Skinna Marink....

Wow!! I could just cheer spontaneously - but it would scare my kitten & I have no voice so I won't.

My buddy T who lives at Boys Village and has been a huge behavior/academic and social issue since day 1 - you know, the one we are hoping to outplace to a school for boys who throw chairs and scissors? Not only has medication changed his reaction to not wanting to do things, but he hasn't left for behavior issues in 3 weeks. I can't say he is making great academic progress - because he works in about 30 minute intervals for gum or computer time (even those intervals are becoming less frequent). But I can say I am head over heels and will cry when he gets outplaced. This little angry boy with a seriously depressing background (substance and physical abuse - 1 of 6 - awful awful awful) has the hugest most adorable smile and when he says across the room "Mith Toweee I need you" or "Mith Towwe here!" I light up - he comes in and hangs his backpack independently, he can move his name to check in and grab a breakfast and NEWSFLASH - this week he started doing the "do now" activities - tracing letters etc. He sits through Morning Meeting and even allows us to greet him each morning  - which is HUGE HUGE HUGE compared to the boy who came in threw his backpack and proceeded to destroy my room. He gets a lot of special treatment - trips to the treasure box, personal play time while friends do work - but he is maintaining appropriate behavior and TODAY - he earned a "Good Job" award at our whole school meeting - and though he said the whole way to the meeting that he didn't want an award - when they called his name he LIT up and ran up there and came back grinning like a Chesire Cat. WHAT a face he has.

I know I'm rambling but if you could see him .... go back and read the posts from the days he flipped chairs and tables - stood on an easel and said "I'm gonna jump" or climbed on counters, refusing to get down - now see the little boy who hugs me on the way out the door and LOVES to be told he had a super day.

Waiting to go to Community Meeting today, I was teaching the kids SkinnaMarinky Dinky Dink SkinnaMarinky Doo - I love you....you know the song I'm sure. Well as I'm doing 1 line - repeat after me - etc - My buddy T jumps in with the whole song - slightly garbled since his language abilities are low, but the WHOLE song and it was an "aawww moment" I just had to watch and smile like an idiot while he behaved like a CHILD who sings and plays and loves to hear his own voice - I couldn't even teach the kids any more of the song, I was all mush inside. : )

Doesn't mean today was perfect - never is. My voice is gone, my head pounding, my body sore - and though it was a half day, it never feels like it. But T is making my day everyday - who woulda thought?!

A week of no posts

I suppose a week of no posts is good - it means I left school earlier than I have since School started - it means I had a little bit of a life last week, and it means it was *relatively* uneventful. Now I'm about to pass out - sinus infection and long day complete with district & foreign visitors who inspected every inch of my room and all of my children as I gave the DRA to a child who was on another planet.....I was about ready to walk out of school in a break down when the British woman asked for my "plaaanns" - lady I've got a zombie in front of me who I'm asking to read - even though she doesn't know the letter A from the number 1 and the scores are due in the system by Friday. Meanwhile the other 21 children are having a hay day around my room - throwing center activities, screaming, rolling on the carpet, and tracing letters in shaving cream (to which the British lady asked what they were doing in the white mess...).....Ok so my plans? To SURVIVE the testing window and to MAKE it through the end of the day without coughing out my esophagus and oh by the way to show LOVE to 22 monkeys who forgot how to go to school as we celebrated the man who abused natives. Yup. Happy Tuesday - oh and here are my plans.....

18 Days

Friday we sang "The More We Get Together" - starting in a squatting position and standing or squatting everytime we said the word "together.' The kids loved it and my knees are killing me because we did it A LOT! I also taught them "Shake my Sillies Out" and then because it was day 3 of indoor recess we skipped laps around the classroom to the Cotton Eyed Joe, did the Cha Cha Slide, and the Hokey Pokey - all in a row! They were whiney and fidgety yesterday. Cute but wiggly.


During breakfast I moved my little friend M's seat - he is a chatty little guy with pudgy cheeks and expressive eyes, and incredible dance moves. He is friends with everyone and no matter where he sits, he never gets his work done. Moved him and promptly heard "Miss Stowe stinks" about 3 times loud enough that he was intentional about it. So we had the "don't be mad at me for your bad choice" conversation...funny how much a 4 year old can understand. We have spent every day reviewing what it "looks like" and "sounds like" to be a learner....they're getting good at it! Not sure it's sinking in but they can talk a good talk.

I really need to write down quotes better - been some good ones lately.

Read the very hungry caterpillar yesterday : ) love it.

My para read the kissing hand a couple days ago - love that one too!

Lost my biggest behavior issue to a magnet .... don't expect he'll stay there long.

T - my buddy from Boy's Village fell in love with the 1968 fisher price parking garage Matt got for my class - very cute. He had a  good day yesterday but Thursday was so bad. Yesterday he worked for silly bands in my treasure box - and gum which he promptly swallowed - 2x. And Go Diego Go.

New favorite show? Olivia - my kids worked to watch it during dismissal - SO cute. It's the pig from the book - check out http://myolivia.com/ : ).

More later .... favorite day of the week to clean my apartment - which I LOVE to do! Love my kitten, love my space, love weekends in my space and then I'm going to the Big E - perfect fall weekend. But they are WAY to short.

It was a long day.

I was mean - I barked. The kids were AWFUL. One of the worst won't be coming back .. moving schools. Should be happy. But I'm torn.
My special friend T - had a not good day today after 3 good days (miracles all of them) and I know he's leaving but I'm attached. It was a good start to the week, feeling like I could love my job and all my kids and then there was today.

13 Days of School

Well it's 6:15pm on a Friday - when I left school at 5:40, my principal and at least 10 teachers were still in the buildings...pretty impressive. I on the other hand could not stand the damp, sticky, sweaty smell and feel of my classroom for another minute. Don't get me wrong, I am loving every busy, exhausting repetitive second but at some point I have to tell myself to let go. No amount of extensive over planning will guarantee that they can sit crisscross, no massive activities will hold them for 8 hours without restless wiggling, excessive giggles, sporadic spasms (literally....fists pumping wildly for 30secs in the middle of learning time), or refusals to listen. It happens. They are 4 - all but 3 of them belong in PreK and they are tired, like me, but instead of slouching or sighing they freak out and express their exhaustion by tearing about the room with wild animal like howls. Yes.

One slept for 1.5 hours on her knees in her chair, when I gently shook her awake, she wandered about the classroom like a zombie. 2 others refused to hear anything I had to say - went to another room, 1 came back ready 1 not so much. My little Turkish speaking friend was mean, wild, loud, and knew "be quiet" as it came from my mouth a couple hundred times, specifically addressed at her with drastic hand motions and acting. My friend who speaks Spanish rapidly punched and kicked people, as I yelled in his direction "NECESITAS SER UN BUEN AMIGO O NO PUEDES VENIR A ESCUELA" really now? Because really most of them are not good friends but how else do I explain that making guns out of unifix cubes or punching friends in line is unacceptable?

And Tantrums? where in my education courses did we learn effective strategies for children who squeal like stuck pigs while shaking or kicking their chair, wildly flailing, kicking shoes, screaming louder and longer when you threaten that they can tantrum at recess.

My goal of calling every parent with something positive has not happened - so this weekend I endeavor to write a note for every child with a positive statement....even if it is that they are eager to share ideas - READ: never shuts up.

I love them, I love their voices when they say Miss Stowe look! Miss Stowe I missed you! Miss Stowe when do you go home? But if someone gets out of their seat or repeatedly says my name - making it louder and more syllables every time, only because they are tattling on the kid across from them who is using a blue crayon instead of green, I might throw the crayon .... at a kid? Probably not. But I would throw it.

And the beads - oh my goodness the beads. I am going to ask moms to use felt or foam beads from now on. Ridiculous.

My one precious delight looks at me through her beads as she sits cowboy style in her chair and scoots across the room. "No, I don't want to miss recess." "OK then follow my directions." "No." "Well then you are choosing to miss recess because you have 2 choices here - follow directions or stay inside to practice following directions during recess." shakes head. Oh my gosh. 10 times during rest time I said her name - asking her to close her mouth and put her head down. 10 seconds after I said her name, she looked directly at me and began to talk to the person across the room from her.....the WHOLE class was resting...but not this friend. She loves to look defiantly at you through her silly pink beads and do what you least want her to do. Her mom and I will be having a chat this weekend because I am at a loss.

One 4 year old hacks like an old woman - obediently uses her elbow but gross! One pees her pants several times a day and doesn't want to change because she is afraid her mom will be upset. One can never remember where her seat is. One speaks strange mumbled words while I am talking. Another hums incessantly. Two are missing their front teeth - pulled out - adorable. One insists on leaning on me at all times.


22 of them consume 110% of my energy, time, love, and patience on a daily basis.