Dreaming of Wishing Wells

Another week of school has come and gone, full of strange happenings. For one: one boy in my class often throws up after lunch. I'm not sure if he just eats too fast or what, but it happens about once or twice a week. On Tuesday (I think. The days all kind of blur together in my brain.) my class was especially hyper in the cafeteria, and I moved boy-who-throws-up to a table by himself so he could calm down a little. Well, while he was there, he threw up. Luckily, no one was sitting around him. So I went into the kitchen to get things to clean it up. While I was in there, another boy laughed at him for throwing up. Now, this boy laughs at everything, but unfortunately, boy-who-throws-up is also extremely extremely sensitive and gets angry at the drop of a hat. (Did I mention I hate cleaning up vomit???) So I come out of the kitchen with my bleach and my paper towels, and kid-who-throws-up has kid-who-laughs in a headlock and is punching him in the stomach. I hustle over to them to ...

I have been feeling guilty about not writing in my blog as much as I'd like, so I'm actually choosing to write now instead of watching an episode of Millionaire Matchmaker that I just discovered on Hulu. Although I might watch it when I'm done. My attitude about school has been less-than-positive lately. It's been hard coming back from Christmas break. My class was not well-rested. Some of them were ready to be back, but some were not. The past three weeks have been kind of unpleasant. But I think maybe it is getting better. I remember last year, March was really the only month of school I felt really good about. February was OK, and then March was good. So I'm hoping something similar will happen. They are slowly picking up on their reading and able to sit longer, and if I can just be rid of the explosive behavior once and for all, we should be in business. Here's to hoping. I went home for the weekend (we had Monday off cause of MLK day) and got to watch the f...

I almost started this blog entry the exact same way as my last entry, until I realized that they'd be identical. I guess I'm still neglecting my blog. And I'm still really tired and a little bit lazy. And I still like to say "Yikes!" Christmas has come and gone. Now it's 2010. Crazy, right? The weeks leading up to Christmas were hectic but pretty fun. Something about celebrating Christmas with children makes it more special I think. They so clearly express the joy and wonder that Christmas is all about. This year I also reflected upon how working with little kids makes me appreciate more how Jesus came to earth as a fully human baby. What a unique, special, and humble thing that God chose to come to earth as a little kid. My class was sooooo cute at the Christmas program. They sang "Go Tell It on the Mountain" and two other songs. It was fun to see them dressed up and out of their school uniforms. On the other hand, it was disappointing that the tu...

Yikes...I've been neglecting this lately, mostly out of laziness/tiredness. I am getting over a bad cold that I got as soon as I went home for Thanksgiving break. I feel mostly better, but still extra tired. I think most of my class has colds as well. A lot of them have been snoring loudly and grossly at nap time. But they never stay home sick! I'm thankful for their good attendance, but really, keep your germs away from me. Last week I had a humbling experience. The toilet in my class bathroom overflowed. Yuck. One boy in my class always uses a ton of toilet paper, and I've told him to stop and he'd say OK, but I could tell he didn't really care and was still going to use a lot of toilet paper as soon as he went in and shut the door. Well, it finally wouldn't flush and overflowed and made a huge mess. And I yelled at the kid (kind of. I don't really yell) and made him cry. And the good thing that came out of this situation....he never uses too much toilet p...

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 ...