Yes, I actually survived the first day of school! YEAH! I ended up with 24 bodies in class~12 girls and 12 boys. And, they are ADORABLE! I have at least 2 boys I want to put in my pocket and bring home! They are just so darn cute! And, one of them is nearly toothless! 8 year olds are losing their "baby" teeth and he has the darn cutest, lopsided grin! And, yes, it was 117 degrees today. By lunch time, we were all starving and the kidlets had to go outside for recess! UGH! Can you believe it? My school doesn't even have misters and there are only 2 water fountains out on the playground for 200 kids at a time!!!!!!!! I whispered to them, after lunch recess, when they returned to the room all red-faced and tired, "You can bring a water bottle (frozen) tomorrow and put it under your desk!" They BEGGED me to let them in after lunch recess and just put their heads down! (since WHEN do you know 8 year olds to beg to just do nothing?) They were hot, tired, and out of energy and I had to teach math...sigh...I did my best and found out that only 3 of them can do regrouping with subtraction. Did you know that 100 - 1 = 101??? ...sigh...I've got my work cut out this year, I tell 'ya! And, 37-9=32? (...hitting head on wall...) They LEARNED how to do this last year, so it is just a matter of getting the base 10 blocks out and showing them that if you have 7 ones, you cannot take 9 away...you have to REGROUP! Oh, and before lunch, they were all STARVING! We have the last lunch of the day (WHY, WHY, WHY do 8 year olds have to have the last lunch?????), so I told them, "You know, you COULD bring a little snack tomorrow when we have our morning bathroom break..."...hint, hint. I had a lot of parents show up and one mom brought me ....SIT DOWN...2 boxes of kleenex and 4 EXPO markers! I nearly cried! And, some of the kids had...PENCILS and pencil boxes! I was amazed. That's never happened before, and certainly not at my school, which is in one of the poorest areas of California! They didn't need my pre-sharpened pencils and the little dolls actually returned them! Gasp! Gasp! Oh, and Mikey...our kindergarten classes have 34 and 35 kids and NO AIDES! Those teachers literally had to stand at the door and prevent kids from running out of the classroom, take attendance, figure out who was a pickup and who was a bus rider AND try to teach!!!! Oye vei!!! Photo of the Mogollon Rim with a gathering thunderstorm...my "quiet place" that I go to when my kids don't understand regrouping!
3 comments:
That's a TON of kids in kindergarten with no aide!! That's gotta be total chaos.
That's weird your parents don't bring supplies normally. Almost all of ours do, we get a list that we fill before first day of school. 2 reams of copy paper, package of multicolor construction paper, 2 boxes of kleenex, 3 glue sticks, pencils and boxes, watercolor sets... it's a big list!! You are also encouraged to double it for students who might need them, so I try to do that. Last year I sent two bags of stuff in on the first day.
Hope it cools down soon, this is ridiculous!
Just remember, I teach in an area where most of the parents are farm workers. They don't have much disposable income, if any. Last year was bad. They couldn't even afford pencils...That's why I was so surprised this year!
It sounds like it will be a promising school year. At least a nice tone was set.
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