Today was my favorite kind of day. One of those days where most things run pretty smoothly, where my kids say funny things, where my kids remind me why I love this job. The morning started off a little crazy, which is pretty normal I guess, running to the office to make copies of this, talking to collegues to figure out how to solve this problem, and trying to get this, that, and the other thing ready in my classroom.
We are learning about declarative sentences in grammar and we were doing a worksheet where the students had to answers questions with complete sentences. One of the questions was who is your teacher so I had written "Miss Parkinson" on the board so they would know how to spell it. One of my students says "It says Miss because you're married!" to which I replied, "No, I'm not married. If I was married my name would be Mrs. Parkinson," to which my students responded with lots of questions about where I live and who I live with. I love conversations like this that are so random and give me such a picture of how they think. My favorite question was, "If you're not married, who wakes you up in the morning?" It was so cute; made even cuter when I told them my alarm clock wakes me up which they thought was hilarious!
We have a record breaking heat wave going on right now, so recess had to be in our classrooms today. Many of the kids choose to play school and it was so funny to sit and listen to them repeat, almost word for word, what I say to them everyday at Math Meeting or during story time. Its a wonderful reminder of how much they catch and are paying attention to my every action.
Then a little later in the day, this note appears on my desk:
It came from one of my boys who is so cute, but is a little stinker. His card is on orange or yellow more often than green. He gets distracted and starts talking to his neighbors, he puts crayons in his water bottle and then dumps all the water into the trash can trying to get it out, he plays in the sink at the bathroom, and chases all the little girls on the playground. Some days with him are really rough, but those are not the ones he remembers. He remembers the days where he was on green all day and gets rewarded with a high five and good job today! That's what I love about kids. Sometimes you have to punish them and remind them rather sternly again and again that they are not supposed to be talking while I am, and they need to raise their hand to speak, but even when it seems like that's all you do, they don't remember the yelling. They remember the smiles, and the joking, and the high-fives.
Days like these are good reminders of why I wake up with the sun every morning and spend hours and hours at school and then at home working on things and preparing lessons. Because my students are wonderful kids who are excited about learning and they deserve the opportunity to learn and be successful! I'm so glad I get to wake up everyday and be a part of their lives!
