crazy week

All week I kept saying I was going to post something, but I just never got around to it. It's been one of those weeks. Monday was our field trip to the farm to pick peanuts and popcorn. The weather was beautiful - sunny and crisp, not a hint of cloud or rain. The kids had a blast. Right before we left, one of my girls handed me the following note (original spelling included):

Miss M,
I want to tell you about C she is having asthma for the pass few days. and she is getting her treatments but she can't take her machine to the trip so she also take her medinice by mouth and its two teaspoon twice a day. so before the trip I want her to have it incase of anything with C please let me no and also make sure she don't run to much because her asthma will act up.
Mrs. N.

I'm not judging. I'm just pointing out that this is part of what makes our job so difficult. You would think that a note about your child's medicine would come in an envelope or at least in a folder. Not folded up in your child's pocket. Plus, if she writes and spells like that, then how is she going to help her daughter with homework? We just spent three weeks learning that each sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with an ending mark.

On Tuesday we had an assembly. Usually I dread assemblies. It's free time for us, sure... but it just means that I have to find time during the day to cram in what I would have normally taught during the assembly time. And it usually means a classroom of rowdy kids afterwards. There's just something about assemblies that make kids wild. But this one was really good. It was a string quintet (violin, viola, cello, string bass and harp). They not only played their instruments, but they explained them without talking down to the kids (or worse, using a lot of technical jargon). The kids were mesmerized. One of my ADHD boys sat, pretzel-style, with his chin in his hands, watching intently for the entire hour. So of course I had to make a teachable moment out of it - when we got back to the classroom we wrote about our favorite string instrument in our journals while listening to some Mozart. Later we wrote a thank you note to the performers.

Thursday we had Popcorn Day, which was a follow-up to the field trip. We made air-popped popcorn in class, and then had a taste-test. We compared three types of popcorn: microwave, store bought and air popped. Store bought won. (It always does.)

Last night we had our first of three Family Masses. It was a pretty decent turnout. I had 6 of my 19 kids there. I know that doesn't sound like much, but at one Mass last year, not one of my 24 students came. So seeing 6 kids with their families made me very happy.

I have a short work-week ahead of me. Two and a half days of school, followed by a lot of turkey, family events, socializing and rest. I can't wait!