Memoirs of a Teacher

I was a teacher for two years at American Leadership Academy, a K-12 Charter school in Spanish Fork, UT. I am thrilled to now be a full-time stay at home mom, but I will miss my students and the challenges that teaching brings. I thought I'd take a few minutes to share some of my experiences and record some of my favorite moments.

My Classroom

My first year I taught fourth grade and struggled to keep my head above water. I had some particular challenges, but I also had some wonderful ones. One of these was a boy who really struggled with reading. Worse, he felt it was impossible for him to learn and didn't have any desire to try. We had an amazing special ed team and between us we really worked hard to help him realize his strengths and get excited about reading. At the end of the school year his reading had improved about three grade levels and, best of all, his confidence had jumped too.

There was another boy in my class who was absolutely hilarious, but tended to use his humor at the most disruptive times. At one point this student was really struggling with behavior and I just didn't know what to do anymore. Finally one day I worked really, really hard with him, and tried to reward every good thing he did until he moved his clothespin all the way to the top of our behavior chart. This meant he got a note home to his parents praising his good behavior that day. He came back the next day saying he was going to get a sleep over with his cousin because of the note. And suddenly it clicked. Behaving in class meant more freedom to do what he wanted. From that point on he was literally my best student! He worked so hard and got a note home almost everyday. That was a wonderful experience.

Another student was very shy and quiet. He had a hard time relating to the other kids and didn't like change. I had failed to warn him that we were starting our fine arts classes and that he had been put into a sports class, which was basically a second P.E. for students who were more into that than the arts. But this kid hated sports and was really upset. For a couple of weeks he refused to go to any class, opting instead to read in my classroom during that hour. I finally convinced him to give choir a try. He was nervous when I brought him down and I almost couldn't get him to go in. I was really worried about him during the whole hour, but when he came back he was the happiest I had ever seen him! He loved choir! From then on when it was time for fine arts he was always the first in line.

Funny Stories

I also had some funny moments in fourth grade, which, if you're still reading all this you'll probably find more interesting.

At one point we were all sitting at the carpet and another teacher poked her head in and asked to see a student. That student got up and left the room with her, at which point the second student I wrote about jumped up and yelled, "he's been kidnapped! Mrs. Sypher. did you see that? Some lady just came and took him away!" He knew perfectly well what was going on, he just wanted to be dramatic. One of those moments I had to try very hard not to laugh.  


After his big transformation the same student decided he needed to keep my trust so that I'd always know he was telling the truth. Well, he quickly realized that if there was anything he might get in trouble about he could come to me first and make it work in his favor. One day I was on recess duty and he walked up to me fake laughing. He said, "Oh, Mrs. Sypher, the funniest thing just happened, you won't believe it. I was running away from my friend and there were these two girls sitting on the grass talking and I was going so fast I couldn't stop, so I jumped right over them. Isn't that funny? And one of the girls had this really funny look on her face, but she looked kind of scared, so if she comes and talks to you don't worry about it..."

Another day this same kid (are you noticing a pattern?) was playing on the playground with the same friend. They knew they weren't supposed to jump off the top of the playground so they came up with a system. One of them would come up to me with a problem and start discussing it with me. Then they would suddenly say thanks and go back to the playground. Then the other would come to me with a question and do the same thing. It didn't take me very long to realize they were taking turns distracting me while the other one jumped off the playground.

Speaking of the playground....same student as the last three stories. One time I told him not to jump off the playground equipment. He asked why. I told him it was the school's rules because someone could get hurt doing it, and if a teacher said they could than it would be the teacher's fault. "Well," he said, "what if I jump off this part?" he indicated a spot about a foot off the ground. I told him that would be fine. He immediately started jumping off of it over and over saying, "Look Mrs. Sypher, I'm jumping off the playground!" When this started getting boring he decided to get more theatrical. He leaped off the step and purposely slipped in the rubber. He held his knee yelling, "I'm hurt Mrs. Sypher! You said I could jump off there! I broke my leg!" (he was fine, just being very dramatic).

There was another student who was super happy and super fun who broke his foot and had to get stitches and wear a boot. When he came back to school he was very anxious to tell everyone exactly how it happened and how many stitches he had. A couple of days after we came back to school our class was performing the pioneer games and dances they had learned about a month before. It was like pulling teeth getting enough boys to perform the Virginia Reel, but when this student realized it was that day he cried, "I want to dance, teacher! Please put me in! It doesn't hurt that bad!" This as he comes down too hard on his boot and winces. I felt really bad for him, but I was just amazed by his enthusiasm for everything. Luckily he was such a plucky kid he wasn't too disappointed about not doing the dance.

This story really illustrates boys (another pattern). I had two boys who were basically enemies. I mean constantly picking on each other, calling names, and just being generally mean. It wasn't long before they were both in for recess together. After sitting with their heads down for what seemed to them, an eternity I told them they could go outside. They looked like prisoners finally being set free, and as they left their unjust confinement from the mutual enemy, me, they suddenly shared a bond of being wrongly punished and became best friends! They left the room making plans for the recess they had left.

Well, while I was writing more stories came to mind than I had anticipated, so I guess I'll save third grade for another post.