Back with the First Graders and other stuff

Tuesday was a big day.  It was the first time I had driven since September 5.  I was more than a little nervous.  It was only 13 miles to the school, but rush hour traffic on a freeway can be exciting.  Was I ready?   The trip took 44 minutes, lots of idiots on the road, but I stayed cool.  No stress allowed.  I parked on campus with my new handicap placard.  That saved me the walk up and down hills, which I could not have done.

Once in the classroom, great joy by Ms. H.  Hugs all around.  She introduced me to the class and then we went to work.  She insisted I work at a table one on one with the students.  Not much walking around allowed.  I was to take it easy.  I helped the students correct and rewrite a story about Pajama Day.   They love to use upper case letter, even in the middle of a word.  We also worked on expanding sentences:  It was fun, became I had fun because we wore pajamas and slippers to school.  I asked them to tell what happened that day, and then they wrote it down.

Then I moved on to math.  Mostly they needed to finish pages, or show their work.  Finally I was allowed to walk around and check over the phonics workbooks.  She was right, I wasn't ready to do a lot of walking and bending over. 

I took my blood pressure and pulse during recess. And then I took my pills. I stretched out the time I usually do that so the class was out of the room.   As I was leaving Ms. H handed me flowers and a card.  Then a little girl came up, hugged me, and then kissed me.  Several children came up and hugged me.  That is why I volunteer, sweet little children.

I went home, had lunch and then had a nice long nap.  Tuesday night is my Book Group.  I had to be rested and strong for that.  I was driving myself and friend Kirsten to Book.

Book Group was great.  These are good friends who had prayed for me and sent me good wishes throughout my hospital stay.  We had a great discussion on a very difficult book.  The Wicked Girls is so well written and such a sad and upsetting story.   This is not a book for just anyone to read.  You have to understand it is tragic and the subject matter is gut wrenching. 

I was tired when I got home.  But I had done another normal day.  Even if I had to nap.  I had done it.

The school year is winding down

Tomorrow will be my last day volunteering for this school year.  The end of August it all begins again.  Last Tuesday we were busy with different things.  The class worked in their science journals writing about an experiment they had done the day before.  They also were given pictures of older science projects and were to write about those.  Another volunteer and I spent a lot of time taping pictures in each journal.

Ms. H handed out their very first creative writing story and one done last week.  The two papers were mounted on a large piece of black construction paper.  Each child then wrote four sentences that told how the papers were different/improved.  We got some good thoughts: the older stories were messy, their penmanship had improved, the new story was neater looking, they used complete sentences, they now used punctuation, capital letters were used at the beginning of sentences, capital letters did not show up in the middle of sentences or words,  they could spell their last name, they used descriptive words.    After they wrote about the differences they read them to the class.

After a morning of the class working hard, I read them a story.  A couple of weeks ago I read them Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  We discussed how destructive Goldilocks was, and how she was breaking laws.  This week I read them  Goldilocks Returns by Lisa Campbell Ernst.    Be sure to click on the link and read a couple of pages.  In this book Goldilocks feels guilty for what she did to the Three Bears years and years ago.  She decides to make it up to them.  Things do not go as planned.

My Tuesdays are free this summer, school and Book Group are on break.  Not sure how I will fill all up the time, but I sure about one thing.  I will be sleeping a lot later. 

Back to School

Last week I did not work with the First Graders.  I was having a bad day with this dumb cold that comes and goes.  But this week I was there.  When I went to check in at the office a woman kept looking at me.  I thought she looked familiar but I couldn’t place her.  She asked me my name, I told her, and she got really excited.  She yelled, “You married us.  I knew I recognized you and your voice.”  The Marriage Factory and school have crossed paths.  I guess it was only a matter of time.  I have married thousands of couples over the years.  Once or twice other people have told me I married them.  I felt bad I didn’t really remember her.  She was just a familiar face.

It was a good thing I felt well enough to go to school.  The two parent volunteers were sick and it was just me to help Ms. H.  I worked with children at different stations.  One little girl totally shuts down when I try to help or prod her to work.  She has done this every time I talk to her.  She may be one it is best I just leave alone.

Ms. H asked me to read a story about Lincoln.  I showed the children where his birthplace in Kentucky was.  Then where his family moved to in Indiana, and the move to Illinois.  I read about travel on flatboats and by horse and buggy.  We discussed slavery, the Civil War.  Then we talked about Lincoln’s life and his assassination.

This is where the difference between now and the 1800’s became really hard for them.  Some of their questions:  Why didn’t the Secret Service have guards for him?  Why didn’t someone use their cell phone to call for help?  How come the police didn’t use helicopters to track Booth?  Why weren’t there cars?  Why did Abe have to borrow books from the neighbors, why didn’t he go to the library?  How could they own people?  Why did Lincoln have to walk two miles to school?  Why didn’t someone drive him to school?

As you can see, they had great questions and I hope I helped them to understand.  We don’t just read fun books to them.  We teach with story time as well as entertain them. 

Finally, Back to School

Tuesday I was back at school, the first time since May.  I was thrilled to be there, and Ms. H was happy I was back.  Lots of hugs, a few tears as we caught up.  Mostly though it was a happy morning.

 

The classroom.  Lots of work of the children.  Lots of work from Ms. H.

We did some regular work, reading, phonics. writing sentences.  Then the fun part began. A Ranger from the East Bay Parks was there to teach the children about amphibians and reptiles. 

Ranger James is showing pictures of the life cycle of a frog, or the big word he taught the children, metamorphosis. 

This is Freddy the frog and his friend the snake.  Freddy taught the children about the eggs, tadpoles, developing legs, and then a real frog.

                                                                                                 

The clear plastic are “frog eggs”, the front green animal is the tadpole with legs, behind that the light green is a tadpole, and then Freddy Frog.

Ranger James is showing us a snake skin.  It was then passed around to touch.

Ms. H is taking a picture of the snake skin.  She took lots of picture.  Later the children will pick a picture and write about this lesson.

Ranger James has a large live frog in his hand.  Children were allowed to touch if they wanted to.  The frog was not happy.

Then Ranger James said we were going to play a game.  A person would be blindfolded and handed objects to identify.  We could only answer yes or no to her questions.

Ms. H was the guesser.  She was handed frog eggs (real), a turtle shell, a snake skin.  Then he said the next item would be alive, and wiggly.  She is the bravest woman I know.  She sat there, making faces but let the tiny newt crawl over her hands and arms.  I would have run screaming from the room.

After the blindfold came off, she walked around to show the children the newt.

As the children left the room, Ranger James had another live critter, a snake.

                                                                         

This is a type of milk snake. For protection its markings are very much like the deadly coral snake.

This was a great lesson, lots of fun, laughing, and awe.  Ranger James rocks.

Back with the First Graders

Tuesday I finally was back at school.  I missed one Tuesday to marry couples on Valentine’s Day.  The next Tuesday we were on our flight home from Louisville.  I was glad to be back at school, and I think the children were glad I was back.

Lots of different areas of work going on: creative writing, phonics’ word sorting, writing word math problems, and working on their weather journals.  I went from table to table and helped when needed.

Then Ms. H asked me to test children on two Dolch word lists.  By 11:30 I had tested every child.  Most of them have really improved. 

Then it was story time.  Ms. H had given me a book to read to them,  Grace for President  by  Kelly S. DiPucchio.   This was an interesting book.  There were two teaching points, the Electoral College and a woman running for President. 

I don’t really understand the Electoral College.  I know each state has votes based on population.  I know 270 is the magic number.  But the whys and wherefores of not a popular vote but this College?  Still not sure.

The book does a good job showing how each state has X number of votes.  It goes into some detail at the end about the constitution setting this up.  The children seemed to understand on the level they were on.

Grace is a little girl who realizes no women have ever been president.  She decides to run for President.  The book shows her campaign and her opponent’s. 

We talked about women never being president and that same sentence came up, “That’s not fair.”  Children really want life to be fair.

Tuesday was one long day

I began the day at 5:00 A.M. by waking up with major leg cramps.  I got out of bed to stand on the leg to force the muscles straight.  That’s when it went horribly wrong.  The leg and foot wouldn’t straighten and wouldn’t hold me, and down I went.  I bounced off the side of the IRON bed frame, hit my head on the end table, and the damn cramps kept cramping.

Meanwhile I have nearly scared Marty to death.  He is trying to help me up, and I still can’t stand on the leg.  All of this is happening in the dark.  Finally the cramps start to ease and he helps me up.  I  walked around for 10 minutes until the leg almost felt normal.  I went back to bed.

I couldn’t sleep, so I gave up and showered and dressed.  It was my day to work with the first graders.  It had rained all night, and was still raining. Yuck, this means inside recess.  Turns out that was the least of my worries.

Soon after I arrived Ms H. had a phone call from the office.  Her daughter was sick, she had to pick her up from another school.  She told me, handed me some phonics’ worksheets, and said she would be back in under an hour.

Holy crap, Batman!  I am in charge.  The volunteer mother and I are a little worried.  Even first graders know if the teacher is gone, the “subs” are fair game.  When Ms H returned we hadn’t lost anyone and they hadn’t tied us up in the corner.

Marty picked me up at noon in Oakland.  I dropped him  at his Walnut Creek office.  I drove to Pleasant Hill to get my hair cut and curled.  I changed into big girl clothes in the bathroom and took off.  I ran errands, ate lunch at 3:30.  I went back to Walnut Creek at 5:00 to pick up Marty. (all of these stops are anywhere from 5 to 10 miles apart)

You would think it would be time to go home for supper.  Wrong.  We have a business Open House in Rossmoor to attend  from 5:30 to 7:00. There were appetizers and they were good, but they weren’t supper.  We left at 6:50.  Still not going home.

On his way home, Marty dropped me in the Berkeley Hills for my book group. I was a little late, but hadn’t missed much except the social time.  At 9:00 P.M.  Marty came back up the hill and picked me up.

Then we finally had supper.

Why weren’t you here last Tuesday?

Tuesday I made it to school to work with the first graders.  They were all in their groups working on math, reading, creative writing.  I walked around to nudge slow workers and to give help where needed.

One little boy looked up at me and asked, “Why weren’t you here last Tuesday?”  He acted as if I had skipped school without permission.  I explained about the lost voice and that seemed to satisfy him.  I guess the next time I have to miss, I’ll call him instead of Ms H.

Chinese New Year has begun.  I read a story to the children related to the new year.  The story deals with a child having lucky money to spend any way he wants.  But it isn’t enough to buy what he wants, so he is pouting. The child sees a homeless old man who has no shoes, who has nothing.  The children did a great job of understanding the point of your little bit can help someone with nothing.

Most of my work with the children was to hear them read a story and then to work on the Dolch List.  Some of them are still struggling to read. They just need more time to work on basics.  It is late enough in the year to consider holding them back this year.  Parents are resisting and saying no you can’t retain my child. 

That fact is amazing to me.  When I taught (as a paid teacher), you told the parents for the good of the child you were holding them back. You had had conferences all year telling the parents the child was behind, the work was not being done, they needed more time at this level.  The parents really had little say in the outcome.  Some parents fought retaining their child, and went to the principal, and even the School Board,  Every now and then the teacher lost that decision.  The teacher always felt the child had been hurt by going on to the next grade.  The next year that child’s teacher would come back to you and ask why you promoted her/him.  Or if they knew the story, they would ask for worksheets, books, etc. from your level to help the child.

Times change.  Maybe not always for the good.

Back to School

Today was the first day of school after the winter break, or Christmas break as I call it.  The children were wound up, but not too badly.  They needed to be reminded of school rules:  names on papers, soft voices, how to line up, clean up your work space etc, keep your clothes on. 

Yes, children are sexual animals. When you read to them, hands drop into their pants.  This is normal, but not acceptable at school. Two of the little girls were flipping their tops up and flashing people as I read a story. I had a long talk with them about protecting and respecting their bodies. I reminded them that girls keep their bodies covered.  That what ever they do at home, it was unacceptable to take clothes off at school.  I didn't fuss, although I wanted to scream at them, "are you nuts????"

We continued work on contractions, a hard concept for some children. But they are getting it. There were math papers to work on, they sorted words by beginning sounds. They also wrote stories about their winter break.  Over all they settled into work mode pretty well.

I worked with the children in their different groups.  I also listened to some of them read a little book and go through the Dolch list.  Children forget so much over the two week break unless parents work with them.  The ones I worked with individually did well on the reading.  Parents did their jobs.

I read a great book to the class right before lunch, Iggy Peck Architect.  This book has great illustrations, enough ick factor to made the children go yuck, and it has great rhymes.  They really liked it.  One of the children's parents gave the book to the class.

I was glad to be back to school.  I had missed my kids.  And they seemed really happy to see me today.

Soft voice, my voice

When I arrived at school Tuesday, Ms H had almost lost her voice.  She was speaking very softly and not speaking unless necessary.  I remember trying to teach without much of a voice, it is really hard.  Teachers are constantly talking.

She would whisper directions, information, correct a child , and if things needed to be repeated, I tried to help her.  By the time I left at noon, even the whisper was gone.

We began the workshop groups.  I was working with the children who were doing a worksheet on contractions.  It showed a wreath of holly leaves and berries.  There was a leaf with a word, a berry that was blank, and another leaf with not.  This continued to complete the wreath.

A leaf would have a word such as will, a blank berry, a leaf with not on it.  They had to find a berry with the contraction, in this case won’t, cut it out and glue in the blank spot.  Sounds easy, maybe for some.  Others cut out all the berries at once, then the berries fell in the floor.  They just glued any word, because they wanted to finish and do the art project.  I spent time pulling glued down berries and helping them find the correct words that went between. 

To the art project:  the school secretary asked them to help decorate the office.  The children were to make snowflakes and snowpersons.  (too politically correct for old fashioned me.) 

To make the snowflakes they put a bucket on a piece of paper and traced around it.  The bucket hit the floor several times.  Next they cut out the circles.  The circle was then folded in half, then folded twice more into a cone.  They could begin to cut.  Some just slashed the folds, which didn’t change the look of the circles.  I kept showing them to make cuts that left holes.  Part of them got it, others didn’t. 

We have snowflakes and they are worthy of being in the office.  It isn't the look, it is that children made them.

I worked again with the two boys on their handwriting.  They wrote in their phonics’ workbooks.  I must have erased letters 50 times.  They do not hold pencils correctly.  I kept telling them, keep your fingers on the paint, not on the bare wood, don’t hold it so tightly. 

The biggest problem with their writing is they do not begin letters at the top line, they don’t take letters to the bottom line.  The letters float and aren’t uniform in size.  They finished the two pages finally and I could see a huge improvement. 

I made sure they knew they had done better. We turned back to Monday’s work and compared it to Tuesday’s.  They were really excited to see how better their writing is becoming.  Now if they will remember what we did when they work on their own.

We had a sub today

As I walked down the hall to Ms. H's class room, I met one of the first graders.  D was taking the attendance report to the office.  He was so excited to see me (I have missed for two weeks) and he had news.  "Ms. H is sick and we have a sub!"  I am thinking please please let it be Ms. C, she knows what she is doing.  It was.  But a sub day is always a hard day.  Children do not handle change well, and they will push a sub to her limit.  Yes, even first graders will act differently just because a substitute teacher is there.  We had our work cut out for us.

They were wild, pushing, talking, ignoring all rules.  Ms. C is earning her paycheck today.  Ms. H had lots and lots of projects to keep the children busy.  Books were read and projects done from the stories.  We worked, we got things done, but we worked.

Below I have some pictures I took of the classroom.  No children shown of course, just things in the classroom.

I wanted you all to see the flowers on the tables.  Only one was knocked over today.  Not bad for active first graders.  I am guessing Ms. H has the flowers as part of the study of harvest and Thanksgiving.

This another view of the classroom.  As you can see, everything is really close together.  We are in a portable which in many ways is good.  We have our own heating and AC.  Today we had heat, the main building didn't.  Since it was in the 40's outside, a little chilly in the other classrooms.

This is my little area where I work with the students.  Not a lot of cleared space, but we make it work.

A page from the famous Dolch List.  I made notes on words missed, if they struggled or  if they knew the words as sight words. Some flew through the list, others struggled with every word.  If the children can be believed, some are not getting any practice at home.

 This is a review chart that grows throughout the year.  And yes, first graders use the word Homophones.

This list is for writing projects on Thanksgiving.  They wrote riddles today about a food they have on Thanksgiving.  They had to give three clues, write What am I?  and then draw a picture of the food.
My favorite was:  You kill me.   I have feathers. I have white and brown meat.  What am I?  turkey  One little boy was horrified to find out his turkey was killed.  There was quite a discussion between two of them about where meat comes from.

Ms. C read the class the book Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs.  Then they were to write sentences about weird weather.

This is the chart with the sentences they wrote together.  Then they had to write some on their own.  The last sentence is a reference to a Dr. Seuss book I read to them a while back. We misspelled oobleck.

This is the book I read to them. It is written by a Native American Chief.  It is a beautifully written book and wonderfully illustrated.  After I read it, Ms. C discussed thanksgiving, the harvest, and cornucopias.  They then did an art project on cornucopias. 

It was a busy day.  Lots of fussin' at the little ones.  But we got lots done.

I love you more than honey

Yesterday was my last day volunteering with the first graders until Fall.  I am getting over a terrible cold with a cough and really did not want to drag myself out of bed.  But I wanted to tell them goodbye.

The children were working on memory pages.  They glued a picture taken  during the year and wrote about that particular event. They also wrote and drew a picture about their favorite place at school.  You would think the playground would be the number one place.  No, it was the library.  How that tickled me.  Books and reading won!

Then we did the end of the year testing for math.  As I walked around making sure they were on the right problem I was pleased how well most of them were doing.  This test is really hard: clocks, money, number families, reading problems, graphs, adding and subtraction, patterns, geometric shapes, and more.  Ms. H had taught them well.

I read a couple of chapters of Stuart Little to them and then Ms. H came up to me with a gift bag.  They had made a book of letters and pictures thanking me for helping them all year.  Well, that alone had me emotional.  And then she asked if anyone wanted to say anything to me.  The first little boy looks at me and says, "I love you more than honey."  Then nearly every child told me how much they loved me and how I had helped them.  I was in tears when I told them how I loved them and that they are the highlight of my week.  We were all so emotional by then that Ms. H said they needed to sing to me to cheer me up.  So they sang and danced the Chicken song.  This is the best link to hearing some of the words.  Then Ms. H and I taught them Do Your Ears Hang Low. 

By then we are laughing like crazy.  The kids are dancing around the room.  I am getting hugs from kids and from Ms. H.   It was a lovely ending to a school year.  I have promised Ms. H that I'll be back in the Fall.  What will I do with my Tuesdays until then?

School is winding down

Usually when I work with the children, they come to me.  I sit in an adult chair and we work one on one.  Last week I worked with the children at their desks.  Each section of desks had a different task.  Some were doing creative writing, others were doing independent reading and writing about what they read. 

Then the killer group:  0 to 9 number tiles with a worksheet to fill in the blank numbers.  One problem was a number line with a blank spot, fill in the number.  Then another was  1__   comes right before 18.  Answer is 7.  1__ is between ___  and 19. Only use a tile once.  This group takes a lot of hand holding. I even had to ask Ms H about one question. 
 
The biggest part of the morning was at an assembly.  This was the dress rehearsal for last night's concert and Open House. There were songs, a play, drummers, and a MC who was telling terrible jokes that made even the children groan. Every class K through 5 performed.  That is 12 classes  They were darling, they were good, they were bad,  it went on forever.  The program lasted an hour and a half.  That was about 45 minutes too long for most of the children to sit still.  Last night the children waited in their classrooms until time to go on.

Yesterday we had our groups again and I worked with the children at their desks.  Let me just tell you I am getting too old to bend over a first grade desk for very long.  I can bend over, I can sit in the little chairs, I just have trouble getting back up.  One more week, and then no school until Fall. 


I do love volunteering with the first graders.  The change in looks and skills between September and June is amazing.  Yesterday I was handing out name tags that were made in August.  Some of the children I wasn't sure who they were.  They had matured, changed hair styles, they no longer looked like babies.  As for skills, they are using words like appreciate in their writing. Most can tell time on an analog clock.  Most know how to use money correctly.   Most importantly all can read.  Some very slowly and will be back with us next Fall.  Some can read several grade levels up. 

Every year I hope to help children love books as much as I do.  I also want them to be able to have the key to understanding all those symbols on the page. 

Reading, the key to everything.

This and That

There will be no wedding posts this week.  Monday I didn't go in to do ceremonies.  I had only 3 hours sleep Sunday night because someone I love dearly is a bed hog.  Today Marty needed the car for a couple of appointments, so I am not going in today either.  Strange week.

Yesterday I did volunteer with my first graders.  When the class broke into groups I listened to some of them read.  But mainly I worked with a group doing math.  They were counting by twos, fives, and tens.  Easy right?

Well if you are just counting.  But we know Ms. H, she will make those little ones think.  Each child had a Ziploc bag with one inch square tiles.  Each tile had a number on it from 0 to 9.  They had a work sheet with three lines of squares with numbers in them . Each line was counting by a different group.  Oh and all the numbers weren't filled in.  They had to put a tile on a blank square and they could only use the number once. (edit:  for some reason I had the word twice.  Sorry about that) First they had to figure what they are counting by and then put the missing number in.  After the page was filled in with tiles, they then could lift a tile and write the missing number in.

The page looked something like this: (I don't know how to make squares so imagine them instead of lines.)

_0   _0   80    _0    100

25   _0   3_   4_  45

__  20   _2    2_   26


I also worked with the children on their sight words. Most of them are doing well with them.  But some are still struggling.  All are improving, just some not as well as other.

I also read them a story.  It is one of my favorite books.  I have posted several times about this book.  The point of it is no one should be forced to be like everyone else.  We can make choices and live together with different points of view.  And this wonderful book is  Herb, The Vegetarian Dragon.  The book talks about the dragons loving to eat Princesses and knights in their crunchy armor.  One little boy said they should just eat the Princesses and leave the Knights alone.  At 7 girls have cooties.

OH NO, THIS WEEK IT IS MONEY

Last week at school we worked on telling time. I wrote about the two hardest concepts for first graders: time and money.

Today one group had money worksheets.  This is so hard for children today.  When I grew up I could walk down to the store, get a Brown Cow (Eskimo Pie in some parts of the land), give them a nickle, and walk home.  I was doing that as young as 4 or 5.  I also was given money to go buy bread or something else needed. I had an allowance for doing chores.  I would take my money, walk to the Dime Store, and buy a comic book. I handled money regularly at a young age.  Children today don't.  They know about credit cards. They rarely hand money to a clerk and pay for something.  They can't walk to the store at 4 or 5 years old.  There are no sidewalks, there are perverts lurking, CPS would arrest their parents.

Money is hard for little ones to learn with no hands on experience.  A nickle is big, it must be worth more that a dime.  Pennies are bigger than a dime and a fancier color, therefore pennies have to be worth more than a dime.  And that is how my morning went.  They were working with real money.  We counted the money, they filled in graphs, they added up the amounts, and they wrote sentences about the graphs.  Some of the group understood the concept, some had to have a lot of hand holding.

We also had a standardized test on math skills today.  This is when Ms. H and I walk miles.  During the test you walk and look at every child, over and over, and over.  Are they looking at their neighbor's booklet, are they on the right page, on the right problem?  Are they bubbling in or circling.  Oh crap, they are circling.  The answers won't count.  Go back and have them bubble in.  When you finish the test, the kids are shot for the rest of the morning.  Ms. H did a couple of movement songs with them.

Then I read them a story, Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr, Seuss.  When you click on the link, on the left by the cover of the book is another link to the inside of the book.  There are only a few pages but you get the feel of the book.  This book won awards in 1950.  And it is still holding children spellbound today.  You can't beat the classics.

"Because I'm getting better."

Tuesday was a busy day at school. When I arrived the children were in small groups and each group had a different project.  My group was working on contractions.  They had a worksheet that had a Christmas wreath on it.  At the bottom of the page were contractions inside a circle that they were to cut out and then paste on the wreath.  All around the wreath were leaves which had the words that a contraction came from.  Between the words was a berry.  The children found the contraction, such as won't and glued it between will and not.  If they had trouble, a chart was in front of them showing the different contractions and their origins.  Not a hard project.  But two little boys just could not focus.  Every contraction I had to prod them to cut it out, find the two words, put on the glue, pat it down.  Then on to the next one.  They just were so easily distracted.  But they finished and it was correct.  YAY!

There are maybe 10 children that I work with regularly in reading.  They have a series of little books they read to me.  The books are 6-8 pages long.  They began with pictures and words in the sentences.  Now they are all words.  There are no more then 2 sentences per page.  We work on the phonics highlighted in each book.  Then they read to me.  Some struggle sounding out every word; some can't remember words they work out the next time it appears; some guess the words; some read slowly and get all the words, and some read quickly with expression.  We have many levels of skill. 

One little boy R was a book behind the others. This happens to many of them for different reasons.  They miss school, the adult helping them doesn't have time to get to all the children, there is special testing, there is an assembly.  I had him read the first book to me.  He struggled, he couldn't remember words from one page to the next. Nearly every word had to be sounded out.  He finished and I moved on to the other children.  They all read the next book and I had time to take R again and have him caught up. 

R came up, sat down, and we began.  The phonics, easy.  He began to read.  Slowly but surely every word was perfect.  Very few words did he even have to work out.  It was if a different child were reading to me.  I complimented him on his reading.  I told him what a great job he did.  I talked to him about how much trouble he had with the first book (which was no harder) and how he breezed through the second book.  I asked him how come he did so well.  And all puffed up with pride, R said, "Because I am getting better."

Digging with the First Graders

Tuesday I went to help with the first graders.  Usually I help with reading, math, read the class a story, assemble the homework packets and go home.  Not this week.  I also helped dig up potatoes.

The school has garden plots for each classroom.  Adults do most of the work and the children help and learn.  They grow corn, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, and different types of potatoes.  The class had already dug up some potatoes.  Ms. H brought an electric skillet, knives, and bowls.  She was going to cook the potatoes that afternoon. 

Ms. H with a wicked smile asked me to take 4 children to the garden and dig for more potatoes.  This is why I never wear good clothes to school. We went out and the kids had a ball digging. (I did some digging too.) Number one they were out of class, two they were playing in dirt.  We found several more potatoes and took them back to class.

The children took turns washing the potatoes, which were muddy.  This was more fun than digging, water water everywhere.  Then I cut the potatoes in thin strips and turned them over to the children.  They took turns dicing the potatoes with fairly dull knives.  I threw the potatoes into a bowl of water and they were ready for cooking.

That was a fun project.  I worked with every child in the class. Usually I only work with a few children each week.  This was a special day.  And I really didn't have much mud on me.

SCHOOL ON TUESDAY

Tuesday at school was a little different. Ms. H was gone part of the morning. She was at the funeral for the father of one of the students. Other teachers came in while their classes was at library or some other special class and covered for her. Part of the time it was just me.

I did a phonics' lesson and had recess duty. I hadn't had recess duty since 1986. It hasn't gotten any better. Lots of children running, screaming, pushing, shoving, acting like children. At least it was a warm day. I remember doing recess duty in below freezing weather. Oh the good ole days.

Children nearly always act up for subs, student teachers, and anyone else they think they can fool. That didn't happen yesterday. First because they are basically a good class. But mainly because they are used to me having the power to correct them and if need be take away privileges. And the teachers taught them in kindergarten and knew every trick they would have thought of.

I was really proud of the class. Having 4 different people running the class during just one morning had to have been a little strange for them. These kids did their work, remembered their rules, and were on their best behavior. A+ to my first graders.