Dreaming of Wishing Wells

I'm really tired, but I didn't write on Sunday like I normally do, so I thought I'd write quick tonight. I enjoy teaching my class new words, especially to catch their attention during a chaotic moment. Today when a few kids were still packing up to go home and the rest of the us were on the carpet, one of the boys at his cubby dropped his lunchbox and said, "Oh! It fell!" Then one of the boys on the carpet for some reason thought the other kid was talking to him and jumped up and yelled, "DON'T CALL ME A FAILURE!" So I taught the class the word paranoid. But this one kid is really, really paranoid. I try to find a balance between being sensitive about it and telling him it's actually crazy that he'd think some of the things he does. In addition to a paranoid child, I have a child with really, really low self-esteem who continues to be a challenge to me. At the beginning of the year he did have some behavior problems. But he doesn't real...

First off, I have embarked on the new frontier of kindergarten. This is not what I intended to write about, but it's a big deal to me, so I want to mention it. I am getting rid of nap time. And I'm calling it the new frontier of kindergarten. That gives me an extra hour plus of instruction time a day. And it means I won't have to be as stressed out trying to squeeze everything in the morning and always having to cut something out. It also means I'm kind of crazy. Now I won't get to eat my lunch while the kids sleep. I won't get to correct their papers and get their homework ready. And I won't get a few necessary moments of peace and quiet. But I really feel like it's the right thing to do. I've only done it one day so far, but it was really good that day (one rambunctious child was absent which may have helped). I think some people at the school really think I'm crazy, but I'm excited. It's motivating me to come up with more interesting l...

I think one of the kids in my class is Max from Where the Wild Things Are . His name even starts with M. And he's just like him. He's kind of wild and plays rough, he has a great imagination, and sometimes he gets really mad and mean. I had this realization when I was talking to him at the end of the day on Tuesday. He'd been pretty grumpy during the afternoon and bugged me all through naptime. So I'd said something to him like, "Where's the friendly and kind Maurion I love?" and he said completely matter-of-factly, "I ate him." Before that, he said to a girl that he thought was staring at him (when he was mad she'd gotten books to look at during rest and he hadn't), "Whatcha lookin' at? Do you want your face to get stuck in a block of ice?" I think he might have meant that her face might get stuck like that. But it was funny. Then he said, "Do you want your face to get stuck in a cake?" And when I walked him over ...