back to bean town

Winter break is officially over. No more sleeping until nine or staying up past ten. No more driving a car or running errands on my own time. My life has gone back to 5am wake ups, 10pm bed times and scheduling my life around when the T comes.

As much as I loved being home, I was also so excited to see all of my students again. The little ones would greet me with huge grins and open arms, but I hoped the older ones would be as excited to see me.  Even if they didn't show it, I think they were.   I just hope that they missed me at least HALF as much as I missed them.

Yesterday was a good first day back.  Everyone seemed really well behaved overall (still in the post-break comatose that seems to happen the first few days back after a long break).  It was kind of frustrating to see that a lot of the progress we had made with some of the students, especially in math, had regressed a lot when they weren't in school, but I think we'll be able to catch up pretty quickly with a few refresher lessons. Let's hope so.

One of my students in first grade is somewhat of a concern though. He is not at a first grade reading level and math is like a foreign language for him. I asked him one time what something like 4+6 was and his response was "water."  He's being tested for all sorts of things right now, so hopefully that will help the academic issues, but there are bigger issues. You may remember TD as the one who falls asleep because he is always falling asleep in school.  He has also missed 18 out of the 80 days of school. If you counted the amount of time that he was asleep and the amount of days he's missed, I would say he's probably missed close to a month of school.  CY always says that one sign of a student who will drop out of school is chronic absenteeism.  This poor kid is in first grade and has no control over when he goes to bed or whether or not he comes to school.  When we asked him why he wasn't in school the other day, he said "we were just tired and my mom didn't feel like taking us."  WHAT?!?!?!?!?! It's sad to see him falling behind because of things out of his control.  I don't think he would be at the top of the class, but he would definitely be at grade level. I know that this is out of my control, but I just want to shake his parents and be like "GET YOUR KID TO SCHOOL AND PUT HIM TO BED!"

A funny/cute story about TD, though, to lighten the mood.  Yesterday, he was coming back to his desk and someone had taken his chair.  He went to go sit down, but since there wasn't a chair, he fell straight to the floor.  He just sat there until I looked at him and was like "Do you need a chair?" and handed him one.  When he took the chair, he started talking to it saying "Bad chair!" It was so weird, but kind of cute. Basically, the kid is on another planet most of the time, but it just makes him cute in his own weird way.

Today was not quite as peaceful.  The post-break comatose has worn off and the first graders were so crazy, my patience was gone. On Thursdays, we have a long morning because our special (Art) is in the afternoon instead of the morning unlike every other day. By the time we get to recess at noon, we're all going a little crazy. We've been in the classroom for four hours with no breaks.  We're dying, Ms. Moulton and myself included. I was not in the mood to deal with middle schoolers who did not want to do their work, which is exactly what I walked into at Course Coaching.  Needless to say, it was not the best day at school and I'm glad we're at HQ on Fridays to end the week.

Oh, before I leave, I got my gift from Ms. Moulton and the first grade class. It was three gift cards and some chocolate!! I got a $15 gift card to Starbucks (which I'll be using tomorrow for my pre PT hot chocolate), a $25 gift card to Whole Foods and a $25 gift card to this restaurant/bar in JP, plus some chocolates!!!! I knew she was collecting money, but she must have put in a lot of money herself, too, which is so nice.  We've gotten in such a routine and I knew I'm doing what she's asked, most of the time, but I think we've both gotten in such a routine that the feedback I got in the beginning of the year has stopped. The gift cards were a nice sign of appreciation that we've both kind of let go by the wayside.

Anyways, here's to a great Friday!

PS- I can hear Chelsea snoring in her room.....

"It is the duty of the privileged to give to those who aren't."
                   - Sam Freud (Senior Corps Member 2012)