Making Learning Fun

I knew I wanted to be a teacher when I was 5 years old. I’m the first kid of 7 so I played school a lot at home. My kindergarten teacher has always been my instrumental light, and in high school, my AP Psychology teacher was out of this world. She helped me confirm what I wanted to do for my career.

I learned about Launch when I was in high school, because my sister couldn’t go into a building due to medical reasons. She used Launch, so I’ve seen it from both the family side and the staff side.

I’ve been teaching for Launch for four years now. Last year I piloted a brand new elementary program called Launch CoPilot. It’s different from Launch’s traditional synchronous elementary programming. CoPilot is asynchronous learning at the elementary level—it’s offered to third, fourth and fifth graders. Students meet with me a minimum of twice a week, but otherwise, they work on their own, and with the help of their family. Families have to be majorly involved in their child’s education for CoPilot to work.

The kids are definitely my favorite thing about my job. I love the connections I’ve been able to make by meeting with them one on one. There’s always that kid in the classroom who makes you think, “I wish I could learn more about that kid” or “I wish I had the time to talk with this kid more.” Well, with CoPilot, I have that time.

One thing my students always comment on is my earrings. When I was student teaching, I always wore fun pants—I’d buy pants for just about every pattern that was created. Well, since I don’t show my legs on camera much but I wanted to add a fun piece of my personality to every lesson, I decided to invest in my earring collection. I now have 4 racks of earrings, and I’ll make earrings if I don’t have any.

Another fun thing I’ll do is send my students flat Mrs. Marshalls  throughout the year. For the holidays, I’ll dress my bitmoji in Christmas clothing, print it out, laminate it and send it out. They’ll write about me and take me places—I get a lot of pictures by the tree, and I go on a lot of Christmas vacations and to a lot of Christmas dinners.

Doing these things is a way for me to bring a bit of my personality into my career. I have a lot of fun with it, and I have a lot of fun with my kids. I really just love Launch—I love the opportunities we provide to our students, and the autonomy we give them over their learning.