I was telling them that the reason I wanted them to justify their answers on their math worksheet was not because I was just a mean old lady but so that we could practice articulating our thoughts and know better our thought process. They all said, 'but Ms., you're not!" "Not what?" "Mean or old!" One kid raises his hand and then blurts out, "Ya I think you're the best teacher because you don't yell at us like some other teachers!" Too bad I couldn't keep them complimenting me and we had to get back to comparing decimals.
Saturday night I got the pleasure of having dinner at the Bush's. Like President and Laura Bush. They invited all of us TFA corps members in the area for a BBQ at their house. Unfortunately I have no pictures because secret service did not allow us to have any sort of phones or cameras since it was at their private home. We all parked at a church just down the street because there was no way they would have been able to park 200 cars right outside their house. We took buses over and I happened to be in the first bus. When we pulled up, good old George himself was just chilling right there in his driveway. I stepped off the bus, shook his hand, said a short hello and introduced myself, and then continued up the driveway to say hello to Laura. It was the most beautiful night with perfect weather. There were round tables set up on the front lawn with beautiful sunflowers as centerpieces. The food was delicious, and both President and Mrs. Bush were sitting just one table away from me at dinner!
This morning I decided to have a talk with my kids about talking because they have been having trouble with that. I asked them to first tell me reasons that they wanted to talk. One student raised his hand and said, "Because we don't have anyone to talk to at home."
Oh.
I also had a little girl come up to me during breakfast (we eat breakfast in the classroom because all of the kids are on free or reduced lunch as it is a Title 1 school) and handed me something wrapped up in a piece of paper towel. She said, "Ms., this is for you." Later I unwrapped it and it happened to be a half-eaten piece of toast. I'm sure that she wanted to give me something but couldn't think of anything but her own breakfast. This is the same girl that asked me in her letter to me if I would like to be her friend. As she was walking out the door today she gave me a hug and said that she would miss me over the weekend.
One of my favorite things that I have been doing is having my kids write me a letter in their writing journals every week. I read their entries and then write back to them, asking them to write about something new the following week. They have very interesting questions and sometimes have very deep things to say as 10 year olds.
The first day of school one little boy asked me if I knew how to dougie. I responded, "That's a secret." These kids are so curious about my life and ask such funny questions.
Our theme is "Sailing to Success" and one day I randomly had everyone salute me when we were getting lined up to go somewhere. It became a tradition and now everytime we are lining up to go somewhere, they all salute me and then we all say together, "We are sailing to success!"
I am officially obsessed with my kids. It's all starting to come together slowly and I'm beginning to be able to make sense of the frameworks and start identifying ways in which I can actually teach these students. I got really lucky with the group of kids that I got. I honestly believe that they are the best class in the school and I tell them that all the time. My roommate Cara has to tell me, "Kiki, we're not talking about school for the next 20 minutes," because if she didn't, I wouldn't ever stop talking about my kiddos.
On Fridays I get to wear casual dress so that means I also get to play soccer with my boys during recess. That is, if we don't get all of our recess minutes taken away because of talking during transitions. Recess and dismissal are my favorite times because I simply get to talk to my kids and hang out with them.
I'm sure that I have plenty more funny stories about what my kids have done and said, but they escape me at the moment. Tomorrow is an inservice day so I actually have time to breathe tonight.
