the first thanksgiving — an eyewitness account November 24, 2009

Yesterday I told the children the story of the first Thanksgiving, in my own words.  Someone, maybe Cherry, interrupted me.

“Were you there?”

“No, I wasn’t there.  This happened hundreds of years ago.”  I continued with my story.  A few minutes later Pumpkin interrupted me.

“Were you there?”

“No, honey, I wasn’t there.  I’m [fill in the blank] years old.  The first Thanksgiving was hundreds of years ago.”  Pumpkin looked at me, uncomprehending.  Any number over ten is meaningless to him.  I sighed, and forged on.  I had gotten to the part about the “funny” clothing the Pilgrims wore when I was interrupted again.  I forget who it was.

“Did you wear those clothes, too?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later, feeling ancient, I told the story to Miss Mellow when she came in to teach the afternoon class.  She laughed and said that I must have told the story with so much enthusiasm and detail that they assumed they were hearing a first-person account.

Yes, children, I came over on the Mayflower.

teacher blog turns into teacher book November 9, 2009

I’ve been meaning to tell you all to buy It’s Not All Flowers and Sausages, the new book by Mrs. Mimi, the author of the It’s Not All Flowers and Sausages blog.  She is a teacher in NYC who loves teaching but maybe not some of the people she meets in the course of doing her job.

She is hilarious, and so is the book.

And any teacher (like me) who works with nice people will read it and feel incredibly lucky.

Go out, people, and buy this book!

an interruption October 19, 2009

scene:  morning meeting in preschool

Mrs. X. has just introduced the letter T, and in doing the calendar, is pointing out that Tuesday begins with T, and October has a t in the middle of it.  The children are sitting cross-legged and listening quietly.

Pumpkin (suddenly going into a crab walk):  OW!  My butt hurts!  My butt hurts!  My butt hurts!

As suddenly as he started, he stops, and sits back down and looks at his teacher.

Mrs. X., somewhat unnerved, goes back to talking about the letter T.

I don’t like being caboose October 6, 2009

My students line up in ABC order, so the line is very predictable.  So that we won’t always have the same kid at the front, and the kid whose name starts with Q or W or Z won’t always be at the back, I have a line leader and a “caboose.”

This week’s caboose is a very sweet, very obedient little girl we’ll call Plum.  On our way to Music today, she had a hard time herding the boy in front of her to stay in the line.  We’ll call him Zucchini.  Miss Slinger wasn’t at work yet, so there was no adult at the end of the line to see what was going on.  When we got to Music, Zucchini and Plum ran around the corner from the stairs to catch up.  Plum said, very sadly, “he wouldn’t stay in line!”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Plum,” I said, absent-mindedly.

“I don’t like being caboose,” she said, as they walked past me into the music room.

On my way back to the first floor, I bumped into another teacher, who knows Zucchini.  She started laughing.

“Did you see what Zucchini did?” she asked.  “Instead of following you up the stairs to the 3rd floor, he just headed down the hall here on the 2nd floor, like he knew what he was doing.  There was nobody in front of him, but he just marched down the hall.  And that little girl behind him stood here by the stairs and called after him, ‘no, no, no!’ and started to cry!”

Poor Plum.  Zucchini had no idea what he was doing, and she always knows exactly what to do.

Mr. or Mrs.? October 3, 2009

I have one little boy who is learning to speak English.  He’s every bit as adorable as Pumpkin.  Let’s call him Peanut.

Peanut can’t pronounce the word “Mrs.”.  He calls me “Mr. X” all the time.  I have been trying to explain that Mr. X. is my husband, that Mr. is for men.  You know, Senor and Senora?  I told him that he was calling me Senor X and I think he finally understands what I’m talking about.

food September 21, 2009

So I’ve decided to name my new class (for the purposes of this blog) after foods.  Last year it was characters from children’s books, but I’m running out of ideas for those, so food it is.

First up — Pumpkin.  He is an ADORABLE little boy who in many ways seems like he is still three years old.  Or maybe even two.  He is all impulse, and interrupts me constantly.  I don’t think he has any idea what I mean when I say to him, “please don’t interrupt me.”  Sometimes, like today, he interrupts me to say, quite urgently, “I love you, teacher.  I love you!”

What can he do?  Well, he has learned quite well how to walk in a line.  Miss Slinger says he sometimes gets silly down at his end of the line, but mostly he can do it.  He knows how to line up in ABC order, mostly, and he knows where he is supposed to sit in the meeting area.  He can sit on his bottom and fold his legs, and he participates in everything we do.  It isn’t like he’s under the sand table when he is supposed to be doing a project, or sitting down for morning meeting.

What can’t he do?  He seems genuinely puzzled by the whole concept of listening.  (I don’t think he knows what that word means, either.)  He has a hard time answering questions.  It’s like I’m speaking in a foreign language sometimes.  He has a hard time having a conversation.  He has a hard time remembering what he is supposed to be doing if I give him instructions.

Today at the start of morning meeting he came up to me and said with surprise, “There’s still soap on my hands!”

“Go back to the bathroom and dry off your hands.  Then come back and sit down.”

When he came out of the bathroom, his pants were around his ankles.  (I guess he forgot why he was in the bathroom, and decided to go potty, again.)  “Teacher, I can’t remember how to put my pants back on!”  Miss Slinger helped him, and I sure hope he washed his hands (and dried them) after he went potty…..

He can’t count, either.  He doesn’t know most colors.

I wonder if he is going to end up being assessed for special needs, or if he’s just a late bloomer.

Anyway, I think he’s going to be my favorite little troublemaker this year.

Barack Obama, principal September 14, 2009

Last week when the president made his speech to schoolchildren, the Prince arranged for an all-school assembly beforehand.  The teachers went up on stage one by one and we introduced ourselves, and read aloud our hopes & dreams for the year.  Then we posted them on a big board on the stage, so the children could see who we are, and that we also have things we want to learn or do or get better at.  Several news stations were there, and we were on the local news that night.

My class was very excited, but couldn’t sit still for long, so we left before the speech.

A few days later, Miss Slinger was talking to the Prince outside while we were at recess.  After he left to take the 3rd graders inside, Miss Slinger came over to me, laughing.

Apparently one of our girls had asked her, “who was that man you were talking to?”

“That’s Mr. ____, our principal.”

The girl sighed, obviously disappointed.  “Oh, I thought that was Barack Obama.”

our class pet September 3, 2009

It was our first morning meeting, and the children were flagging, a little.  It’s hard to be four and sit on your bottom AND fold your legs AND put your hands in your lap AND remember not to interrupt the teacher.  I was trying to get them through our new daily routine of calendar and counting the days and morning message, when someone noticed the wasp.

(It is warm today, and I was sweating within thirty minutes of the start of the school day, so our window was open.  No screen means that sometimes bugs do fly in.)

Panicked expressions were everywhere.

I said, “Oh, yeah, that’s our wasp.  He’s fine, he won’t hurt you.  I know, let’s make him our class pet!”

Blank faces.

“What should we name him?”

Then one little girl piped up, “Max?”

“Max!”  I cried.  “What a wonderful name!  Okay, everyone say hi to Max!”

“HI, MAX,” they chorused.

“Now where did he go?” I asked.  “Maybe he’s playing hide and seek with us.  I think he’s hiding behind that light.”

The whole class was smiling and waving up at the light fixture.

“Let’s look for him tomorrow,” I suggested.  “I bet he’ll still be here.  He likes us.”

And then — “Let’s read our morning message!”  And all was well.

Elephants cannot dance! July 14, 2009

There is a new Elephant and Piggie book out — I cannot wait to read it!

field day May 21, 2009

(Sorry I haven’t posted recently.  I had two straight weeks of migraines.  Plus it’s THAT time of year.  Teachers are tired.)

Today was field day and the kids were wild.  This was the most hyper and overstimulated my class has ever been on field day.  They couldn’t stop picking up dirt and throwing pebbles and pushing each other.  Princess would grab someone and push them and wail at the same time, “he’s PUSHING me!”

However, we had fun.  I bet they all went home and took rock-solid naps.