My last year of Kindergarten comes to an end

 9/9/2004 was the beginning of my kindergarten Title 1 Aide job.  I was really scared to take the test to qualify, but actually did very well...and then it was a go!  I had been volunteering in a kindergarten class before that and they decided they could use me.  I needed to go through the testing and application process to make it official.  My beginning wage was around $8.51 per hour and ended (with a wage freeze for a period of time) at $19.61.  The money wasn't great, but it was better than nothing, and I really came to love the work, the teachers and the kids.  I worked at West Elementary to begin with and the principal was Melanie Olsen.  She had been Moss's kindergarten teacher years before.  West Elementary had opened in 1955 at 12 North 300 West. It was closed just before Christmas vacation in 2007.  Students and faculty were moved to the new Heritage Elementary School starting at the beginning of 2008.  The West Elementary School building was demolished early in 2008 to make room for the new Fifth District Courthouse.  Some of the old mulberry trees that were on the playground survived the demolition and are still there.  I did not go to work the first year at Heritage Elementary.  It was a time when my mom and Bean were both needing lots of help.  Mom was moving out of her home and Bean was struggling mightily with his mental health problems.  I took off a year of work.  Thankfully the principal, Melanie Olsen, and the teacher, Lynne Godfrey, were both glad to hire me back and I started at working again at my prior wage.  My last day will be May 21st 2026.  That's 21 years with the one year off.  I've seen kids I helped teach go on missions, get married and have children!  It's been a joy for me to work with these littles and teachers most of the time.  This last year has been the worst year actually, with one child so messed up and unable to adhere to any school standards of behavior that he was finally moved to a special school for behavior challenged students.  I worked with Lynne Godfrey for most of my years, but she retired and then I worked with Hillery Hunt for the last few years.  They were both amazing ladies and great and good teachers.  Now I will have to start a new chapter of my life.  I have felt the need to do it, even though I don't know what it is I will do yet.  We had a stake conference with much encouragement for seniors to serve some kind of mission a year or so ago and I have felt that after we are released from our Single Adult calling probably in January, we should find some way to serve locally.  We can't really leave Bean to go anywhere else, or afford to go anywhere else, so we will have to find out what that's going to be.  So, onward to the next adventure is how I'm trying to look at it.  I'm sure when August comes around I'll be feeling a little sad that I'm not going back to school.  I will miss having present and past students give me a hug.  I will miss the daily adventures of a school days with our tiny humans!  

Several of our kids have not returned to finish school after they did their Kindergarten program.  Miss Hunt was nice enough to take pics of me with the ones still hanging in there to the end of it!  Left to right and down - Beckytt, Harli, Arianna, Evander and Dominic.

Left to right below - Riley, Haizlynn, Jayden, Aristelle, Beau, and Ed.  

Left to right - Hazel, Indy, Sofia and Gianna.  

We missed getting a picture of Noe.  He didn't come back to school after our water party day.   Today at Zade's graduation I heard the name of one of my early students - Porter Shelly.  His mom was such great parent helper.  Just loved their family.  I messaged his mom and found out that he's heading on a mission to Uruguay in August!  So fun to hear that they are going on to do good things with their lives.  

Below - Last day in the class!

It happened in kindergarten!

 For years funny things have happened in kindgarten...and I haven't written them down.  Now that I'm about to be done, I will start writing them down!

Kids write some funny things with their "kindergarten spelling".  Today they were writing about snails.  One boy wrote - snails are insex (insects).  Ha Ha!

Another writing funny with a picture:

2021-Two boys were fascinated watching bugs in the grass on the school playground. They would dig along the side of the grass to find bugs. They looked for bees in the dandelion patches. I asked if they were going to be entomologists when they grew up. What’s that?  Someone who studies insects. Oh no one said. He wants to be a “painbytogist “ when he grows up and study dinosaurs. I told the other teacher on the playground about it. She replied that he was already doing well on becoming the pain part of a painbytogist.

2021-A little ESL girl in our class was so excited to tell me “Mrs. Lillywhite, I know my “bowels “. I know all of my bowels!  A e i o u!  I know all my bowels!  I have 2 bowels in my name; a and e!  This is a great accomplishment!  I’m so proud of her for her hard work to learn all of her bowels!!!

During Covid - I could finally wear one of the shield masks when I work with kids for literacy interventions. It helps them hear and understand me better. One little girl was totally amazed and just stared at me from across the room the first time I put it on. I wear my reading glasses under it. She finally couldn’t stand it anymore and left the carpet to come and get a close look at me. She just stared and then finally asked if I had 2 faces. I said no I just had a new mask.   She went back to the rug and talked with kids around her. A minute later a boy came over to tell me that Stella said I had 2 heads. Did I really have 2 heads?  No. Well she says you do. After a few weeks she still seems fascinated. One day I took off my mouth/nose mask and my glasses and then put on my mask to show her all of my different mask combinations. I said that I’m like Mr. Potato head and can just put on and take off different parts of different masks and glasses. She seemed more satisfied, but still stared at me sometimes with wondering eyes.

As new kindergartners were being tested by the teacher one little girl named Margaret came for her turn. Lynne asked if she wanted to be called Margaret or if she went by Maggie. She said, “my mom calls me Margaret when she’s mad at me. You can call me Maggie!”

As another child was leaving after testing his dad asked if he needed to say anything to the teacher - a gentle reminder to say thank you. Instead he said he wanted to tell her a joke!  Why did the banana cross the road?…to eat the chicken! 

I was helping a little guy pack up his lunch box when he got done eating. He had brought 2 fun sized candy bars and had one left. I asked if he wanted to eat it or pack it to eat later. He said it was for the teacher and me; we could split it.  I’m trying not to laugh.  One bite each!  I told her when I went back to class. She said she had  enough treats and I should go ahead and eat both bites!

A new school year has begun!  It's a big adjustment for me this year with a new teacher to work for in a new classroom.  Lynne retired and I work with Miss Hillery Hunt this year.  I found out she's the daughter or our liability insurance agent that we've been with for years.  Funny!  She's a really nice lady.  She's kind and fun and works hard.  She's so very different from Lynne, but in some ways I like it.  She's very open about things and treats me well.  It will take a while for me to get used to her ways and her to me and mine I'm sure.  We have 3 pretty difficult students.  One is on meds for ADD, but seems very autistic to me and also has allergies.  Another one also seems to have some autism tendencies, but is much easier in most ways to deal with than the other one.  He is obsessed with cowboys and everything about them.  Nearly every paper he does gets a cowboy picture as a finishing touch and he does not want to stop doing it until he's "done".  He can be a real pain sometimes, but we are learning to work with him.  The other one is a non-stop ME, ME, ME guy and can be Very trying and very loud.  The last one is a little tiny mexican girl who just thinks she should be able to play whenever and wherever she wants to and doesn't come in from recess after lunch because she's not done playing.  I had to chase her down one day, and she really thought that was fun!  She's doing some better, but knows way more English than she lets on and knows what she should be doing but "doesn't want to."  Hopefully we get things figured out with these 3 and move forward without so much of them taking lots of time.  The rest of the class are pretty regular kids and pretty cute most of the time.  It's a work in progress!  This is some of their first writing.  The cowboy kids drew a cowboy, of course!  He's actually a really good little artist!