Acknowledgements

To Shari Weaver -- WPI Teacher Preparation Program Director:

Thank you, Shari, for all your guidance and support through this entire experience. I appreciate every extra meeting you have had with me, especially when I just needed to talk to someone who would listen to my concerns and help me consider my possible options. Your belief in all of us teacher candidates through this shift into online and/or hybrid student teaching has been inspiring, and I know we all greatly appreciate all that you do to help us grow and excel.

To Terri Gerhardt -- Team Anna, Program Supervisor:

Thank you, Terri, for all of your belief in me. Thank you for all of the feedback you provided to me for things to continue and things to try changing in my teaching. I appreciate all of your insight on making sure to schedule out time for myself, and thank you for all of the occasional check-in emails just to see how the two FGMS teacher candidates were doing.

To George "Joe" Combellack -- Team Anna, Supervising Practitioner:

Thank you, Mr. Combellack, for welcoming me into your classroom and supporting me in every step of this student teaching experience. I truly cannot thank you enough, as I have learned immeasurable amounts of knowledge from you and your experience in teaching. I definitely had the best mentoring Supervising Practitioner in you, as I was guided through this process and made the transition into teaching all five classes. Through the whole journey, you have given me golden insight into the world of teaching, and I appreciate every extra meeting we had to chat about adjustments to lessons, debriefing on a class, sharing funny stories, and sometimes just discussing teaching as a career path. Despite what some students seem to think, I know you are never just sitting back and observing, but instead taking notes, sending emails, contacting parents, providing feedback (really the list goes on and on), in order to help support my experience as a student teacher in the best possible way and enhance the learning of our students.

To the Cougars Cluster:

Cougars Teachers -- Mrs. Albion, Mrs. Cameron, Mr. Grieb, Mrs. Mooshian, Ms. Morrow

Thank you for welcoming me to the Cougars Cluster and for proving each day that teachers care about their students. Your passion for working with the students is clear, behind the scenes in the CPT meetings. It is inspiring to see your enthusiasm and also to see such a close, strong, collaborative team that is always working together to determine what is best for teaching their students.

Mrs. Mattera and Ms. Cass

Thank you for all your support in the classroom, and thank you for all your kind feedback to me, as I transitioned into teaching more classes!

To Forest Grove Middle School:

Period 3 Teachers -- Mrs. Albion, Mr. O'Connell, Mr. Marshall, Mr. Couming, Ms. Poirier, Ms. Scarrell, Ms. Stoever-Roldan, Mr. Cammuso, Mr. Junneau, Mr. Donohue, Ms. Diaz, Ms. Brady, Ms. Simonti, Ms. Beamish

Thank you to all the teachers, who were generous in allowing me to observe their classes. I missed out on in-person observations at the end of my sophomore year at WPI and getting to see your classes in action was helpful to me in learning new strategies that I could bring back to my classroom. I was able to visit most of this list's classrooms, but I appreciate all the offers in allowing me to pop-in at any time.

Mr. Thibodeau and Mr. Morse

Thank you for scheduling times in your days to visit and observe classes. I appreciate all of the kind feedback you have given to me following your check-in visits.

FGMS Math Department

Thank you all for the insight and reflection you brought to math department meetings to discuss the best possible ways for students to learn in our math classrooms. Thank you for allowing me to collaborate during meetings.

Michelle Quercio, Robyn Banks, Jess O'Neill

Thank you for including me in the cluster PLC meetings. Thank you for allowing me to participate and contribute to the discussion as well.

To my family:

Thank you for your never-ending support and always calling or texting to check-in.

Thank you Mom and Dad, for preparing me for this experience and always aiming to set me up for success. Thank you for the morning motivation messages too.

Thank you Alison, Joseph, and Jessica, for testing my patience through the years, building up to this experience.

To my roommates and friends:

Cosette, Darius, Hannah

Thank you for being understanding of this change in remote schooling and allowing me to fill the apartment with my enthusiastic teacher voice. And thank you for listening to my countless stories about my days with the students. Extra thank you to my roommate, who allowed me to takeover our shared room as my classroom for the majority of each weekday.

Thank you to all my friends for understanding that I needed to take a pause from hanging out and club activities until a future, free-er time.

To my fellow teacher candidates:

The Fall 2020 group -- Juliette, Megan, Pat, Tony

Thank you for being such a supportive team through all of this! It has been quite the journey, with many ups and downs, but some of my favorite times of this experience was getting to chat with you all, each week. It was a challenge, and we made it! Nice job to all and get some well-deserved rest!

The rest of the Teacher Squad:

It has been great to have classes with you all, and thank you for all the support and enthusiasm in the group chat. You are all up for an incredible experience in the spring. Best of luck! You've got this!