Student Teachers...Where Would I Be Without Them?

Just want to post quickly about how much work my student teacher has done for me so far this year. She's home sick today (get better soon Ann!) so I'm really feeling how much I've come to depend on student teachers and how wonderful it is to have two professionals in the classroom all day long. It's invaluable: I've had time to get so much done that I wouldn't have been able to do thus far: I'm not as crazed, my room is clean and organized and the kids have two adults to talk to all day long.

Here is a look at what my student teacher does and how much I'm going to miss her when she graduates in January:

*Created and wrote and printed my center lists (computer, listening, word work, math facts, journals, etc...)
* Created and wrote and printed the spelling lists for the entire year
* Created and wrote the modified spelling lists for 6 months for the low kids (the normal list is too hard for them)
*Created table signs for each table and an instructional sign for me to use while teaching
*Gives me bathroom breaks (INVALUABLE)
*Gets me water when I'm out and I'm right in the middle of teaching
*Made every single one of my student files/notebooks (all 90 of them because each kid needs 3-4)
*Lends support during lessons when 5 kids have their hands raised and there's only one of me
*She was able to be my sub during the week I had pneumonia: she carried on as if I was here and I didn't even really have any sub plans created. Had she not been here, I would have had to drag my sick self down here every day to create, copy and explain sub plans
*Helped me create my back-to-school night powerpoint
*Does my recess duty every Wednesday morning AND Wednesday afternoon so I can pump
*Takes care of the kids who are acting up so I can concentrate on the rest of the class
*Runs small reading groups while I'm working with other kids, doing lesson plans, grading, etc.
*Takes care of the teaching while I'm doing the testing of every child every week. This is great because otherwise I'd have to give "busy work" to the kids while I'm doing the testing
*Teaching an entire unit for the next 2-3 weeks in the afternoon for her class. This frees me up to get a lot of the administrative stuff done that I don't have time for during the day
*Attends all grade-level meetings and contributes to our planning
*Sits with the lower kids for their support so I can attend to the rest of the class
*Allows me to have bathrooms breaks!!(I said this twice because you have no idea how horrible it is when you have to go and you know you can't leave your class and lunch time isn't for another hour)
*Takes care of the class when one of my autistic kids is rolling around moaning on the floor
*Is a general support and company throughout the day

This last point is huge. Teaching is somewhat solitary: we have each other to talk to but we're so busy throughout the day, we never have the time. The majority of the day, we're in our classrooms by ourselves. Having someone else in here to chat with is great!

So thank you to all the student teachers out there: I know how hard you work (FOR FREE!) and all of us veteran teachers really appreciate you!

****Can someone calm me down about what's going to happen when Ann leaves in January????