Tuesday, May 6, 2008

never stop teaching...

or, am i evil?

we had an earthquake today, even though we live in a state that rarely ever gets earthquakes. when it happened none of us knew what it was (earthquake crossed my mind, but 'that's crazy!!' i thought, it must be something else, like someone falling down the stairs, or the laminator machine falling off its table)

i was in my room working one on one with a kid. we were finally making progress after a SLOW 30 minutes of mumbling and there was no way on earth i was going to let some strange noise from outside stop our progress. sure the noise sounded ominous, but if there was a problem i'm sure someone would come tell me, right? one of my office-mates poked her head in the door, but pulled it out because she said i looked calm and focused. sure, i was calm and focused, she was suppose to let me know if i had to stop teaching.

however, this determination was the theme of the day. at 10 i had a writing conference with a kiddo that was going really, really well. despite the fact that every time he dropped his pencil he fell out of his chair trying to get it, which would somehow cause his shoes to come off. trying to put his shoes on caused him to fall backwards out of the chair the other way, and sometimes even fall onto me. i was absolutely, positively, not going to let falling out of his chair get in the way of a writing conference. under the table? we can still plan our story. sitting on top of me putting your shoes on? we'll count the words on the page we're planning on writing.

at 10:30 i was in another classroom having another writing conference with another kindergartner. this kiddo had no interest in working with me whatsoever and was trying every strategy in the book to get out of working with me. he tried the tug-of-war over crayons, the putting his head on the table, the ignoring me and pretending i was not there. finally, after we'd moved to our own private area in the room where we could really focus on our writing, he started to cry. the crocodile tears welled in his eyes. being evil, i said nothing, but grabbed the tissue box and the trash can and placed them beside him (so we didn't waste any of our precious writing time!) i explained. i never mentioned the crying, but kept stretching out the words "with him". finally, in one last attempt to get me to stop, he took a deep breath in and blew snot all over his face and mine. i grabbed a tissue, again ignoring the incident. he did it again. another tissue. he stared at me in disbelief as i exchanged his tissue for his pencil and said, "great! now, what do you hear in spongebob... /s/, /s/, /s/" giving up he picked up his pencil and got to work. i sound evil, but when we were finished and i sent him off to play on the computer he turned back to look at me and said, "hey mrs lipstick, aren't you going to play on the computer with me?"

so yes, despite our mysterious 1.8 earthquake, a bad case of kindergarten balance, and an incredibly snotty nose, teaching prevailed today.

i am teaching superman/wicked witch of the west.

No comments: