princess (Photo credit: hudsonthego)
One of my students enlisted me one recess to be her “scribe.” “Sit down, and write what I say.” I pretended to pull out a scroll, as the girl gazed off in the distance, pondering the correct wording for the message to her mother. Obviously having been enlightened, she turned to me, pointed a finger at the pretend scroll, motioning for me to write, and said, “Dear Mother,” she began, Read the rest of this entry
“Let’s all draw some things that remind us of home,” one student proposed one day. “I’m going to draw a pink flamingo.”
Teaching a lesson, prior to being hired for the kindergarten position, I was passing out chalk to the students for a lesson activity, and after setting it on the desk of one of the boys, he looked up at me and said emphatically, “I love you.”
Goldfish (Photo credit: mattwitmer)
To motivate my kindergarteners toward finishing a task, I showed them the “flavor blasted” goldfish snacks I brought for them as a prize. Clearly misinterpreting the contents of the special treat, one student raised his hand and asked, Read the rest of this entry
Talking to one of the 3rd graders one day, I asked him how his year was going. He said to me, “Oh, it’s going okay. I’ll be really glad when we’re done with fractions, though.” I nodded understandingly, “Tough, huh?” Without missing a beat he said, “Well, not exactly, but they make my parents fight.”
During our morning saint of the day lessons, my class would often try to think up reasons to raise their hands for questions completely unrelated, as it was the beginning of the day and there was always news to share from the previous day. In an attempt to keep us on task one day, I asked one of my girls who had her hand raised if her question was about our saint of the day. She assures me that it is. “Alright, what is you question then?” She obviously had not quite thought through how she was going to approach this Read the rest of this entry
I was pulling wet wipes out of the container and the wipes had kinda balled up at the bottom. One of my boys seeing me struggling, says, “Kinda hard, Miss C, huh? Just about as hard as pulling a thorn out of a dinosaur.” Read the rest of this entry
During a sharing of the story of George Washington and the apple tree, I paused and asked my students, when we came to the word ‘hatchet’: “Does anyone know what a hatchet is?” One of my girls, ever eager to share, raised her hand, Read the rest of this entry
As part of the application process to enter our son into kindergarten at a highly recommended Catholic school two towns over, our family was to meet the headmaster priest for an interview. We came during a busy time of the school year, apparently, because the parking lot was completely full. My husband decided to drop our 5-year-old son and me off near the door while he found a parking spot across the street. We were running a bit late, so my son and I at least getting to the priest on time seemed like a good idea.
We had already been talking with the priest for a few minutes when my husband arrived. I thought things had been going well for us, and that my son was a shoe in for kindergarten entrance. We were a family who had it all together, after all. Until I noticed that my husband was empty handed. Read the rest of this entry
I was guest teaching a phonics lesson in my child’s kindergarten class when, as luck would have it, that day’s topic was the “uck” family. The objective was for the students to come up with and write down words Read the rest of this entry
More stories from Cecilia:
1. While passing a bird’s nest around for my students to touch and explore, one of my students raises her hand: “Shouldn’t we all wash our hands after we touch this?” I assured her that was the plan, and one student raises her hand, “How come we need to wash our hands after touching birds’ nests? Are there little toilets in birds’ nests?” Another student shakes his head and rolls his eyes, “No way. Birds poop on cars!” Read the rest of this entry
Motherhood and Martial Arts 