Jordan's Second Grade Celebration

This one is going to make me cry!  This is Janet Cox, Jordan's 2nd grade teacher.

This is the first year we have had Janet as a second grade teacher for one of our kids.  We have always had Mrs. Thede, whom I love.  However, Jordan begged me to have Janet this year as his teacher, and I decided to comply.  I am so grateful I did.  Janet is the kind of teacher I want to be when I grow up.  She absolutely exudes love for her students.  Every word out of her mouth is positive and encouraging.  She balances such a wide array of learning activities and real life experiences into her classroom, and she does it with ease.  She involves her students in every decision that happens in the classroom.  She treats them like adults, and they rise to the occasion.  She is the master of extras, going the extra mile to challenge students at their individual levels. She has high expectations, and I believe that is the very thing that utterly motivated Jordan to excel as much as he did this year.  I could go on and on.  I got to know Janet on a personal level and volunteered in her class every Friday and for several class parties.  She came to Jordan's baptism and only just missed his primary program after falling ill. For some reason, she fawned over me because she knows I work for WGU. She called me "a teacher of teachers", and I kept telling her I would trade my position for her 25 years of experience any day!  I don't think she knows how much I learned from her.  I am so hopeful I can keep in touch even though we won't be at Bush any longer.

A couple of bulletin boards outside Jordan's room....

 Jordan's second grade year was just unbelievably awesome for all the reasons I mentioned above.  His report cards were perfect.  he was the second kiddo in his class to master all his math facts and to move on to multiplication and division--that was way back in September! He got 100% on every single spelling test, and he always had the challenge words.  He told me with confidence that everyone says he and Joshua (his best friend) are the smartest kids in the class-he is so proud of that.  he was the first to finish his 100 book club books, and achieved a reading award in addition to that.  Jordan loves school.  he loves learning, he gets great satisfaction out of being smart, and he had the honor of learning from one of the best teachers I have ever come across (and get this-Janet just completed her gifted certification this year, even after 25 years in the biz!  How amazing to continually challenge oneself!). Jordan is just a wonderful child, we are so proud of his achievements!

 Jordan's reading trophy and his "Believe" art that Janet stitched and framed herself-she did that for each kid!

 Arg, I wish I had checked and snapped another shot to avoid eyes closed!  Oh well-I'm leaving it in!