A Hui Hou!

After next Tuesday I am officially a certified teacher. The past five months have been hard, tiring, rewarding, frustrating, hilarious, and inspiring.

I really want to remember everything that has happened this year while teaching Teen Health at King Intermediate School.

Here are the highlights:

The things they say . . . I could go on for days.

I teach 12 and 13 year olds, which is a category all by itself. Add to that the fact that they are Hawaiian 12 and 13 year olds . . . they pretty much have their own language. It took me a long time to get used to some of their lingo, but now I even find myself talking this way. My favorite Pigeon includes:

The fact that they only call me “Miss” not Mrs. Rasmussen, not even Mrs. Just Miss.

“Ahhh Miss, thas junk” EVERYTHING is junk (meaning bad, dumb, silly, gross)

“Da Kine” Whenever my students don’t know what to say, they say: “you know, da kine?” It’s what they use to fill sentences kinda like when we say “you know that thing?” It’s funny but frustrating because I never know what da kine means.

One phrase that I picked up more from the teachers that I work with is “Try”. Instead of saying “You better bring your planner next time” I now find myself saying “Try bring your planner next time” or “Try do your homework for once”. Sounds so weird, I know.

Scrap/Scraping = Fight/Fighting (which happens a lot at my school – usually two girls fighting over a guy)

The word “one” can be used instead of “a”. So . . . Instead of saying “can you bring me a book?” they say “can you bring me one book?” Still not used to this one.

“Oh Miss, I cannot.” They almost NEVER say, “can’t” it is always “cannot”. I really don’t know why.

Favorite Things:

· The students attempting to learn my last name – most of them didn’t even get close. Guess that’s why they called me “Miss”

· The Valentine cards my students made me

· Spending 80 minutes a day in a car with two other student teachers. We became very close and it was nice to debrief after school with people who knew exactly what I was going through.

· The group of girls that come into my classroom EVERY MORING to give me a hug and talk.

· The time the bridge flooded and I was 30 minutes late for school. The sub was teaching and when I walked in the whole class cheered. That was a good moment.

· Listening to music with my advisory class – this usually would lead to a sing along and/or dance off.

· Supervising the end of year dance – it was darls and hilarious.

· The rumor that I died when I missed ONE DAY of school. This really happened. Apparently there was a car accident and everything . . . they were all very concerned when I came back the next day.

· My students telling me that I am way too young to be married, asking what my husband’s name is, what he looks like, what he does, etc.

· The very troubled student that I somehow made a connection with – he loved talking about watches and tried to steal mine off my wrist on several occasions. He was good in my class after that.

· The day I perfected “the look”. I can give a crusty like you wouldn’t believe (or maybe some of you believe it ha ha!)

· The morning bulletin. A news program anchored and filmed by students that gives the morning announcements. It also usually features a short video filmed by the media class – made my morning every time.

· The looks on their faces when discussing the reproductive system – priceless. Also, the questions that followed.

· Watching my students do jumping jacks and then try to breathe through a coffee straw to experience what it is like to have emphysema. Hilarious.

· Walking around the campus and having students yell out “hi Miss!” it’s so cute. (This campus is gorgeous I can see green mountains and blue ocean out of my windows).

· The multiple times I brought students to tears – usually not really my fault, sometimes it was.

· Watching their faces change when they finally understand a concept. Amazing.

I know this is a lot, but I don’t want to ever forget it. I have such mixed emotions about my life right now. I’m sad to leave Hawaii, but so happy to see family. I’m sad to leave my students, but happy to be done with school.

Bring on the next chapter!

And please bless I get a teaching job!

I love this pic. . . the rainbow almost made my head explode. I couldn't stop looking while I was teaching!