Miss Knaus' Classroom

Today will be my last post here on our classroom blog. Report cards have been finished. Details on the grading for this card-marking are on the June 9 blog. They will be mailed to your homes. Again, thank you for all of your support and help during our On Line Learning experience! I hope everyone has a restful, safe, and wonderful summer!

Today I finished cleaning out my classroom. Mrs. Juntunen will be moving into Room 206 in the Fall to teach 4th grade next to Mrs. Hull. As I have been reflecting on my career, I thought I’d share a few numbers and interesting things with you:

*Schools I worked at: Lindbergh – 1st grade, Salina Old Building – 3rd grade, Salina New Building – 3rd grade, Lindbergh 4th grade, 3/4 split.

*If I averaged 22 students per year, I have taught approximately 682 students!

*That means I’ve completed approximately 2,728 report cards!

*Number of Principals I’ve worked for: 9

*I’ve had 4 student teachers – One of them, Khaled Abdulla is the Assistant Principal at Edsel Ford HS.

*Many of my students have become teachers – including Amal Abdulla, Assistant Principal of Miller Elementary.

*I’ve mentored many teachers over the years – including the newly hired Glenn Maleyko at Salina. Now, of course he is Dr. Glenn Maleyko, Superintendent of Dearborn Schools.

*I was on the designing committee of the new Salina Elementary, and spent a summer choosing all the carpet, tiles, countertops, desks, chairs, and hallway colors of the new building. It was very fun!

*Marian Illitch attended Salina as a child, and she was our Grand Marshall of one of our clean-up parades. She promised pizza to every student, and the next day, a Little Caesar’s semi truck pulled up and delivered!

*My Grandma lived to be 99 years old. Her last outing was going to Barnes and Noble to see the Lindbergh Choir perform.

*I’ve read the BFG by Roald Dahl to 28 classes. I consulted with 2 different women from England who helped me with the Queen’s accent.

*A definite highlight of my career was travelling to Washington, D.C. with Ms. Tiba and Dr. Maleyko to accept the Blue Ribbon Award for Lindbergh. It was an honor to represent such a wonderful, well-deserving school!

*Lastly, sometimes as teachers, we don’t know the long-term affect we may have on students. I had a boy at Salina who moved here from Pakistan. He spoke Urdu. We did not have an Urdu translator at that time. He didn’t know one word of English. He didn’t understand me, and I didn’t understand him, but we made the best of it starting with sight words. We laughed a lot – I’m glad he had a sense of humor. Many years later, a U.S. Navy Sailor was waiting for me in the office of Salina. It was my student, Naveen. He was a computer tech on board the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. He spoke 6 languages now. He came back to thank me for being the first person in the U.S. that was kind to him and helped him.

It has been an honor and a privilege to teach the wonderful students at Lindbergh School. Keep up the good work everyone! I will miss you, and I will visit next year. Miss Knaus