Blog Post

What Do Teachers Make?

  • By Laura Phillips
  • 04 Nov, 2013
My normal Rebel News post is usually about what the K-5 kids learn throughout the week; however, this post is going to be slightly different than the norm. As I sat at recess today and watched my class swing playfully from the monkey bars, I heard a sweet sound come from the mouths of a […]
My normal Rebel News post is usually about what the K-5 kids learn throughout the week; however, this post is going to be slightly different than the norm.
As I sat at recess today and watched my class swing playfully from the monkey bars, I heard a sweet sound come from the mouths of a few of my students. “I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I am free…” (For those of you who don’t know, our elementary has been preparing for our annual Veteran’s Day program and this is one of the songs the students have been practicing.) Eventually all my students were singing the song. It melted my heart to hear those words come from their mouths. While taking in the beautiful sound of my students’ singing, I began to think about all the joys that teaching has brought to my life. I was reminded of why I became an educator in the first place. I love my students and I love everything about seeing them grow and learn. During this time of reflection I was reminded of a story I heard while taking my Education Classes at Troy University.
The story is titled: I’m a Teacher: I Make Lives
By: Michael Josephson.
“The topic of education came up and a business executive proclaimed the problem is with teachers, after all, “those who can do, and those who can’t teach.” A man next to him said, “I’m a teacher and you don’t know what you are talking about.” So the businessman leaned into the teacher and said, “Be honest, what do you make?” The teacher’s face got red and he said, “I suppose you’re thinking of money, I don’t earn much but let me tell you what I make.” I make children read, think, write, wonder, and talk about important things — such as the world and their role in it. I make them try things they think they can’t do, work harder than they want to and accomplish more than they thought possible, and whenever they do their best, I make them feel proud, capable and worthy. I make them understand that the quality of their life will be determined by their choices, and I make them take responsibility for their actions. I make them appreciate the importance of integrity and honor in a world that too often shows little regard for either. I make them respect themselves and treat others with respect. I make them feel proud and grateful to live in America where people are entitled to be treated fairly and with respect and are judged by their accomplishments and character, not by their color, creed, or the size of their bank account. Most of all, I make a difference. I don’t just make a living, I make lives.”
This story makes me smile and appreciate my career choice. My only hope in becoming a teacher was to make a difference in the life of at least one of my students;  little did I know that my students would be the ones that made the difference in my life. — Thanks, Lindsey Williams
By Laura Phillips 07 Mar, 2020
Congratulations to all girls who tried out for both squads!

The 2020-2021 Junior Varsity Squad members:
Tyane Anthony
Abigail Brooks
Talley Carter
Kayla Howard
Halle Hurst
Gabby Lamb
Baeda McClellan
Sarah McClellan
Jordan Miles
Meleah Tigner

The 2020-2021 Varsity Squad Members:
Bailey Allen
Claire Allen
Jamie Clark
Lindsey Fuller
Kaylyn Keebler
Natalie Lovelace
Audrey Miller
Abbie Morgan
Kamdyn Oliver
Mattie Reese
Brandalon Rombokas
Alyssa Sorrells
Kendall Talbot
By Laura Phillips 04 Mar, 2020

Media Mentions

Our Book Fair is March 9-13. We look forward to visiting the “jungle” to search for some great books!


February top readers are as follows:

Kindergarten: Allison McElvy and Phoebe Benson (11 points)

1st Grade: Rowan Benson (21 points)

2nd Grade: Yates Lashley (20 points)

3rd Grade: Layton Caldwell (22 points)

4th Grade: William Lashley (29 points)

5th Grade: Beth Landrum (10 points)

These students will enjoy lunch off campus!

By Laura Phillips 05 Feb, 2020

My seventh grade science class has been doing some labs this week. We grew bacteria that was collected from different items in an incubator. They got to see how much bacteria is lurking and what it actually looks like. They compared bacteria and fungus. They also used the scientific method in performing this experiment and discussed independent and dependent variables. This was a nice break from note taking!!!

By Laura Phillips 05 Feb, 2020

Hello Everyone

          HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! We hope you all had a GREAT winter break. We are happy to be back in class. First grade has been working hard in January. We celebrated our 100th day of school. We are working on the first story of our fourth reading unit. This school year is flying by. We are all working hard to reach our goals for AR quizzes. First graders ARE SMITTEN with books. Our top AR reader in January is Rowan. Keep up the good work First Grade.

    We are looking forward to February; we will be doing a “Tell me something good” project for Valentine’s Day. We will write a nice comment about each student in the class on hearts. The ground hog did not see his shadow so we hope we can start enjoying the warmer weather of spring. We had a great time doing an experiment to see if we could blow up a balloon inside a bottle. Thank you to Mrs. Flanary and everyone else who helped us conduct our experiment. Do you think you can do it? Give it a try! Well that is all the news for now. Have a Wonderful February!

By Laura Phillips 05 Feb, 2020
In the month of February, our students ‘love’ learning about new events in history. The 9th graders are finishing learning about World War 1 and begin to study the roaring 20s and World War 2. The 10th graders are finalizing their studies of the Civil War and succession of the states. The 11th graders are moving into World War 2 and our 12th graders have moved into economics and politics. The speech class is writing speeches on important figures from the 1920s! We can not wait to see what spring has in store!
By Laura Phillips 05 Feb, 2020

January was a busy time in 4th Grade! In Reading, we read stories about puzzles and mysteries. We focused on literary elements and plot/theme. In Alabama History, we started discussing Alabama’s Early Statehood – specifically the first 5 capitals. In Science, we talked about Earth’s Changes like erosion. We did our first Weird Science Wednesday and completed an Ice Castle STEM Challenge.  WOW – it is hard to believe how quickly the year is passing!    

Our great year continues!

By Laura Phillips 04 Feb, 2020

January has been a busy month in the library! We’ve gotten back in the groove after the break, and we’ve enjoyed making books of our own, and performing Readers Theater scripts!

Our Spring Book Fair is coming up! It will be held during the week of March 9-13. We will be open from 7:30-2:30 Monday-Thursday, and 7:30-11:00 on Friday. “ Finger Foods with Families ” will be held Monday morning from 7:30-8:00. Please come and join us for shopping and snacks. Grandparent luncheons will be held on Tuesday, March 10 for grades K-3, and Wednesday, March 11 for grades 4-6. More information will come home with students soon.

Top AR readers for this month are:

K: Phoebe Benson- 10 points

1st: Rowan Benson- 30.3 points

2nd: Yates Lashley- 34.4 points

3rd: Layton Caldwell- 18.3 points

4th: Eben Sasser- 14.4 points

5th: Beth Landrum- 36.5 points

6th: Easton Janowiecki- 18 points

 

Congratulations to these students!

By Laura Phillips 04 Feb, 2020

The second graders are learning a new way to write ----- cursive!

Cohen had a tooth pulled and has now joined our Tooth Club. We have 6 members now!

Harleen guessed the closest number of triangles in the Triangle Tree! She guessed 32.

The first week after Christmas break was “Frog and Toad Week!” We listened to 4 books about two very good friends, wrote about our favorite Frog and Toad story, and practiced letter writing by writing 3 Frog and Toad letters. We read “A Lost Button” and did an activity with that story with K-5.

We continued our letter writing the next week by writing 2 letters to our classmates and mailing them via Class Mail. After reading “Flat Stanley,” we mailed Flat Fred/Freida letters to someone who does not live with us! After visiting for a week,  they wrote back telling us what Flat Fred/Freida  did and saw. We are sharing our letters with our classmates as soon as the letters come in.

January 27th was our 100th Day of School! We celebrated with activities, refreshments, and goody bags! Many thanks to Mrs. Dianne Lee for baking our cake. We ate every bit of it!  For several years, Lowe’s Pharmacy has blown up 100 balloons for us! The children enjoyed weaving through all the ribbons in our hallway!

By Laura Phillips 31 Jan, 2020
Our elementary grades celebrated 100 days of school earlier this week! They each had special activities throughout the day as well as end it with some celebration and cake!
By Laura Phillips 13 Dec, 2019

We have had a great month! The students are making great progress learning sight words and sounding out simple words. We made Christmas ornaments and decorated our tree.

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