Ms.+LaQuay+the+Teacher

=**In the beginning**= == Ever since I was a little girl, I always wanted to be a teacher. I would play school with my two sisters and our neighbors and I'd always be the teacher. I'd read aloud to them. I'd tell them stories. I remember my mom, my dad, and my aunts and uncles coming into my room where everyone sleeping crowded in with sleeping bags and telling us we need to go to sleep. We'd pretend to go to sleep. Then they'd ask, "What happened next?" So I would keep going until we all fell asleep. I'd lead us in art projects to decorate our refrigerator. I'd take "the class" on field trips to our tree house, to the garden, or into the woods too.

=**Teaching EFL**=

Shortly after completing my college degree in Elementary Education, I was accepted into a work-study program--where they would pay me to teach English as a Foreign Language in Poland while I studied to earn my Master's degree in Education. My youngest student was 5 and my oldest was 67. Classes began at about 3pm and ended around 10pm. I taught classes of children, classes of preteens, classes of teens, classes of young adults, and classes of adults. It was fun and exhausting. I enjoyed the classes with kids and adults the most. The teenagers were the worst classes for me to teach.

=**1st Elementary Class**= After earning my Master's degree, I applied at international schools in Poland. I got a job teaching in this tiny school called Wroclaw International School. I started with a tiny class of 8 students: 6 girls and 2 boys. My first year I had preK, K, and 1st combined. When we began none of them spoke English. None of them read. None of them could even write. Halfway through the year, in about December, when our class had grown to 12, they began speaking to each other in English. By the end of the year, they were speaking, writing, and reading. I felt I had worked miracles. I loved my little class. The following year, I taught the combined 1st/2nd grade class--looping with several of my students. The school was expanding and hired another teacher to teach the preK/ K class.

=**ASW Adventure**= I then moved to Warsaw in 2005 to begin my adventure in teaching 3rd grade. I have loved every minute of it. I continue to learn like crazy, in fact this year I am continuing in a special program to develop my literacy teaching and coaching skills! I'm really looking forward to this opportunity to hone my teaching skills. I am even doing some coaching of other teachers in our school and will also be presenting demonstration lessons and coaching over fall break in a school in Norway!

I consider myself one of the lucky ones because I still get to play school. I get to read & tell stories, go on field trips, write, do science experiments, and spend time with amazing children. I get hugs, smiles, and sometimes I even get to play outside during recess. I have students from all around the world who come together and form friendships. We become like a big family--supporting and stretching one another as we learn and grow. I love my job!