Don' Cha Wish Your Girlfriend...

I overheard two moms of my students chatting yesterday about how their boys were liking school so far, etc.

L's mom asked A's mom if he had any favourite friends yet that he talked about at home.

A's mom, paused for a moment and slowly answered, "No...but yesterday his grandma did ask him jokingly if he had a girlfriend at school yet. He got all red faced and shy and stared at his feet for a few seconds, then quietly said, 'Missa Awr'."

*Melt!*

More Convos with Preschoolers!

Overheard my EA & a little guy, D, talking while playing Lego today:

EA: You're great at building airplanes, D. Are you going to be an airplane builder when you grow up?

D (looks at her as if she were the dumbest person on the planet):

Uh, NO! I'm gonna be Spiderman!

I was playing a game with my kids at circle where I hold up photos of kids with different facial expressions & they guess how that kid is feeling, what made them feel that way, what makes them feel that way sometimes, etc.

Every card I held up I asked a little girl, J, "Do you ever feel ________ (sad, happy, tired, angry) sometimes?"

Every single time she shrugged her shoulders and shook her head no. Finally I guess she got tired of me asking cuz the next time I asked she said,

"I just don't get lots of feelings."

My Rules of Adulthood.

Fight Right

Do it now

First things first

Don't expect a gold star

Everyone is fighting their own battle

Identify the problem

Lighten up

Assume the best

If you can't say something nice...

Be still & know that I am God

You can only be you

Act the way you want to feel

Reach out

New Snippets from a New Year.

Little girl looking in the mirror while washing her hands:

"I sure look pretty today."

Little boy picks up a Spiderman toy from the floor:

"Dis is not apprwopwiate for kids. I'm putting dis away."

Me quickly trying to fix my hair in the mirror while helping the girls wash their hand. Little girl looks at me:

"Don't worry Teacher. Your hair looks pretty!"

Little girl had been screaming for about 20 mins at this point. Starts pulling at her throat & looks at me:

"Fix it! Fix it!"

My OT ran to get her a glass of water from the staff room (we were in the hallways at this point) & came back with a mug she offered to her. She pushes it away & announces:

"No coffee!"

Don't Smile Til Christmas.

If you are a teacher then at some point, someone has told you to do this. Don't smile til Christmas. The idea being that you need to show the kids "who's boss" from Sept through December, then you can lighten up a little cuz by then, they'll respect you.

I was told to do this in my APT by my mentor teacher, a man I respected and admired (at the time anyways. He later ruined that, but that's another story.)

Don't smile til Christmas. Pretty much every "old school" teacher adheres to this adage and they pass it on to fresh faced teaching graduates hoping to help them.

Don't smile til Christmas.

FORGET THAT!!

I hate this saying. I hate it with everything in me. The first time I heard it I hated it, but then I was too insecure in my profession to question it.

My passion for children tells me its wrong. My love for children tells me its wrong. My love for learning tells me its wrong. My knowledge of healthy attachment tells me its wrong. My knowledge of how kids learn best tells me its wrong.

Just to clarify, I 100% believe in firm discipline, consequences and taking responsibility for one's actions. My students have always and will always know what to expect when they misbehave. Quick, firm correction, often followed by a consequence (natural if safe, reasonable if natural consequences are not safe). Then an immediate wiping of the slate and back to a happy equilibrium with myself and the classroom community.

Don't smile til Christmas?? You need to smile the most you ever will in the first day of school. How else will these kids know that school is a great place to be?

Although, if you're a teacher who doesn't believe in smiling, then school probably isn't a great place to be, so never mind then.