Someone asked about my first week; and I pulled the pieces together that I had written to various people or on my teacher list where all my "imaginary friends" reside. So, it is an entry of sorts about the first 3 days of school. Random thoughts, not well-connected.

Day One

Gee, my reading lesson was not as wonderful as Judy's and Jae's (imaginary friends), but it was a good first day nonetheless. I had a mom in the room taking pictures (which are up on our web site) and we had several long administrative tasks involving new students, etc. So, we didn't really "begin" at the beginning! I did model thinking about my thinking while I read, but I did not explain why I was doing it. I wanted First Day Jitters to be on the First Day, but knew I could never get it all in if I did an "introduction" to metacognition, too. So, I figured I will be able to model it again tomorrow and then relate both stories to metacognition.

Self selected reading was a riot. I guess since I didn't say "sustained silent" reading they didn't think they needed to do either of those two things! I found what I need to model tomorrow! At least 4 of them put their books away in about 30 seconds (okay, maybe 3 minutes) while at least that many were engrossed and read cover to cover, each on different levels. The rest were voicing their interest in their books, "HEY YOU GUYS! LOOK AT THIS SNAKE!"

It is so interesting, this view of the beginning of the year. Most of them talking out impulsively, short attention spans, reading only pictures, flipping quickly through all the books. I am not discouraged by that...I would just love to have it on a video tape so I can show it again in the spring when they get to that place where ssr takes us an hour and everyone groans when I say apologetically, "That is all the time we have for SSR today..."

The good thing about not accomplishing all that I wanted to today, is I can use today's plans for tomorrow. ;)

I did have a connection to The Relatives Came (not that I read it today). All the hugging! I am beginning to think my room gets stacked....with kids who need hugs. The great thing about kids who need hugs is that they are the best huggERs.

Looking forward to tomorrow

Day Two

Today I modeled deb's "OOPS AND WOW" reading at the start of SSR. (Oops= all the behaviors people engage in when they are playing the reading game as opposed to reading. Wow= engaged reading behaviors) I LOVE second graders! They are so eager to please! They were quiet, they were working hard at being engaged (even if that meant head down,moving their fingers along text, while their eyes watched to see if I was watching!) and a few more of them actually READ! It is going to be a great year...

I read Chrysanthemum and Oliver Button both today...at different times. Different times, remember. One boy (a bully last year, I am told, though I haven't seen it) said in a slow serious drawl after the second one, "Well..Mrs..W...I...didn't know...in sec-ond grade...reading...was really.. all about..behavior...

I didn't chortle out loud, but I was bursting inside! I asked if he thought K Henks and Tomie dP were trying to say something when they wrote. At least 4 of us were able to discuss that while the rest wondered with their mouths open WHAT the heck we were talking about. at the end of that discussion, I told them that TP was picked on when he was little and he was able to turn that into a wonderful story and that their biggest surprise this year was going to be the wonderful stories THEY would write about THEIR lives. A different boy blurted out, "Can we get started RIGHT NOW??"

Darn, we had to go to gym. But that comment won't be wasted TOMORROW!

Day Three

Just when you are on a roll...

The new desks came in. What a fiasco! First of all my dear friend who happens to also be my custodian, spent hours washing the old desks TWICE. She had 70 old desks ready in case we needed them as we knew the shipment had been delayed. Then, the summer help moved them all with the other junky desks into a storage building off the property. Yes, indeed we did need desks back to start the year with (though I had asked SPECIFICALLY for tables) SO the summer help brought back 70 JUNKY desks and literally piled them, bonfire style in the rooms. That greeted me on inservice day. My dear friend had to AGAIN wash 70 desks.

The first day of school the new ones arrived and needed to be assembled. It took our SUPERINTENDENT (formerly known as Beloved Principal) and 3 custodians ONE HOUR to put together 7 desks. They had told us to have everyone's old desks empty, but of course, the new ones weren't ready on day two. So, when the kids entered and saw the old desks, they looked at me like I just broke their trust..they now knew their teacher lies..

THAT night we left everything IN their desks. You got it, the desks were moved. Dear Friend had asked me if I wanted the blue chairs or the maroon chairs, and I had requested the blue. Big Mistake. There was a DIFFERENCE in those chairs. The blue ones were adult sized chairs and the red ones were smaller. She didn't notice right away, but after she backed up and looked into my room with its chairs, she realized that they were too close to the bottoms of the desks…legs wouldn't fit in, AND feet would dangle. Trouble is, there are no more maroon ones.

SO, my kids came in sat in their new desks on their new chairs swinging their feet… I asked for old chairs back, but of course my kids didn't want the old ugly ones. They would rather dangle on NEW ones. The principal came in about that point (we were having our morning meeting) and we told her what was going on. She insisted that though the chairs were pretty, they would hate them in a short while when their legs cramped and fell asleep, and they would be begging for the old ones back. I secretly thought we should just let them sit and dangle until they WERE tired of the new chairs and asked for old ones, but the old ones were being shipped back to storage. So, Principal took each child out in the hall, measured them for a chair and they came in with a Just Right Chair. Now, mind you the desks are VERY high, so the just right chair means their chins are on their desks now. It would be a little hard to explain to a passerby why we are calling them just right, when all you can see from the hall are big eyes and shiny new haircuts peeking over the tops of desks! And that can't be fixed until NEXT week.

It's going to be a little hard to tell the story of how we are LUCKY 13 while they sit in their old crappy Just Right chairs…

And, are you reading all the interruptions in establishing our new routine???

Sigh…

The good news is I like my kiddos. It WILL be a good year…

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