It's nice to feel appreciated...

This past week Friday was one of my students' last day. He was a shy little guy who endured a tremendous amount of change while he was here. His Dad is in the Navy and after serving / living in Okinawa, Japan, they were sure he was getting transferred here, to Phoenix, so the family moved ahead of time and have been living with the father's parents. They moved shortly before school started and the little boy started complaining he wasn't feeling well. After several tests, they discovered he had juvenile diabetes. =( So, it's been a constant blood sugar battle since then. He ended up in the hospital before school started and then once it did start, he had to leave to get his blood tested two - three times per day, receive insulin shots and etc...all while at school. Our school nurse is AWESOME, so I'm sure that helped him feel better as well. Needless to say, he and I became very attached. He's painfully shy (he was the one that said "pissed" instead of "missed" in my earlier post), but also made several friends...the entire class was sad he moved. His Dad ended up getting his final transfer papers....to California.

I can't say I've treated him any differently than my other students...I love them all, but he definitely has a soft spot in my heart. On Friday, as I walked him out to his parents we both started to cry. I knelt down and gave him a big hug, he put his hand out in the "I love you" sign language sign and pressed his hand against mine....then his parents started crying. I'm sure going to miss that little guy!

Later on that evening, I came home and checked my facebook account...this is what I found written on my wall from the office manager at my school.

"Yes, he was a little sweetie and great parents. You are such an awesome teacher Lara. Your relationship with the students is outstanding. Those kids know you care for them. The environment you create for them is safe and secure. If my girls were 1st graders, I would love for you to be their teacher. Most Sincerely."

Ahhhh....Wow! It's definitely nice to feel appreciated.

Updates...

Man, I got sidetracked with posting on Facebook rather than my blog. My apologies to you all! Here are a few gems from the past few weeks. I have some pictures to post as well, of some of their latest projects.

My question to the class..."Where's Steve at?" One student's reply, "I think he's pissing...(the class falls silent) I mean MISSING!! (student buries head in lap completely embarrassed). hahaha! We had a very quick discussion about how sometimes our brains think faster than our mouths and we make verbal mistakes.

"Poop smells...sometimes REALLY bad...did you know that Ms. Eklund?" (said by one of my first graders after he decided that his brown crayon reminded him of poop)

I am laughing myself silly over a brain energizer that ended up with one of my first graders doing an impression of Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean" song. HILARIOUS!!! Dance, hip moves and high pitched squeals included!! I love teaching!

Mrs. Eklund...what's a wedgy?" (that spurned a FUN conversation) ha ha. Try explaining THAT one without laughing out loud. Then in the afternoon my classroom just started to smell well, um, like crap...literal crap. Couldn't figure out what it was, I had everyone check their shoes, and discreetly asked if anyone needed to use the bathroom (no takers) so I sprayed some air freshener, hoping someone had only had a bad case of gas. Then it smelled like crap and air freshener MIXED (lovely smell). So we went to recess for a few minutes, leaving the classroom door wiiiiide open...only to find out when recess was over that one of my students had crapped his pants...literally...poop everywhere on his behind. Shorts, down his legs...everywhere. Poor guy. I sent him to the nurse and he ended up going home. He was back today tho, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ready to learn! ;-)

Naked...

Normally these posts have been about this little girl I've affectionately nicknamed "Princess"...however she was pretty mild this week. Only a few funny moments, like when she announced she had to go to the bathroom, "this one (as she points to her bottom) NOT this one (as she points to her front)." The funniest moment, albeit the most disturbing, came when I went to pick up my students from recess. The recess monitor meets me laughing...not just a little, but full on laughing, but trying to regain her composure. She informs me that I had two boys hiding near a storm drain telling the girls that came near them, that they would have to "take off your clothes and get naked if you want to play with us." WTH?? So, after I laughed and shook my head, I had to decide how to handle THIS incident. This is the stuff they DO NOT teach you about how to handle in college. There are no courses on how to deal with behavior issues of this sort. Similar to the story I had last year about the boy who confessed the graphic sex dream to me...there just isn't a course on how to deal with this. So, you basically seek the advice of others and trust your gut, A LOT. Both of the boys who said this are really amazing kids. They are good both academically and behaviorally, with one of them really never having gotten in trouble at ALL this year. I was quite surprised to see it was these two boys. So, rather than make a massive deal out of it, I spoke to them both individually and asked them about the comment. We discussed how comments like that make girls feel and whether or not they knew what something like that really meant? I decided, after speaking with them, that rather than punish them severely in the classroom, that I would leave their punishment up to their parents. I am glad that I did. I spoke to the one parent immediately after school and the father was very surprised, but admitted there were some older kids in his neighborhood that he had overheard saying things like that, so he wasn't altogether surprised that his son picked up on this. Although the kid is a really good kid, his parents are very strict and he was grounded for the entire weekend. =) The other little boy I spoke with as well and he was given similar consequences.

All I can say is that I love teaching and while there are no textbooks on how to handle situations like this, it is very fun (and interesting) to see how far I've come as a teacher...from a 1st year rookie absolutely clueless on what to expect, to a 3rd year veteran who is still amazed at student behavior, but has a better idea of how to handle it. =)

Ahhhh Princess....

So, I realized that since I do a lot of posting on Facebook, I haven't been updating my blog as much with all the funny stuff that has happened lately. So here's a quick update....most of these stories have to do about one especially interesting/funny little girl in my class who I've nicknamed "Princess", because she is alllll about being a princess!

"Ms. Eklund...there's a baby in my belly!" - We were talking about our family members the other day and students had to draw a picture of everyone in their family, then label each person. Princess says, "This is Mom and Dad and me and Mr. Michael." (Who is Mr. Michael? I ask.) "He's my brother, but also my husband...we're married and we're having a baby. There's a baby in my belly." (she points at her stomach, so I clarify more..."So, he's your brother AND your husband??") "Yes, and we're having a baby...it's in my belly (she's rubbing her belly now and then turns to the whole class and yells...) YOU HAVE TO BE QUIET OR YOU'LL WAKE UP THE BABY IN MY BELLY!!"

At this point, the class is gone and teaching has come to a screeching halt...they are laughing SO hard and pretty much thinking she's a total looney toon. Princess is walking around "shushing" everyone (with her belly distended, rubbing it) telling them that if they don't stop talking, they'll wake up her baby. "Wait...everyone...you're WAKING up MY BABY!! I can feel it moving!! Ms. Eklund, tell them to be quiet, I can feel it waking up!"

I called her Mom after school that day just to make sure that Mr. Michael wasn't a sick/twisted uncle/male family member or something. Turns out Mr. Michael IS her little brother and that sometimes they play "house" and act like they're married.

Oh boy...what a little character she is!!

Princess news and other updates...

Princess had her "ponies" taken away this past weekend due to her refusal to work last Friday. My immediate reaction was (mouth agape), "Oh NO, not the ponies!!!" (ok, I'm kidding, but I was THINKING it. But, to her parent's credit, it seemed to work...she had a pretty decent week. Today she was singing during morning work and her tablemate looked at her and just rolled his eyes, which in turn made me laugh out loud. When I was asked why I was laughing, I simply responded it was because I love them all soooooo much. ;-) lol

The rest of the week was full of tests and observations. Just today, I administered 5 tests. Unbelievable. I'm afraid the only thing these students will remember is the constant testing.

As for me...totally exhausted tonight. My classroom is FULL of drama with over half my class being girls. I'm pretty sure now that when I get pregnant, I'm going to want a boy. =) So many feelings get hurt each day...poor things. "She looked at me funny. She doesn't want to play with me. She won't stop looking at me. She said she doesn't want to be my friend. She bumped into me...She was touching her eraser....Where is her pencil? She...she...she.." Ahhhhh!!!! Was I ever this sensitive of a little girl? I was too much of a tomboy, I think.

But, here's my favorite quote of the week. We had just started eating our snack, which today was strawberries and blueberries. "Mrs. Eklund...this strawberry is sooooo good; it's like a PARTY in my mouth!"

The Princess...

I have the epitome of a princess in my class...she is sweet, adorable and very, very "princessy". She has a high, sweet voice, is dainty and well coordinated and even pretty smart. However, she is also incredibly obstinate and contrary when she decides to be. Today, rather than a princess, I got whatever the OPPOSITE of princess is...a pouty, sour-puss whose favorite word was "NO." She got in trouble for bothering other people at about 9:55am this morning and then decided she would do NOTHING for the rest of the day, except throw tiny hissy fits. When she did bother to respond to me, I either got the death glower or an emphatic "NO". "Z (we'll call her) - I need you to make a better choice." "No." was her reply. "Z, you need to quit bothering your friends, you aren't allowing them to get any work done." (insert top of the eyes death glower here). I was even told, "I hate you."

What a day...So little miss snotty pants spent a good chunk of the day both at her desk with her head down (to which she proceeded to then climb under her desk and bang pencils against it) and with her nose in the corner. At one point, as I passed out math tests, she threw hers back at me and said "NO!". So - once again off to the time out corner she went. Where, miraculously, she informs me, as "Fun Friday" is about to start, she's "ready to start paying attention and listening." To which I replied, "NO!" (JUST KIDDING!!!) My actual reply was something along the lines of "thanks, but no thanks...I appreciate your willingness to make good choices now, however you have not shown me through your actions that you deserve Fun Friday, but you can sit down and complete your math test." Her reply? Anyone? Anyone?? "NO!" and a nasty glower to boot.

Needless to say, we had a parent conference when Mom picked her up. Mom said she would take away her dolls for the weekend. My, how parenting times have changed. I would have had my butt TANNED had I said "NO" to my teacher and thrown hissy fits. Let's see if the dolls thing works come Tuesday =).

All this from the little girl who earlier in the week said, when tasting sugar snap peas, "they're a little bit kinda good..."

Desk licker...

Remember crayon eater from last week? Yea - well today she crawled under her desk and began licking the bottom of it. Hmmm...I wonder if she has an iron deficiency? Is there some compound in both crayons and desks that she might be lacking? I am thinking this will be a very interesting year. Oh, and in case you're wondering, YES, I took away her desk!!

Seriously...

a desk licker.

great.