Agism

I was just commenting on my sister's blog about age and it reminded me of a funny moment from a couple of weeks ago.

Tiffany, one of my grade two students, came to me and told me it was her dad's birthday that day.

"Oh!" said I, "And do you know how old he's turning?" (I only asked because I thought she wouldn't know but would make up an age).

"51," Tiffany quickly replied.

I turned to my EA to find out if it was accurate. It was.

My dad's 52*. My dad and my student's dad are almost the same age. I'm almost 20 years older than Tiffany, but our dad could be friends.






*Sorry for revealing that to the world, dad. It was necessary for the story.

It was meant to be...

I was feeling a little stuffed up yesterday, so I bought some apple juice. I just opened it up and was about to drink it when I noticed the best before date.

That's my birthday!

Well, she told me!

Krista is super smart. She's in grade one and could read what most adults could read. She has a huge vocabulary and uses words like startled and holler.

She speaks her mind and always wants to add to what has been said. I think she's awesome.

Today in phys. ed, I was introducing a new game that we were going to play using the parachute. She interrupted me and said that this game was almost like another one we have played before. I said well, except this one doesn't have lifeguards going around the outside.

Without missing a beat, she answered back, "Yes, that's why I said almost like."

S-M-R-T

So last night I was driving back from my parents' house to Glaslyn. When I got to Unity, I was supposed to go East to Wilkie. I thought I was going to Wilkie, but after about a half hour I was wondering where the heck it was. Then I saw the sign for Macklin. I sure had not gone through Macklin on my way to my parents. I was 60 Km in the wrong direction. And it was already late.

Back to Unity. An hour later.

Oh well, at least I can say I've been to Macklin now!

The problem is, I made a point of looking at the sign as I was leaving Unity...and I was sure it said Wilkie. Macklin and Wilkie sort of look alike, don't they?

Great. I'm teaching a bunch of kids how to read and I can't even read myself!

8 legged freaks

So, all my life I have been afraid of spiders. Big ones, little ones, all of them. The only time I'm not is when I'm in the garden and wearing gardening gloves (which isn't very often).

I don't like killing them. Not because I care whether they live or not (in fact, I would rather them dead...a dead spider means one less spider to shack up with another and make more spider babies), but because I don't want to do the killing. I don't want to get that close to them. I don't want to feel the squish. I'm afraid I might miss and they will attack me.

So, I've avoided doing it myself as much as possible. My dad has been my spider killer most of my life. When I lived at home, I once put a cup on top of a spider for 3 hours till my dad got home and could take care of that disgusting little creature.

I've been mocked by many for letting my dad (or whoever else was around) do the killing. I've been told that I would have to start taking care of them myself someday.

Well, now I have twenty-six 6-8 year olds to do it for me. Seriously, I told one of my students (after finding out that she likes spiders) that she would have to take care of them for me and somehow, it's caught on. The other day I was in the middle of reading them a story and one of my grade one boys said, "Miss Smith, don't look down. Just back up. I'll take care of it." And he did.

Much more calmly than I would have.

A round of applause...

My mom thinks this is funny so I thought I would share it.

My students clap for me. It started on the first day of school when I was showing them a colour changing experiment. They clapped each time I did something and it has sort of just stuck.

I don't ask them to do it...they just do.

The latest round of applause was yesterday. I told them I had put together a bunch of Autumn themed sheets (thanks mom!) into an "extra work" booklet for when they get done their work.

They clapped. For extra work.

They're a funny bunch.

Melting my heart...

We do journal writing almost every day. I give my students a sentence prompt and they finish the sentence and write about it. Some of the prompts in the past couple weeks have been things like If I had a million dollars..., My best birthday ever..., and If I had three wishes.....

Today's prompt was I feel happy when. Most of them thought of things right away and got straight to work but I noticed my little Marlee* (the one who was so concerned) hadn't written anything down yet. She said she didn't know what to write, so I asked her, "Well, what makes you happy?"

With her big brown eyes, she looked up at me and said, "You."

I know I'm not supposed to have favourites, but...



*If I mention a student's name on here, it has been changed.