For all of senior year, I stayed in Mr. Lesinski's fifth grade classroom at Central Grade school.
In the summer before my senior year, the new Immaculate Conception Elementary school was finished, and all the students in Holy Angels from preschool to fourth grade were moved into the new school. Without the elementary school attached, I had to get creative with pursuing the Teacher Academy program. So even though I had gone to private school my entire life and only ever teacher assisted in private schools, I decided to look into working at a public school. Best choice I ever made. Don't get me wrong, I love working with private school students but working in the public schools was eye-opening. I realized that I could make a bigger difference in more kids' lives through teaching at a public school. In Mr. Lesinski's fifth grade classroom, the students would talk about adult topics often without even understanding what they meant. They would often call themselves or others stupid, annoying or ugly. I have had my fair share with bullying in school but never to the extent at which I saw it in the public schools. On top of that, some of the girls I worked with regularly would tell me stories about teachers who hated them or inequalities among genders. I am not so naive as to believe they were telling the whole truth, I am quite aware that it was likely exaggerated, but if students believe that a teacher hates them, that teacher is doing something wrong. I want to help students feel loved and capable, especially if they don't feel that way at home.