Hey, it's Grace here. Welcome back to another edition of the I'm Tired podcast. I'm your host, Grace Valentine. I'm an author, speaker, blogger, and most importantly a friend. This podcast is about finding adventure and joy in the everyday life. I hope through these real conversations with real people, you can feel encouraged even when you are overwhelmed and annoyed. And today on the podcast, I have my friend, Britt, Brit Al-Gazah, what's your last name? Something close, right? Brittany Allen is. Al-Nus. And it was something fun like that. And Brittany, you are third grade teacher, is that correct? Yes. Okay, so fun. And Lizzie, this is my friend Lizzie, Paul Hill. I know how to say that, right? Did you get that right? You got it right? And you work in adoption, am I right? Yes. Yes. Okay. I'm so glad that they joined us today. But anyways, I always think people who work with children probably have the best stories in their life and the most fun stories.

And so, Brittany, especially since you're a teacher, I was just wondering, like, what made you want to be a teacher?

Like, what got you passionate about kids?

So in high school, I started serving in my kids ministry at church.

And I served with the four-year-oldsolds and I do not work with four-olds now

because I would go absolutely insane. But I don't know. I just realized that they're a lot smarter

than everyone I think looks at them as. And I wanted to know how like their brains worked,

honestly. So I majored in early childhood development. and it had an education track with it.

So it certified me to be a teacher.

And then I ended up with the third graders.

And this is so dumb, but what age is third grade again?

They are eight turning nine years old.

I have some 10-year-olds because I have some that got held back.

Yeah.

And what has been like your biggest challenge working with that age in this area too in general?

They are emotional.

They are mean.

It's okay.

Same here.

They, I know.

I kind of relate to them a lot.

They, a lot of the kids I work with come from really, you know, unfortunate situations.

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