Day Two

My students have the strangest nicknames.  Like not even logical names for people.  Boss.  Future.  Nut.  Mod X.  I’m not making this up.

They freaking LOVE to color.  and draw.  and play hot potato to “Hello Goodbye” by The Beatles.

They start out brilliant.  As the day goes on, they (and I) start to become a little unraveled.  The chattering gets louder, walking around the classroom turns into running, “if you can hear me clap once” fails to garner much attention.

Staring at them silently until they’re so weirded out about why I’m staring at them, though, works like a charm.

Today I took away two comic books, some colored pencils, and a slinky.  I think as the weeks go on, a major standoff will occur over using cell phones in class (and they’re NINE!).  Going to have to do something awesome like threaten to call their parents from their phone during class.

Taking away books from kids makes me feel like crap.  I want them to LOVE to read.  The fact that they were reading comic books made me feel a little more justified, but not that much so.

When they’re not being tiny perpetual motion machines, they’re really quite sweet.  When they like something, they really get into it.  They’re a lot smarter than I think the curriculum gives them credit for. Some of them have insane crazy good handwriting.  Most are very creative and meticulous.  Although some are little perfectionists and I literally have to pry colored pencils out of their tiny hands as I’m taking away their work at the end of class.

They separate into boys and girls like oil on water.  If you try to mix them up they 1) look horrified, 2) realize you’re serious and have an intense fit of the giggles, and 3) grip their best friends’ hands for dear life and refuse to move away from them.

The government-mandated haircuts (high and tights for the boys, braided pigtails for the girls until middle school when they can *gasp* put it in a ponytail), combined with the uniforms, make it excruciatingly difficult to tell the students apart. Their first assignment was to make name tags for their desks, so hopefully I’ll be able to differentiate them soon.