Days 50-55

Day 50- Wednesday, November 3rd- Hmm. Nothing too memorable a week later. We are half way to 100 days, which is a big deal these days. Another milestone is that we have actually kept up with counting the days. Only once I have tracked down another teacher to check our number. These kids still like calendar and get their feathers a little ruffled if we don’t do it.

Day 51- Thursday, November 4th- There has been some breakthrough with one of my students and Number Masters. This student wrote 1-4 without any help! That sounds silly, but it is a big improvement over where we started.
Long day is over. I think I put in 12 hours since we had conferences from 4-7. They all went smoothly and I had several parents remind me that they would love to send extra supplies, etc. if needed, which is something I never heard in second grade.

Day 52- Friday, November 5th- Next week is “Freedom Week.” We, kindergarten teachers, brainstormed and came up with an idea to make a giant flag and let the kids put red handprints as stripes. Being a little anal, I took over making the actual flag on paper. I wanted it to be accurate. 13 stripes, starting and ending with red, totaling 7, 6 white stripes, all the lines close to being the same size, etc. I must say it looks pretty good. Picture to come….maybe, if I remember to take one.

Day 53- Monday, November 8th- While working, a student comes up to me tattling that a girl at his table took his marker. I promptly told him to “go talk to her about it. I didn’t take your marker.” I listen in to see how he will approach this. In case you are wondering, “Jesus said it isn’t nice to take other people’s stuff.”

Day 54- Tuesday, November 9th- I was shocked this morning when a new little friend showed up at my door. Well, he wasn’t actually new. He was in my class for about 7 days before he was going to be moved to the new kindergarten class. Then, he never showed up to that class because he moved back to his prior town. So, he is back. He is interesting. He can be playing and then all of a sudden come up to me and say, “The pee pee is coming so fast. I can feel it.” Of course I say, “Then go to the bathroom and don’t wait so long next time.”

Conferences are over!!! For this semester, at least. I have a few that didn’t show up and of course they are the ones that I need to talk to about working with the child at home on letters and numbers. Go figure. In the 4 full years I have been teaching (this is my 5th year), I had the most awkward conference last night. Grandma was taking notes! Now I know how the doctors felt when I was relentlessly taking notes with my FIL this summer but it was for his health and livelihood, not to be odd.

Day 55- Wednesday, November 10th- Today, I was able to see a good reason I would want to stay in kindergarten next year. That reason would be the actions of a first grader. Oh. My. Goodness. BUT, then I think about some of the pre-k kids I see trolling around the school. The thought of both of those scenarios makes me want to have as many kids (I’m thinking Gosselin or Duggar size) between now and then so it would make sense for me to stay home. I tried rationalizing with an aide in our school about having lots of dogs, which would be an easier goal to obtain, but I don’t think that would fly.

Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day. Red, White, and Blue day at school, which means blue JEANS! You got it. I can do that. Our faithful leader wanted to just do red, white and blue day on Friday, which is normally our school spirit day that we can wear jeans, since we will be having rise and shine and have invited veterans to it. I chimed in that it made more sense to do it on Veterans Day and did not mention that I would be wearing jeans. ;)

In all honesty, I think it takes a special person to volunteer to put their life on the line for strangers. Strangers that may not appreciate it, will gripe and complain about what they are doing instead of be thankful. Strangers that will protest them but not have enough balls to do it. There are also the strangers that do appreciate it and feel very blessed to have such brave men and women that will take care of business because I am too chicken to do. I pray for the families of soldiers to have strength while their loved ones are away. I pray for safety and a speedy return for those that may be away from families. May God be with them all while they are protecting everyone’s freedom.