WE SEE IT, TOO.

“I think sometimes students forget there are other post-secondary options besides college. There are apprenticeships, there’s military, there are so many opportunities out there. But I certainly let students who have the vision of going to college know it’s possible and help them get there.”

“I play basketball and run track, but I really love basketball, especially my teammates. We are really close. We aren’t the most talented team, but we still made it to state this year because we believe in each other.”

Ms. Michelle has helped us a lot. On International Women’s Day, I got the opportunity to be on the news, which was really inspiring. We met with a senator and a few other women speakers, and it was just a fun day of women’s rights and activities.

“Our district provides special programs to help every child. For example, we have a deaf and hard-of-hearing program, new this year. It has opened us up to a whole new world.”

“I was home-schooled until 6th grade, then I started going to Treasure Valley Math and Science Center. It was a bit of a transition to have to do real homework in a certain amount of time, but in 9th grade, I decided to go to Riverglen full-time and am now at Capital. I really enjoy it because of the people I get to meet and the classes I get to participate in. I feel like there’s a lot more that I can learn now.

“When students come back to see us, it fuels our fire, fills our cup, and makes our bucket full to just keep going. And even when they don’t visit, we have a book with all their pictures and all their letters over the last 10 years. I know that they’re walking away with a little bit of us, but we’re walking away with all of them.”

I want to be a comedian. I just really like making people laugh. I also want to be a scientist that goes looking for dinosaur bones — a paleontologist. My favorite dinosaur is the T-Rex, or the Raptor.

“I love to teach reading, especially to 5 year olds, because I like emergent learning. If you can think it, you can say it. If you can say it, you can write it. If you can write it, somebody can read it. And it’s just all so brand new.”

I really like when I can see the difference I’m making in the world. At my school, one thing that I’ve been working on these past few months is getting more compost. So I started a program called The Green Team, and it is a student-led group that meets every other week and we take care of compost bins and doing all the announcements.

I like working on math papers by myself. I really like how you get to use big numbers. You think it’s scary, but when you actually look at it, you’re like whoa! That really is easy!

This year was my first year at Capital. Our wrestling team had a lot of freshmen and a lot of new guys. I took some pride in being a good upperclassmen, helping them out with technique and making sure they know they can talk to us, the upperclassmen.

Before I came to Taft, I went to a charter school and I struggled in math. Here at Taft the teachers have been pushing me… and it’s really helped.

“This year we’re taking a trip for yearbook camp, and it’s going to be amazing. All my friends are going. They’re helping us be better at spreads and layouts so we can improve ourselves in that field.”

“I love to draw, and I like art because it doesn’t matter how bad or good it is. I also sell paintings at my house. One time I painted nature – I went to the front yard and painted a robin.”

“I believe that what I’m teaching in my classroom is the foundation to what they’re going to be learning in the future, so if I can get them excited about learning and get them excited about reading and writing, I feel like I’m setting them up for a future that is positive, and full of growth and excitement.”

I first started volunteering because it was required for a program. From there, I just developed this passion for doing it, and I felt like it was nice to help other people.

My favorite class would probably be chemistry and physical science. We get to use fine chemicals and labs to see how everything reacts. We’ve used baking soda and vinegar to create carbon dioxide. I want to be a biomedical scientist. They help cure diseases. I like using chemicals, I like chemistry and I like helping people.

“I either want to be a Lego engineer or an astronaut. I’ve always wanted to work on space stations and learn if there are other planets or life forms. I want to be an engineer, and I always get these crazy ideas, but I don’t have time to make them so I want to have a job dedicated to making those ideas so other kids can use them.”

I’m learning about 3D shapes and math. My teacher makes it really fun because we get to build cars out of K’Nex and we get to see how far they go with the blocks on it. Mine went from our classroom door to Miss Duke’s door, which is kind of close.

We are learning about reading. We learned lots of words. My favorite words are ‘family’ and ‘I love you.’

I want my students to have integrity. That’s huge for me, and I just want them to show kindness to each other and make this world a better place. I ask them, ‘How are you going to make your community a better place because of what you learned here?’

When I’m older, I want to be a chef, because I want to cook like my mom. She comes from Guam, and they make really good food on the island.