given me. Just like in life in general. And the way that you... Oh, the way that you can like overcome like hardships in teaching and in life. You just are like a huge inspiration to me. And then of course Mrs. Tripp, she was my fourth grade teacher. She like was the best. And I strive to be like her every day. Yes. And I think I'm doing a pretty good job. She read holes to me when I was in fourth grade. So I read holes to my fourth graders. You should read to your third graders. I'm thinking I might. For all the questions, and we are going to include them in our description down below so that you guys can do it because... Tag! You're it! You get to do this tag next. And thanks Darren for creating this. It was so fun. We love doing tags. And every time we get together, we're going to have to just film together. Do a tag. We'll just make a tag. Yeah, we'll just make it a tag. We should get t-shirts that say make it a tag. Make it a tag. And on the back, tag. Tag. You're it. That'd be cute. Okay. Well, thank you guys so much for watching. Don't forget to subscribe and follow me on Instagram. Apple's N. GR's because it's new. Because I have a really bad one. I don't know. I don't know which. N. N. Is this N? N? N. Okay. Bye.