Hugs, Hugs, and More Hugs - 05/01/2019

The kids at Andover Elementary LOVE hugs. They love cuddles and holding hands and sitting on your lap, and playing with your hair. Their superpower is that they know how to make you feel wanted and appreciated. The challenge is figuring out how you're going to reciprocate that attention to 24 individuals that are pulling you this way and that - how you're going to pick who to sit with when a whole class of students is fighting for one of the two seats next to you, or how you're going to pick which table to sit at when 7 tables of kids are all saving you a seat. I'm still trying to figure it out.

I went in at 9:30 this morning to Mr. Hubbard's third grade class with a special delivery. Last night, I spent about 20 minutes building a flour baby that is now known as "Charlotte". Her new mother told me at the end of the day, with great pride in her voice, that she had only dropped Charlotte once during the day. Charlotte is in good hands. Third graders were working on a perimeter problem during math today. I love the teamwork and collaboration that is used in this classroom. It's so awesome to see how much the kids work together to solve problems that they initially don't know how to do. Also, it is unbelievably hard to not just blurt out the answer that they're trying to figure out. My self control is being very much tested.

11:30 was back over to first grade, per usual. We started with morning message, which is when students take turns each day to lead the class in reading a greeting, and then one student goes up to do the date and place value. We were working on math skills again, trying to figure out how in this great big crazy world that 1/2 can be BIGGER than 1/4?? Is 2 not LESS THAN 4?? It doesn't make any sense at all, not even a little bit. I felt a little awkward in first grade on the first day, but I feel so much more comfortable and excited to be there with each day. The boys fight over who gets to sit next to me, and one little dude that was sitting in front of me said to another little dude that was sitting next to me, "you get to sit next to her and you're not even going to cuddle her??" and they ask me every day "is gymnastics starting this afternoon?" Priceless.

Honestly, I was a little tired by the time I got to Mrs. Peters' third grade class. Working with kids all day is so much fun, but it takes everything in you to keep a huge smile on your face all the time (the smile is 100% genuine because I love what I'm doing, but even things we love can take a toll on our energy). We were working on social studies and the government for a little bit, and then working more on writing to pen pals in China and reading stories. Little kid books are SO MUCH FUN.


After school, I was helping with the art show until about 4:30. I love walking around the school and passing all the little kids who yell "HI LAUREN!!" from their single-file lines. The art show is tomorrow, so today I was helping a lot with sticking art up around the school, cleaning up the art room, and hanging up decorations that the students made. Tomorrow's going to be a long day (10 hours!!) with AEMS gymnastics starting tomorrow, a separate gymnastics lesson right after,  and then straight back to AEMS with the art show. I can hardly wait.

Time: 5:44pm
Hours: 7
Total Hours: 23