The Life of a Paraprofessional A-Z (at least the life of Mr. Kraft)

A - Art. Can you believe it? My favorite class I work with is art. I hated, like really hated, art when I was a student, but I have loved getting to help my kids with their art projects. They are really cool looking as well.
B - Balance. Figuring out how to best help the kids learn and not do the work for them.
C - Cares. This is kind of cheating, the correct term is "Parkview Cares." One day this year the whole school went into the community at various locations and participated in an event where we served businesses and churches in Springfield. It was awesome.
D - Doughnuts. Man I have had a lot of doughnuts at work this year, specifically from Ray's Donuts. The teacher that always brings them in is such a nice man. He always tells us "Ray came to visit" even though we all know it is him.
E - Excitement. Millard South was boring. Notably at pep rallies. The pep rallies here are legitimately fun and enjoyable. At my school it was taboo to be excited at a pep rally.
F - Fun. Aside from my job as an RA I have never had a job that I found as fun. I love getting to hang out with high school students all day.
G - Germane. Or lack thereof. For those that don't know, "germane" essentially means on topic or pertinent to conversation. These kids  find ANY possible way to get off topic. Their favorites: video games, significant others/relationships, and "Mr. Kraft what are you doing this weekend?" No lie I get these questions in the middle of the teacher teaching.
H - Horrendous. This kind of goes along with the odor thing, but here I am not talking of body smell. Some of the gas these kids release can only be described with one word. Horrendous.
I -Ingenious. Ha yeah right. The way these kids try to hide things like cell phone usage and listening to Youtube instead of working on math is everything but ingenious. It is borderline comical actually.
J - Joyful. This pertains to myself and the kids. I spend a majority of my day excited about my job and most of the kids are joyful about their lives and have at least a small interest in learning.
K - Kaitlyn. If I was allowed to have a favorite student she would easily be my favorite. (aka she is my favorite student). She doesn't let anything hold her back and attacks the world with a determination that is so inspirational. Her desire to support and care for her sisters is special. On top of all that, she is hilarious.
L - Learning. This is more for me personally. I have learned so much about myself, especially the type of person I used to be from this job. Watching guys that remind me of myself in high school has allowed for me to realize I wasn't always the nicest person. I am glad I have changed.
M -Materialistic. Ugh the number of my students that are obsessed with the way they look and the things they own makes me sick. This is especially true for the kids that are addicted to their cell phones.
N - New. I learned a lot of new things when I worked in a woodshop class. I helped build a bird house, really sweet chess board, and fixed Claire and my coat rack.
O - Odor. I really hope I didn't smell like these kids when I was in high school.
P - PATIENCE. Never in my life have I had to take so many deep breaths to keep myself from bashing my head into the wall. This does not just pertain to students. Coworkers too.
Q - Quiet. Yeah, this is a joke.
R - Respect...or lack thereof. There is a sense of entitlement in children these days that is ruining them for the real world. Things you aren't entitled to: using your cell phone in class, talking back to the teacher, talking when another teacher/student is teaching.
S - Skyrim. Not kidding you, the same kid asks me hypothetical questions about the video game Skyrim at minimum once per day. Many times the questions repeat from previous days. I have never felt such strong anger towards something as silly as a video game.
T - Trust. I think this is probably one of my favorite ones. I have gotten to know these kids well enough that they trust me and respect me much more than they did at the beginning of the year. Honestly, many of them trust me more than some of the teachers because I have taken an interest in them as a person not just "one of the students."
U - Unity. I don't know if this exists at other schools, but I have been really impressed with the cohesiveness of the staff and students (for the most part) at Parkview.
V - Vikings. We are the Vikings which is a pretty awesome mascot.
W - Walking Competition. The different schools in Springfield are currently battling to see which staff can walk more steps. Almost everyone in the Special Education department is getting way into it. If you guessed, I could care less. Of course I get nominated as a team leader.
X - Xylophone. Because there is a xylophone in the band and I can't think of any words that begin with this letter.
Y - Yearning. I think one of the most impactful things that this job has taught me is that I want to instill a yearning for knowledge into my children. I want them to desire to better themselves educationally and challenge their minds so that they can be intelligent and competent in the real world.
Z -Zany. There are just things that I can't help but laugh at. For example, one of my students during peer editing always reads his partner's writing and blurts out "What the heck is this" in a volume that might just be a little to loud. I then ask what he thinks should be improved and he responds with "write better."