The New Kid

So, I haven't been totally honest. I've actually had 21 students this whole time, not 22. Until today. Little Philip has been on our roster, but his family was stuck in Korea, where they'd been all summer, because of some Visa complications. I wasn't exactly looking forward to his arrival - the thought of adding another wiggly little boy to my class was less than appealing. Lucky for me, Philip seems to be a tiny, quiet little angel. The poor kid just arrived from Korea late last night and was immediately bombarded by all of my kids asking him a million questions and telling him a million things. They were just trying to be helpful, I know, but I asked them to back off and give the guy some space. I'm not really sure about his English skills or how much he understands, but so far he's better at following rules and directions than most of my kids who have been practicing that for 15 days longer.

My sweet Kendal was really fragile today. Apparently she had a rough morning because she wanted to change her outfit and her mom wouldn't let her, and that just sent her whole day into a tailspin. She must have cried at least six separate times throughout the day. Sometimes because she wasn't able to finish her work right then, once because she dropped some cards on the floor, and a few that just had to do with her place in line. At the end of the day I was explaining to them that I'll be doing testing with them all day tomorrow, so we'll have a substitute teacher in our classroom, and I looked over to see Kendal's eyes filled with tears. She cried that it was because she doesn't want me to not be their teacher tomorrow... life is sometimes very hard when you're five years old.

Okay, and here is the best thing that happened today, maybe all year: Johnny had to leave a little early for a doctor's appointment, and so he came into my classroom during my planning time to get his backpack. I was sitting at my desk, and as he was leaving, I gave him a side hug goodbye from my chair. And Johnny totally puckered his lips and leaned in towards my cheek! I pulled back and said, "You can't kiss me buddy." And he got really awkward and was apologized. I said, "Are you just used to hugging and kissing mom and dad goodbye?" And he mumbled "yeah" and then quickly left the room. 

Emotional Days

Today the kids said, "We can tell you're tired because you keep yawning." Yep. I was up too late chatting with my good friend Tory, which was lovely, but it was about some things in my life that are bumming me out. Puffy eyes. Heavy boots.

One of my most special buddies is having a really hard time emotionally too. Yesterday he got in trouble for throwing a rock at another kid's eye, which I am pretty sure was an accident (though not positive). He was so upset with himself that he said some pretty harsh, scary, and self deprecating things. This morning his mom came in, and I heard all about all of the seriously rough and heartbreaking things happening in their family right now. I talked more with my little buddy about it today, and he is having such a hard time that I was seriously on the brink of tears. My heart just breaks for him, and I'm not really sure what to do, but I am asking the counselor to get involved.

All of that was to say - things are a little emotional lately. 

On a happier note, I am starting to enjoy my little first graders more and more. Today I called them back in small groups to observe Spiky, our fish. It was actually really fun to interact with them in a closer setting while we observed Spiky and drew pictures of him. While we were back there, Presley decided to rat out her friends and told me, "Anna and Kelsey are talking about inappropriate things, like boyfriends and girlfriends." And sweet little innocent Johnny remarked, "Well I hope it's not about what's in between the legs!" I know that this was the worst possible way to handle that comment, but I seriously could not stop laughing. I just love that little creeper.

Spiky

We have a new member of our class. His name is Spiky, and he is a goldfish, and I love him. 

We got him for our science unit - we're observing him along with some guppies and snails that we'll get eventually. I decided that I want to keep him as our class pet, even after the science unit is over. Until he dies or until I get too lazy to take care of him - whichever comes first. Spiky was not my ideal name for him (he's not even spiky!), but I let the kids choose his name. I was really pushing for Neville.

There's a girl in my class named Zoe who is either a hypochondriac or just a major exaggerator. Either way, she ends up trying to get out of class every day to go see the school nurse for one reason or another. (I very rarely actually let her go.) Today she had a wide range of ailments - her stomach hurt, her throat hurt, her chest hurt, and so on. At one point in the day she said that her chest hurt because her brother ran into her with his scooter yesterday. But then later she said, "I'm going to gymnastics today, and I'm so happy that my chest is hurting me!" I totally know what you mean, Zoe. I really do.

And here's my Nathan quote of the day: 

Nathan: "Make sure if I bonk my head, that I don't bonk it here." (He pointed to a spot on his forehead.)

Me: "Well, maybe just don't bonk your head, buddy." 

Nathan: "Yeah... I'm not sure if I can do that." 

Real Gangster

Well, I survived another week. And I'm so delightfully happy that it's Friday! 

I've been having some real girl drama, as I've mentioned, and so today I sat down with four of my girls and we talked about how to be nice to your friends, and how to be inclusive and forgiving. Afterward, Anna (who is the most "popular" girl in our class) went up to Abbie (who is new and kind of odd) and asked if Abbie wanted to be her friend. This was totally gracious and awesome of Anna to do, especially since Abbie doesn't really have any friends in our class. But Abbie just said, "No, I have enough friends in my neighborhood. I don't really need any new friends." Oh, Abbie... you kind of blew it.

On a totally different note...

I feel like you can tell a huge difference between the kids who have older siblings and those who don't. Just by the things they say, like calling someone a "douche-head." (I like that one enough to maybe use it myself.) Today, for example, our word of the day was ball. So I was asking kids to use ball in a sentence, just like we always do with our word of the day. And Keon said, "Well, there's the inappropriate kind of ball..." Thanks, Keon. Also, during Friday free choice time, I heard Gavin say, "That would be real gangster." But this was made way more hilarious by the fact that he has a speech impediment and actually said, "That would be weal gangstew." 

"1 2 3... Naked!"

I wonder what it would be like to have two good days in a row. I'm serious, it hasn't happened yet. Every time I think we're doing better and getting somewhere, we just move ten steps back the next day. I had so many kids off task today, it was ridiculous. Not to mention some bigger discipline problems - like pushing each other down the slide, saying shit, and stomping on each other's feet. Delightful.

Anyway, there were a couple of funny things to help get me through the day at least. If you've been reading this blog of mine, then you've noticed that Nathan is the most hilarious one because he says the most ridiculous things. Today he came up to me and said, in all seriousness, "When two moons come out, it means that the alien world is real close. And then if the sky turns real red, it means they are going to attack." 

Later in the afternoon, Nathan and Everett were reading the book No, David! By David Shannon. There's an illustration where the bad little boy, David, is running down the street naked, so you see his naked little butt. While I was trying to work one-on-one with a student, the boys were going around the room and holding up the book to other kids saying, "1...2...3..." and then they'd open the book to that picture and yell "NAKED!!"

Dragons

Today was a good day! Maybe my optimism is paying off...

We've been talking about making connections when we read, and today we talked about making text to world connections using The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. I sure do love that man and his environmentally friendly liberal ways! After I read the story, we talked about how it connects to our real world. I asked what would happen if we cut down all of our trees and didn't plant any new ones, and Johnny said, "We'd have to move to Texas!" To which Riley added, "My grandma lives in Texas!" I think they really got it. 

Also, this happened: 

Nathan: "What's that thing... where they train the lions?"
Me: "The circus?"
Nathan: "Yeah! We're going to the circus for my sister's birthday! And we're going to see a real dragon there! Because there are real dragons in Slovenia. So they're going to have him at the circus, and he'll breathe fire, and then he'll go back to Slovenia because that's where he's from.... Or, you know, from a factory where they make rubber."
Me: "Wait. So is this a real dragon? Or a fake one made out of rubber?"
Nathan: "... I'm not really sure..."

(I want him to keep believing in real dragons. Why not?) 

Optimism

As I said in my very first post, August was the pits. And outside of Mumford, it continued to be the pits. But guess what? Now it's September! And I am choosing to be optimistic that September will be better.

Going to work was hard today after having a three day weekend, and I found myself saying "I just need to make it to Thanksgiving..." which is a terrible way to live! I don't want to live that way at all, and so I am trying to be present in the present - or at least look forward to the near future. So I'm making a mental list of things that will make September the best ever. Here is that mental list made into an actual list:

Friday night - Santa Fe Art Walk (part of my personal goal of learning to love Denver more).
Saturday - I get to go to a wedding! For the first time allllll year! And dance my booty off.
Soon - My BFF Ashley is moving back here from San Fran! Can you believe it?!? Me neither.
Also - Mumford's new album!!
Also - JK Rowling's new book!! (This is both exciting and a little scary.)
Also - TV is starting back up! (Go ahead - judge me. I love television.)
Best - I'm going to Seattle for my birthday!!!! I can. not. wait!!

So there you have it, September is going to be awesome!

I went into school today with this attitude - of September marking a change and moving into the best time ever - but that didn't happen. Not one bit. Apparently the three day weekend set us back quite a bit because my kids were craaaazy today. They did not stop talking, humming, tapping, moving around, etc, etc, etc. And they are basically the biggest tattle tales ever. There is a constant stream of kids informing me of something that someone else did or said. And it's usually their own friends that they're ratting out. This afternoon, Everett came up to tell me that Gavin broke his pencil. He said, "I mean, he didn't like break it in half. It's just that the tip of it broke off." Then why are you telling me???

I'm choosing to remain optimistic that tomorrow will be better.