They Call Me the Princess of Gymnastics - 05/08/19

I have 15 minutes of free time between when the third graders go out to recess and when the first graders come back from lunch. During this time, I was just wandering the hallway looking at the artwork that the first graders and kindergarteners did. While I was doing this, the kindergarteners started filing down the stairs back to their classroom from lunch, and waved at me one by one as they walked by. As the teacher noticed all the little ones waving to me, she came up to me and said "my kindergarteners think you're like...the princess of gymnastics. They adore you." While I was supervising mother's day gift making, a first grader said "I wish it was Monday." Never in my life have I ever heard those words spoken by anyone, let alone a student. When I asked her why, she said "it's because I have gymnastics on Monday!" Precious little nuggets.

Third grade continued to go over the practice test that they did two days ago. They will be doing testing several days of next week, so the purpose of the practice test is to prepare for that. One thing that I love about this class is that Mr. Hubbard always gives everyone a chance to speak by pairing them up with the person next to them and having them explain answers to each other. I think this is a really good method because they all get a chance to both try and explain, as well as peer teach. Both of the teachers in the room were constantly stressing the fact students should read the questions and all the answer options carefully because many of them knew the correct answers and knew how to find the answer, but wrote the wrong thing because they didn't read what the question was asking for. This definitely is just as true in high school as it is in elementary school. Some skills take longer to mater than others, and it's often the skills that seem so straightforward and simple that take the most time to master.

In first grade, I was mostly working with 2-3 kids at a time to finish flower crafts that they are making for mother's day. They took an empty toilet roll and were crumpling little pieces of paper that they then glued on. While I was out there, we got to chatting and ended up talking about Chicken Little, and how he was a tiny hero. One little dude told me he wants to be a superhero in outer space when he's older, and another little girl said she wanted to be a superhero too, but that she was too tiny. Tiny people can be superheroes too, just like Chicken little was! She told me that she wants to be an architect when she's older, and I reminded her that architects are superheroes too. They build big, strong buildings that children can go to school in. It keeps them safe and it gives them an awesome space to learn and grow. Architects absolutely ARE superheroes! Everyone is a superhero in their own way, even if it's just one person's superhero. Ms Lane also came back again today to talk about conflict resolution. What she was teaching seemed like such a simple concept, but I realize how hard it is, but how important it is to say "I feel sad/mad when you ___, please ___." She taught them that instead of constantly saying "stop this" or "stop that" that they should say "please (what you would like them to do instead)." Important stuff these first graders are learning!

Third grade was working more on their Jack and the Beanstalk Stories. I was working with a different young man today on his story. He is one of two students that usually leaves in the afternoons for about half an hour to work with another teacher somewhere else. He asked me to help him write his story and so I prompted him with questions and he ended up being able to write a full page! He almost finished his story. I was very proud of him, he was totally awesome. He worked hard and made all the spelling corrections I gave him.


At the end of the day, I was teaching gymnastics to 2 third graders, 1 second grader, and two kindergarteners. I was missing one second grader because she wasn't in school today. The session went pretty well. We got to do a lot of gymnastics, and again, the kids were all engaged and excited to be there. The older kids also were, again, a huge help with the younger ones, which I appreciated. The level of this group was actually pretty well matched, and was quite a bit higher than I was expected. I got to work on more adapting and improvising to make sure it matched the levels and interests of the students. There was one sweet kindergartener who kept forgetting to keep her arms straight in her handstands, and eventually got it at the end (watch the video!). Another special moment.

After gymnastics, I walked one of my students back over to Proctor and I got to play with her new PUPPY!! He's the cutest little thing, I was so close to stealing him. We walked him together, got to see the end of the Boys and Girls Club play, and had a lot of fun chatting and looking through old yearbooks. It was a really fun and special time (and not just because of the puppy). Another great day for the books.

Time: 7:06
Hours: 9
Total Hours: 71