I'm Exhausted

We all leave our classrooms with the tapes running, wondering who or what we forgot. Our shoulder bags are heavy with the past and future- papers to correct, plans to make for the next day, supplies to scrounge. Our heads are stuffed with children, crammed full of problems to resolve and next steps to identify. Our bodies are pumped with success of the day or pressed down with the failure of a single moment.
~Ruth Sidney Charney

Young love...

One of my darling young girls told one of my boys...... "My mom said I have to be your girlfriend."

Priceless! If only it worked like that in real life!!

A Letter From Santa to Teachers Everywhere

Dear Teachers,

I have been meaning to write this letter for a long time! It is a letter that I feel is long overdue and with the elves getting all ready for my long ride, I finally found the time! I have been watching teachers for many years and I am amazed at the work they do. I have come to a conclusion that the teaching profession, like my own, must be filled with bits of  magic! Please let me provide ten statements of evidence for my belief.

1.  I travel the world one night of the year visiting all the boys and girls of the world. The teaching profession works with every boy and girl all year long. This equates to each teacher fulfilling educational needs for 30 – 200 children each and every school day. Seems like magic to me!

2. I deliver presents to all the boys and girls. From my Toy Repair Shop statistics I find many of these gifts are broken or no longer garner a child’s interest within months!  Yet teachers find inner gifts in every child. Teachers nurture these inner gifts  until they develop into true presents that will last a lifetime.  These kinds of gifts sure seem like magic to me!

3. I keep my naughty and nice list for every child. Some people believe this job is pretty amazing! Yet when I look at the teaching profession, teachers provide a constant evaluation of all their students! Their list covers all the aspects of developing and learning which they report to children’s parents and to the children themselves! This evaluation is based on a wide variety of observations, data, and student performance.  Teachers will then use this list to help improve each and every student! Wow, keeping track of every student’s ability and prescribing ways to be successful must really be magic!

4. I leave presents to students who are on the nice list and who believe in me. Teachers work with all children because they believe in every student. Teachers continue to do so, even when students stop believing in the educational system’s ability to help them achieve.  That type of persistence has got to be magic!

5. I have operated my workshop using the same technology for hundreds of years and it has worked for me. Then again, I work with children when they are asleep, delivering presents in my own way. Teachers work with children when they are awake and they have spent time learning how to engage children using googles, blogs, phlogs, glogs, prezis, and all these other words I really don’t know! Being able to teach, transform, and accommodate for this new digital generation must really be magic!

6. I have made it a practice to leave coal behind for children who do not make my good list! It seems every year the same children always get the coal. Teachers refuse to leave coal, in fact, they are working hard at leaving no child behind. To work towards a goal of leaving no child behind is a true act of magic!

7. I read the news and I am always so thankful to read all the nice articles about my work. It really does provide me with motivation to keep up my vocation. I read news articles about the education profession and it seems that most articles are unsupportive. Yet, teachers keep working hard at providing success for their students! These teachers must be operating on a little bit of magic!

8. I have thousands of elves, of course the reindeer, and the  community of the entire North Pole to assist me. Teachers work every day, many times by themselves, as they provide new opportunities for their students! Carrying that load alone must be much heavier than my bag of toys. It must really be magic!

9. I receive many a thank you and millions of pictures of happy faces as children open their presents each year. Teachers don’t always get the thank yous, or may never see the present get eventually opened. When they do, appreciation may come from decades later!  A thank you that appears after many years must be the result of pure magic!

10. I discovered a light in Rudolph brightens up a dark, foggy, or snowy night so that I can deliver joy to all the children across the world. Teachers provide the light that brightens our world in both the darkest night and brightest day! It is the light of learning and knowledge!  The ability to keep that light burning  bright  must take a quite a bit of magic!

You see, I have found that magic does not come easily! It is made possible only by those who work hard and keep believing, and seek what they know is possible! As you can see, there must be a great deal of magic in the education profession! Please continue to keep this magic alive and know that you are all on my good list! After all, I had to learn all that I do from somewhere! So from across the years I know I have many teachers to thank!   Last, to all teachers across the world… I really do believe in you!

Thanks for all the magic,

Santa

http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/2011/12/10/a-special-letter-from-santa-ten-reasons-why-teachers-must-be-magic/

Funny story..... I had the girls line up first to wash their hands then the boys. One little boy asked why the girls were first and I said because it's polite. Another one of my sweet boys said, "no, it's because girls are a little bit weaker."

Mean Dad

During lunch today one of my little girls said, "My mom doesn't have any money. My dad does, but he won't share it. What a mean dad."

Failing Kindergarten!?

This year I was promoted from teaching Kindergarten to 1st Grade. A handful of my students from last year are in my class currently. Well, during the first few days of school, I saw students from my class last year go past my room to their new rooms. Most of them excited to see me but a few with puzzled looks when they saw their friends in my room.

The other day one of those puzzled student's mom came up to me and said she had a funny story for me. "Z" came home and told her that a lot of kindergarteners failed and had to do it over again because they were in my room! She didn't know that I was teaching 1st grade this year!

My poor substitute...

What I missed at work today:

- microwave popcorn fire down the hall
- entire school evacuated
- half hour of clapping patterns in the gym while school is aired out
- bloody nose and the nurse is not there
- crying student
- student refusing to work
- boy kissing girl on lips