The Littlest Moments are the Most Special - 05/07/19

I have been told "I love you mommy" by more than one student in the past week, and I'm a little conflicted as to how I feel about that. It is endearing to a certain extent, but is also wildly inaccurate (as far as my knowledge goes), and I don't know really how I'm supposed to respond to them. It somehow feels like there's a special connection when kids say it to me, not necessarily a mother-child connection because I'm not actually their mother, but it feels like a special little moment.

I woke up at 9 to do some final prep work for Mandarin and gymnastics, and then I was over to Mr. Hubbard's where they were finishing up snack and going over more review of the practice math test they did yesterday. When I first walked into the classroom, I was dragged over to a little tank where the third graders had caught a big bug that had been named Larry. The kids were amazed by the creature and spent huge chunks of time just staring at it even though it wasn't moving. Little things can be so special. I had another proud parent moment when the girl I was working with yesterday raised her hand to answer a question that no one else in the class could answer because they had never learned it before. The proud smile on her face when the class was amazed at her problem-solving made me so proud of her. Once she finished explaining, she immediately turned around to look at me and I gave her a massive (but discreet) high five. The littlest moments are the most special. 

After morning message in first grade, the board was erased and the student in charge of erasing left the eraser way high up on the board, and a little girl yelled "hey! The tiny people can't reach that!" Soon all the other "tiny people" chimed in to back up their tiny spokesperson. It was very sweet and very funny. The first graders recently took part in some sort of space simulation (courtesy of the middle schoolers I think??) and so today they listened to a story about space called "The Darkest Dark" and then they wrote their own versions of "The Darkest Dark." From meeting astronauts to doing back flips on the moon, the creativity levels were once again out of this world (pun intended). Every kid is so different and it's so much fun hearing what they have to say. Mr Wiley asked me to do a short presentation about Hong Kong for the kids, which I am excited to do hopefully in the next few days. 

In Mrs. Peters' class, we worked more on Jack and the Beanstalk stories. I was mostly working with the same student I've been working with, who has actually made a lot of progress in his work. I was really proud of the effort he put in. He was very excited to write his story, and I think sometimes his mind got ahead of how fast he could type it out, which was where he got a little mixed up. When doing story writing, both the first and third graders often ask me "what do I write?" seeming like they want me to tell them their story for them. Instead, I ask them questions that gradually get more specific, and and by the end they realize that they were able to write the story by themselves the whole time. They always have it in them, they just need a nudge in the right direction. There was a little incident with a note being passed around the class, which I found funny at first, but later realized I probably should have acted as more of an adult and put an end to it. I still have a lot to learn!

Gymnastics today went very well. I had 4 kindergarteners and 3 first graders, which I was a little nervous about going into it, but they were absolutely fantastic. They were energetic and engaged, and they put their energy into doing great gymnastics. I realized that I always worry about them being bored with some activities, but as long as they're moving and being challenged, they never get bored really. We did a stretching exercise called "night time, day time" which was just lying flat on bellies and then pushing into a front support (watch the video!) repeatedly, but they added "sunset time" and "snake time" to make it more interesting, and they could've kept going for hours. In an effort to improve from yesterday, I tried something new today which was sitting them all down and having them all tell me one thing they would do to stay safe while in gymnastics class. I also had them come up with a buzzword, and when they heard me yell the buzzword, they had to freeze and be silent. Letting them come up with their own buzzword worked really well. Their favorite activity was when I had them pretend to be baskets and I lifted them up by the hands and feet. The excitement in their squeals as they were lifted high into the air was great to hear. Two did their forward rolls for the very first time, and many were starting to work on handstands and cartwheels. I also got to join in as an honorary team member in a forward roll relay race, but we unfortunately did not win that round. 

Lindsey very kindly gave me a ride back to the dining hall for Mandarin. One of my third graders switched out of the Tuesday group and is switching to the Friday group because of other commitments she has. We were sad to have her leave the class, but I'm happy to still have her for Friday. We went on a field trip to the outside of the dining hall to collect rocks for rock painting. It was definitely a messier class, but it was a lot of fun. I also found myself babysitting my flour son, Sebastian, from anatomy a few weeks ago. He was adopted by one of my students and seems to be in very good shape, though it doesn't look like he's grown very much. She's very good to him, but she told me she needs some "me time", so I agreed to babysit him for the night. These kiddos crack me up. 

Time: 8:52

Hours: 9

Total Hours: 62