Highlights

I feel so blessed this year.  Even with the last two weeks probably being the most stressful and busy feeling weeks of the year so far (seriously, something just kicks in during the month of October... it's apparently a weird but fairly universal happening in the realm of teaching), I still am loving how this school year is going.

My class for the most part is really just a bunch of sweet, funny, and helpful kiddos.  I mean, they're not perfect... we have some "whoa" moments -but they have been few and far between... and even the worst of those yet this year, is not even a fraction of things from last school year.  They love earning tickets... I pull those out, and almost everyone is as close to perfect as they can get.  They're like tiny (dirty lol) magic cards.  I haven't even needed to bust out my "Super Tickets" yet, while last year, even a super ticket would only half do the trick.

Here are a few new things that I am really enjoying this year:

• VIP Folders -thanks to my suitemate for the idea! -I 'steal' a lot from her : )  They seriously have kept me up-to-date with grading each week and getting work corrected and returned.  SO much better than the system I used last year.  

• Friday Journals -this was suggested by our 2nd grade team leader and I'm really enjoying doing them!  Each Friday during our writing time the kids write a letter in a "Friday Journal" to their mom/dad/someone telling all about what we've done and learned this week.  Then over the weekend the parents write a short reply.  The kids really enjoy writing these letters each week.  It's awesome to hear what they remember and to see some things they write about.

• Calendar Time and Number Talks -while this might be boring to others, I absolutely am in love with this short time of the day.  We started both of these on day 1 this year and it is firmly built into our daily routine.  After lunch and recess we come in, sit on the carpet, go over our calendar for the day and then do a number talk.  I guess I don't know if I'm technically doing the number talks 'correctly' or not... but the kids get into it, and it really seems to be extremely beneficial so far.  It is probably one of the most quiet and focused times that I can even ask questions in a whisper and the kids answer with one.

• My team! : )  They are awesome. 

And now some random highlights of kid moments that I just feel like sharing:

• We recently did a short play over Christopher Columbus... and by 'play' I mean two groups took turns standing at the front of the room and reading the script to the rest of the class, definitely not a big ordeal.  But still, the kids had SO much fun and I had fun watching them.  They practiced reading their lines together, helped each other with their lines, and were so excited to 'perform' for the rest of us!  During one of our performances, I had two boys reveal their natural instincts to act.  Well, one more than the other, but they were hilarious to watch!  It was awesome.  Student X would say his lines with dramatic pauses, while everyone else was standing still and shy at the front, he was strutting across the room and would occasionally throw up some hand and arm gestures that matched his voice fluctuations.  Student Y, who had already said his one line, was behind him, and was also moving in smaller ways and attempting to "get into" the play lol.  Seriously... I don't think I can describe what it was like, but I was at the back of the room trying not to just crack up! At one point I literally held up the script I had in front of my face.  There were still other kids though that could see me and some comments I got were "Mrs. Henderson, your face is all red!" Along with, "Why are your eyes so watery?"  I love moments that are so funny I have to try and hold back my own laughter!

• Today I had a girl come up to me and give me a little coupon looking thing that said "You Did an AWESOME Job!"  She said, "Mrs. Henderson, this is for you.  I already have enough compliments for myself, so I thought you should have this one."  It was really sweet.  I hung it on my wall with other pictures and things from kids.

• I have just a few small pictures of me and Cody at my desk area, and once a student came up to me while I was putting our attendance and lunch count in the computer, and he started to ask a question, then stopped mid sentence, reached out and patted my arm and said (in an extremely giddy voice which added to the moment) "Mrs. Henderson, you look beautiful in this picture!"  He seriously melted me in that moment lol.  He was SO genuine and just smiled, and was pointing like he wanted me to see how beautiful I looked in the tiny picture on my filing cabinet. 

• One afternoon when we were going to the library for our turn to check out books, I had a boy holding the door for all of us.  It was his job, he was our door holder for the week, so he was doing his job nicely.  Usually though after the last student I take the door and have the door holder walk in before me to wherever we are going.  But this time, I went to take the door and told him thank you and he could go on in, he didn't move and he said, "No Mrs. Henderson, ladies first.  I'll go after you."  

• At the beginning of the year when I was telling my class all about me, I showed some pictures of Cody and me and said I was married and all of that jazz.  A few weeks after that, I mentioned again at some point that I was married, and half of my class had reactions and comments like they were shocked beyond belief (obviously the info I shared about myself wasn't interesting enough to remember lol) and I had one girl say in a seriously confused voice "When did you have time to get married?  How did that happen?"  The way she asked and her puzzled face was really cute.

• On a similar note to the above, and again with the pictures by my desk, I had a boy again come up to me and stopped to look at the pictures.  He pointed to one of me and Cody and asked "Who is that man with you?"  I replied he was my husband, and then the boy points at a wedding picture and exclaims "Ohh, so you were with the man and got married!"

• And last but not least, farts.  Yup -farts.  They CRACK me up!  Especially when we're on the carpet for a lesson, so we're all fairly close together and it's quiet, and well -there's no denying what we all just heard.  Half of my students are good about acting like it's no big deal and some of them even say things like "We all do it", but the other half are sitting there making ridiculous faces and trying to figure out who it was.  And oh my goodness, I always do my best to just help everyone keep moving on and doing what we're doing... but sometimes I just want to crack up because 1) it was SO loud or 2) just who the kid was that did it or 3) the face of the kid who did it is always priceless with a deer caught in the headlights look and 4) the reactions from other students are always entertaining.

Alright.  Sorry for probably the world's longest post about school... I guess that's it for now.  Yay for the weekend : )