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.