Favorites

Today we met with our study buddies, which was awesome because our study buddy class includes four of my favorite students from last year: Alice, Charlotte, Hank and Eli. My good friends know how much I love Hank and Eli because I talked about them constantly last year. If I have a son someday, I want him to be just like those boys. And if I have a daughter, I want her to be just like Charlotte (who I lovingly call Chuck in reference to Pushing Daisies). So it was a real highlight of my day having these special people come into my class and work with my squirrelly little first graders. And it will get to happen every Friday! Hooray!! 

I really do love a lot of my kids already, but the one I feel a real bond with so far is Kendal. I've already mentioned her - she's my birthday twin and oh-so pretty and cute. She's really young, and just kind of lives in her own little world, and it's awesome. She constantly hugs me and says, "I love this teacher." She told one of the other kids "I love Miss Gagliardi because she's so nice. And she's nice because I'm nice to her." 

Here are some more of my favorite moments with Kendal: 

"At the end of the year... I'll be in 4th grade... or high school... I don't know. I don't know where I'll be. But someday I'll be 8." 

We were working on writing, and she wrote an M to start the word white, and then said, "Oops! I made an M! .... Can we just pretend it's a W?"

And today she came up and hugged me and said, "Caaaan't we go camping together?!" 

What?!

After only four hours of sleep, spending a long day with crazy first graders is less than ideal. I almost fell asleep while I was reading a picture book to them today. Seriously.

Also, worth it.

Yesterday, though, really was such a great day (even before Mumford invaded my soul). For some reason, the kids were just so much better. They came in and got to work quietly, they wrote in near silence for ten whole minutes, and the day just wasn't as much of a battle as usual. Which made me realize - it has so little to do with me. I can do the exact same things, tow the same lines, set the same tone, but it's ultimately up to them how the day is going to go. Sometimes they're in control, sometimes they're so very far out of it. Yesterday just happened to be a good day. And then today was not so much.

They've been saying some of the most bizarre things though. Here are some examples of what my daily conversations look like:

Presley: "Rylyn is being sexy at me!"
Me: "Excuse me, what?"
Presley: "She's being mean to me."
Me: "Yeah, that's not what that means."

(Don't worry - the misuse of sexy came up again, and I actually addressed it today and then explained that we don't use that word.)

Kid from another class at recess: "Do you know what I just did?"
Me: "What did you just do?"
Kid: "I asked for rain."

Two of my girls came up to me to tell me that Nathan said something, but they didn't want to repeat it, so I went over to ask Nathan what he said.
Nathan - "I said I want to get pimples on my butt."

WHAT?!?!?

Awake my Soul

Tonight I got to go see Mumford and Sons at Red Rocks. It was a perfect night, we were in the seventh row, and it was one of the best shows I have ever seen. Maybe not even one of, maybe the best. It was just pure unadulterated joy - I honestly can't describe how full my heart felt.

But boy am I going to be tired tomorrow... my alarm is going off in 4.5 hours and I'm falling asleep as I write this...

But I do want to blog about today because it actually turned out to be a really good day with the kiddos. And they said some pretty strange/hilarious/disturbing things today. But I'm saving it all for tomorrow. 

Creepers

I have a terrible headache. This will not be my best writing. 

Today was not my favorite. For the few steps we took forward in our behavior, we took a dozen back today. The constant noise is starting to really get to me - apparently enough to give me headaches.

Three of my boys decided that it was funny to look in the girl's bathroom today. They had to write a letter about it tonight with their parents. Little creepers.

In science, we were looking at family pictures and discussing how we are similar and different from our parents. As I was walking around, I overheard Johnny and Gavin discussing whether or not Gavin's mom is "sexy." Double creepers. (Johnny was also a bathroom peeper, the one who rubbed my belly and asked if I was pregnant, and the discusser of his love life and "no smoochy-smoochy"... I'm sensing a theme...) 

And then tonight we had Back to School Night, which was fine, but I had such a raging headache by the end of it that I could barely form coherent thoughts in my brain, all while talking in front of a room full of parents. I was really having a rough go of it. Hopefully the parents don't think I'm a weirdie.

Mondays and Monsters

This is going to be a long week. It's our first real five day week and tomorrow night I have back to school night (which I am not very prepared for). But today was a pretty good day.

There's this behavior management thing called Whole Brain Teaching that my friends told me about, and I'm really liking it so far. It's a lot of call and response, and my little buddies are doing a good job with it so far. Their behavior is getting better and better. And I've refused to tie shoes anymore, so that's a win.

We have some girl drama happening already. Rylyn and Presley both really want to be friends with Anna, and she wants to be friends with both of them, but apparently that doesn't work for them. During our morning meeting, Rylyn sat down behind Presley and whispered "I hate you." She had to move her name to yellow. Then she cried through all of writing time because Anna was writing about Presley. Life is hard.

I also introduced the class to two stuffed monsters I have, Fred and Dots, who they will get to take home when they're the star student. They were very excited about this, and we talked about being careful to keep the monsters clean and safe. Nathan's question regarding this: "What if they really want to eat doughnuts?" 


On a serious note: There's a third grader, Anthony, who already has a lot of social-emotional and behavior issues. And last night his dad was killed in a motorcycle accident. I can't comprehend how any child deals with that kind of loss,  but I am especially concerned for this kid. It is just so heartbreaking. So please keep him and his family in your prayers. 

Flex Day

So today was a flexible testing day, which means that each of my students came in for 15 minutes of one-on-one time with me. It was definitely my favorite day of the week. It gave me the opportunity to get to know these little ones better and see how well they can (or cannot) read. And I enjoy them much more as individuals than as a pack. 

Plus, it gave me these gems: 

Me: "Have you been reading over the summer?"
Nathan: "No, but I have been being smart right now!" 

and

"If God ever decides to separate me and my brother and make one of us an animal, I hope he makes me a bat. I could fly around at night! ... I wonder what mosquitos taste like." -- Everett

Exhausted

I am exhausted. This is exhausting. I'll have, at most, about 90 seconds of their attention before someone starts talking, moving around, hitting someone, etc. And that's when they're being good.

I realized that I have used my stern teacher voice more in the past week than I did all of last year. I'm starting to feel like a real meanie.

Today, while we were all meeting together, Johnny said that he loved me, but then said "Um, I mean like. Not love. Not like love." And then talked with the little boy next to him about how he has a no dating rule for himself.

The Good, The Bad, and The Offensive

The good news: I only have 22 students now.

The bad news: These 22 students that I do have will not stop:

talking

getting up out of their seats

asking to get a drink

asking to go to the bathroom

asking when lunch is

touching each other

making weird noises

tapping their pencils on the table

talking while I'm talking

hurting each other's feelings

singing

asking me to tie their shoes

I told them today that they need to stop making so many weird noises because "it's going to make Miss Gagliardi into a crazy person."

Today I modeled how to draw a picture with lots of details in our writing journals. It looked like this: 

I'm obviously a really amazing artist.

As you can see, third from the right is my sister-in-law Kathy, who is pregnant. So I talked about that a little and about how excited I am to become an aunt. While the kids were drawing and writing about their own families, Nathan showed me that he also drew his mom with a belly like that. He said, "She's not pregnant, but her belly still looks like that. She's had three kids." 

And at the end of the day, Johnny came up to me, gently rubbed my belly, and asked if I was pregnant too. I said no, and Nissa added, "No, it just looks that way." 

Looks like someone needs to start working out again. 

Laying Down the Law

Today was definitely a better day.

First of all, we had more structure and more of a routine. We're still not really in it yet, and won't be for some time, but the more we get into it, the better.

Secondly, I got much more serious with my classroom management. Instead of giving continual warnings, like I usually do, I actually followed through on my rules, and 5 kids had to sit out for part of recess. Bummer, buddies. Next time, keep your hands to yourselves.

It's still a painful adjustment in realizing just how much help, direction, and repetition they need. For example, tomorrow I am teaching them how to properly pick up and hold a pencil. Yep.

Here's my cute story of the day: 
I have a little girl named Kendal who is so cute and pretty, and we just so happen to share the same birthday. Plus she's the youngest in the class, just like I always was. So obviously I love her already. Today she told me that she was going to give me a book, but it wasn't finished yet. According to her description, it is a book full of pictures of food from magazines and it's titled "I Like Math." 

How many more days of this?!?

170 something. I tried to count and got a little lost in the middle. But that's how many more days of this...

So, full disclosure: by 8:45am all I could think was "I hate this."

Our morning was basically just controlled chaos. And yes, this was mostly my fault. The tricky thing with the first day of school is that you can't immediately fall into the regular routines. We needed to do a little tour of the school and the classroom, talk about rules, meet one another, etc. So instead of a regular structured morning like we'll eventually (hopefully) have, we had a lot of confusion and wiggling and craziness. I have a couple of boys, in particular, who can't sit still, keep quiet, or keep their hands to themselves for more than 30 seconds. If that. Plus, these babies apparently need to use the bathroom one million times a day. I think we're establishing a system for it, but it's still just a constant stream of kids in and out of the room. I would make them hold it, but pee pee pants is my worst nightmare, so you gotta do what you gotta do. 

Honestly, the highlight of my day was getting to see my old students. I love and miss them so so much!  

But, I will give my first graders this: 

We were talking about what would make good class rules and here were my favorites: 

"Don't rob a bank" and "No smoochy-smoochy." 

Here's the thing, though: I really need to lay down the law. So much of the craziness today should have been squashed better by me. I am naturally such a softie, and I know I need to toughen up on these babies and whip them into shape. So tomorrow, I'm showing them what's what.

Here We Go?

This summer was the best summer of my life. Yes, I do tend to exaggerate a lot, but this is truth. It was the first summer that I've known for sure what I was doing in the fall, so I was able to fully enjoy my time off without a bit of work or stress or worry. (Year-round paychecks are a gift from the Lord himself.) I filled my time by spending it with people that I love - old friends, new friends, and many a high school student. I traveled a lot - Mississippi, Vegas, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and made wonderful memories in each place. My summer was free and happy and blessed.

And then August happened. So much of what had made my summer happy came to a quick end. I finished up my run as a high school leader (which was easily the best part of my life the last couple of years), all my travels were over, I stopped hanging out with a certain someone, and worst of all - work was looming ahead of me.

All of those plans I had in my head regarding a productive summer (I'll read this, take this class, pinterest ideas, paint my classroom...) clearly did not happen. And now, all of a sudden, I have to teach first grade. Not that long ago, I literally said, "I would rather not teach than teach kindergarten or first grade." But when you've fallen in love with your school and your co-workers, and first grade is the only way you'll get to stay put, you do what you need to do. 

Everyone keeps telling me that it's going to be great. That I'm going to love the kids - they'll be so sweet and loving and funny. And I don't doubt any of that. But if I'm being honest, this is just not what I'm passionate about. Even as much as I dearly loved my third graders last year, I missed the depth and humor I had with my sixth graders. I just don't get super excited about singing the days of the week song or practicing sight words like "and" and "the." I love digging into literature and doing big projects to connect content areas, and the ridiculous sense of humor of ten and eleven year olds. 

So I guess that's why I'm making this blog. This is not going to be a "look at what an awesome teacher I am" kind of blog. In fact, I sincerely hope other teachers don't see it. (Side note: the kind of teachers who do have those blogs are crazy people who must not need sleep. Like vampires? Maybe.) This bloggy is just a place for me to put my funny and cute kid quotes, my feelings about my crazy little first graders, my stories - good and bad - of my school year. To force myself to look at the awesome parts of this job. And hopefully I can look back, months from now, and be so happy to have taught first grade. (Or at the very least, gracefully survived it.) 

Tomorrow is day one. I spent the last couple of weeks setting up my classroom (a terribly painful activity for someone as organizationally challenged as myself). I think I'm ready, though I'm sure I'm forgetting things. I wish I could say that I'm really excited, but I'm really not. At this point, I just feel nervous. I don't know how 24 first graders operate all together. I don't know what the timing or pacing of the day will feel like. I don't know what these babies are capable of. And I don't know if I have the patience for over four hours straight with them in the morning with no break. Seriously.

Here's how my room is looking: 

I guess it's ready to be filled with 24 tiny little 5 and 6 year olds. 

Here. We. Go.