Good Leaders

The underlying theme in our social studies unit is leadership. I was asking the kids what qualities make someone a good leader. I was getting some long pauses and blank stares, so I asked, "Well what about me? What is something that makes me a good leader for our classroom?"

Anna raised her hand and firmly stated, "You're pretty."

She's got a lot to learn about feminism. Or something. 

Love is in the Air

I'm going to start giving out some updates on the love lives of my first graders, because apparently they want everyone to know everything. All the time.

Abbie was in the hallway today, just freely announcing, "I have a crush on Johnny! I have a crush on Johnny!" to whomever walked by.

She is a bold lady. 

Not Even Kidding

Johnny asked the librarian if she had any tax code books.

Full Moon

My kids have been nuts lately. I don't know what it is (except I think that I do know what it is), but they have been so talkative, antsy, overly excited, and just plain crazy. 

The funny thing about teachers, is that they will come up with any bizarre reason to explain this away. 

"It's the weather."

"There's been a big drop in the barometric pressure. It really affects them."

"It's the full moon."

For the longest time, I thought this was all a load of crap. Kids are weird, and they're going to act up sometimes. Except, with this latest full moon, I'm starting to believe it. I'm hearing from everyone that they're kids are being cray cray right now, even fellow teacher Facebook friends. I mean, there has to be some connecting factor there, right?

Anyway, my point is, I seem to be teaching 21 little werewolves. 

I Have A Dream

To wrap up our unit on Martin Luther King Jr., we made posters with our fourth grade buddies about our dream for the world. Each pair of buddies made a little clouds that said "I have a dream" and pasted them onto a blue piece of construction paper, then wrote and colored about their dream. (Totally fancy and Pinterest worthy, I know.) It was so cute, though, to read about their dreams. I made them all share at the end. 

Their dreams included: No more litter, a safer world, no bullying, clean drinking water for everyone, for homeless people to have homes, etc. My favorite was Amelie's because she said that her dream was for every child to have a home and family as loving as hers. I obviously teared up a little.

A Piece of Wisdom

Everyone morning we have our announcements broadcast over the TV, because we're fancy like that. A few select sixth graders get to run the two minute newscast. Well one of the sixth graders made a mistake, it seemed, which was a surprise to Jake.

Jake: "He's in sixth grade, so he should know everything."
Me: "I hope you'll know everything when you're in sixth grade."
Jake: "Ahhhh.... I'll have a lot of friends..." 

Who needs to know everything when you have a lot of friends? Jake knows what he's talking about. 

Diversity, or A Lack There Of

We've been talking about Martin Luther King Jr., which has been awesome. The holiday very nicely fit into our unit on leadership, and I love getting to teach even the most basic levels of history and social studies. 

Our conversations about segregation have been great (kids are so quick to hate injustice in the most beautiful way), but there has also been some confusion.

During reading group, I had a couple kids ask, "So... are you African American?" (I am, in fact, an extremely pale-skinned individual.) And then they looked around our all-white classroom, looking for any kid with even a tan, and then asked what race they were.

I'm thinking we need some diversity up in here.

Johnny's Special Treat

First thing this morning, Johnny came up to me with something hidden behind his back. 

"Guess what I got?" 

He was sincerely excited.

Then he held out for all to see...

The 2013 United States book of Tax Codes.

Miss Dan Ger

Today I had a whip cream pie thrown in my face.

We're trying to get the kids more excited about our school-wide behavior program, so we had our first ever pep assembly. Cheerleaders from the local high school came and performed a cheer they had made up just for us. Then a few students got their names pulled out of a basket and chosen to be a "Super Paw." They got to wear a cape and take down a villain. I was one such villain. 

I was dressed in a poncho that said "Dan Ger," goggles, and a shower cap. A third grader that I don't know was chosen to come up, explain one way to be safe at school, load a paper plate with whip cream, and then throw it in my face. The poor kid actually looked so apprehensive about hitting me with it, and I had to kind of encourage him to do so. 

The whole thing was so fun, the whip cream was delicious, and only a little bit of it went up my nose.

Hugging Miss G

Every day we have a word of the day, and during our morning meeting I record it on our word wall. Afterwards, I ask the kids to give a few examples of sentences using the word. In the last month or so, every single time Josh gives an example, it somehow revolves around "hugging Miss G." For instance, if the word was "they" Josh would say, "They went over to hug Miss G." Or if the word was "where," he'd say, "Where can we go to hug Miss G?" Today he even said something about hoping I would come to his house and give him a hug.

The really funny this is that he rarely ever hugs me. 

Testing Day

Today I administered two different reading tests for twenty minute blocks of time to twenty-one students. Needless to say, I am exhausted.

My co-worker told me that first graders make a huge jump after winter break in their reading abilities. And while I haven't seen this with everyone, some of these kids have made tremendous growth - to the point where I actually don't understand how it happened. In terms of actually getting to see learning and change, first grade is the most rewarding. Though I also often doubt how much or little I have to do with it...

Kids Say the Weirdest Things... Part 2

Jake and I were having a conversation about how his four year old sister is sarcastic when he said this: 

"When I was a baby I was sarcastic. I was laying on the floor with no diaper on, crying, and then I finally fell asleep."

End of story.

Kids Say the Weirdest Things... Part 1

The following conversation took place, out of the blue, at reading group: 

Kendal: What about my destiny?

Me: What about it? What is your destiny?

Kendal: It's where I mess around! 

Thinking Hats

We had a fundraiser today where the kids could pay a dollar to wear hats during the school day, and the money goes to helping out one of our paras who broke her ankle and doesn't have health insurance (ouch!). Nathan, who was wearing a baseball cap with a shark on it, put both hands on top of his head and said, "I'm frustrated because this covers my thinking." "Well... what if you wear it backwards?" I suggested. He replied, "No. The only thing that helps is if I push it [his thinking] out my mouth." 

States

Today I gave my kids their own personal mini dictionary (as in about 20 words per letter of the alphabet) so that they could have a place to record and look up their sight words. In the book, there is an "about me" section. Abbie came up to ask me what it said where it was printed: "My state or province." I read it and then said that we live in states, not provinces, and then asked her what state we live in. She gave me a blank stare for a moment, and then guessed, "... the American flag?"

Post Break

I had an absolutely wonderful break! I spent the first week and a half of it just hanging out with family and friends, playing and resting. Then for the last 4 days, I went to Florida to play at Disney World and Harry Potter World for 4 days with two of my best besties. It was a very magical and delightful vacation! 

I'm still recovering from it, though, because I flew home really late Sunday night and then went back to work Monday morning. Yipes! Luckily, we didn't have kids again until today, so I had a couple of days to readjust and make plans. 

My kids were a dream today! I think it was partially because I'm implementing a few new positive behavior systems, and they always buy into those things big time right off the bat. I've also heard that first graders come back from Winter Break making huge growth, so I hope that's true with my group.

Either way, I genuinely missed them and am so happy to get to spend all day with these crazy little bugs again. What a turn around my attitude towards first grade has made in the past couple of months! I can say that I am genuinely so happy with my job now.