Today was better.  The weather was perfect — cool in the morning, sunny and not too hot later — and I had a prep period while the children were at gym, so that helped a lot.  I only have preps Monday and Wednesday this quarter, so last week with no school on Labor Day I only had one prep in four days.  That was tough. This morning I came in ...

I did wake up with another migraine, but it went away and hasn’t come back.  My morning crier came back, and true to his word, wasn’t scared, and didn’t cry at all.  He even rode the bus to school with no troubles.  My end-of-the-morning crier, on the other hand, started crying as soon as his sister left him in our room, and he cried on and off ...

It’s funny teaching with other adults in the room; they are watching you!  This rarely bothers me, but today I feel like my new assistant teacher and my new Americorps volunteer got to see me starting to lose my cool.  Which is embarrassing. It was a good day, actually; it just got tough right at the end. I opened the door right on time, feeling ...

I’m not really into cute.  My blog isn’t filled with cute ideas.  I’m more interested in children’s literature, curriculum that actually has content, and making the most of the time I have with the children than I am in cute stuff.  And I didn’t go into teaching early childhood because “the kids are so cute,” even though they are, most of the ...

Yesterday during morning meeting I commented on how well the kids have done with learning the alphabet.  “That was your job this year, and you did it!” Then a very serious boy raised his hand and said, “did we do all that stuff up there?” “What stuff, honey?” He pointed to the list above our bulletin board.  “That stuff.” I turned, and looked, ...

Dear parents, Thank you for sending me such a sweet bunch of kids.  They are very smiley and seem to like coming to school.  They giggle when we read silly stories, and they already have favorite books (“The Pigeon!”  “The Chicken!”).  They love recess and Gym class, and they are learning our school routines, day by day. I do have a homework ...

The afternoon teacher only had 8 kids yesterday, on the first day, in part because her busing was all screwed up.  That was hard, because it was too few kids. I had 16 yesterday, and 19 today, and it was kind of too much.  One of the three new ones has special needs, and spent most of the morning crying, screaming, hitting teachers, or collapsed ...

They do seem so young to me, but perhaps that’s just in comparison to last year’s group, whom I remember as they were in June.  But still….only two of the kids just turned four, but several others also seem like they were three not very long ago.  I’ve got one boy who has already turned five, and he is so different from everyone else — mature, ...

Me, to class in their ABC line:  In one week we will start taking turns being the line leader and the caboose. Boy 1:  Can I be the platypus? ***************** Me, to sad boy at dismissal:  What’s wrong, honey? Boy 2:  I got in trouble when I wouldn’t come get in line. Me:  That’s right.  I blew my whistle and said “get in line” but you kept ...

It was our first morning meeting, and the children were flagging, a little.  It’s hard to be four and sit on your bottom AND fold your legs AND put your hands in your lap AND remember not to interrupt the teacher, but to raise your hand first.  I was trying to get them through our new daily routine of calendar and counting the days and ...