Ha! The mentor is getting observed!

Last night I talked to Nathan over the phone, and related to him all my stress about having to be observed. For some reason, it doesn't bother me to have people watch me teach... unless they are there to critique my teaching, and they sit in the back with a clipboard. Then, it's awful. That's what happened on Monday. My mentor brought some lady from the district to observe all of us new teachers--- and it was awful.
Well, this morning I was getting ready for school to start and making copies and whatnot, when Susan, the secretary, comes in to tell me that there is a young man that has come to visit me! That's right, after class, he came over to the school to see me. Not only that, but he had brought a gift, which he called, the "Observation Bear." It was a large, soft teddy bear, carrying two rulers that read, "Observation Bear" in sparkly glittery letters. He told me that he'd put him up somewhere in my classroom, and then next time I got observed, the bear would observe them and that he would only have nice things to say about me, unless they said mean things about me, and then he would say mean things about them!
It was really cute, and the cutest part had much less to do with the fact that he came over this morning. The cutest part, I think, was realizing that he was listening to what I was saying last night. And cared enough to come up with a "solution," and that at eleven o'clock last night, he was at Wal-Mart buying a teddy bear and making rulers with glittery letters on it for some girl to overcome her irrational fears. And just thinking of him being so excited to surprise me this morning....now that's the cutest part.

I told the children that the bear had come to observe them-- and to see all of the nice things that they do for each other in our classroom. We had a lesson on Thanksgiving today and on gratitude. So, we passed the bear around and told him what we were thankful for. I told the bear about how thankful I was for my kindergartners. They really liked that. I think the bear gives them kind of a secure feeling.... maybe it's just me.

Baking cookies

I have a problem. There are two kindergarten lovebirds in my class, and nothing I do seems to be deterring them. It's a problem of young love. Really, really, really young love.
While watching these children though, and in my conversations with other five year olds, I am learning a lot about life. For example: If you like somebody, or if someone else likes somebody, don't be afraid to talk about it.

I have included a number of quotes below t0 illustrate exactly what I mean by that:

"You're my girlfriend. That means you kiss me on the lips."
(This is a comment made about 2.2 seconds before your teacher separates you from that girlfriend.... for life.)
-Byron, 5

"But, Miss Parrish, I like girls." (Byron's defense after being separated from his girlfriend for life)

"He held my hand. He's my boyfriend."
-Calley, 5

"I like him. I'm going to sit by him!" (To which your teacher responds, "Oh, no you're not!)
-Calley, 5

"Do you love her? Are you going to marry her? Have you kissed her? "
-Erin, 10

"Nathan's got a giiiiiiiirl friend!!"
-Lana, 5

"Oh! Gross! He kissed her!" (Another child in the class, speaking of Byron kissing Calley)

With that said, I guess it's time I said something about myself.

I'm baking cookies. I really am. And it's about time.

KYHFOOTY!

At our elementary school, there is a rule called KYHFOOTY. This is an acronym for "Keep Your Hands, Feet and Other Objects to Yourself." It's an important rule, and a lot of things can fit under this rule, including: hitting, kicking, pushing, punching, poking, putting others in head locks, wrestling, etc. We had a lot of KYHFOOTY problems in my class yesterday, with children pestering one another constantly.... remember my police threat? It's okay though, because kindergartners do not hold grudges. Which leads me to today's problem.

Kissing.

That's right, we're just sitting there in the middle of our reading lesson, practicing our letter D sounds, when one little girl leaned over and kissed another little boy smack on the lips. Unfortunately, rather than having the shocked expression I expected, he kissed her back! So, these two were happy as clams, and I not only had to separate them, but then we had to discuss some serious facts of life:

It kind of went like this, "Boys and girls, we need to follow kyhfooty in school. We are not allowed to kiss our friends!"
Children, "Gross!"
Me: "I know, gross, huh?"
Children: "My mom and dad kiss."
Me: "Yes, but they are moms and dads. We do NOT kiss friends at school."
Children: "Augh! Gross!"
Me: "Exactly."

I'm hoping that I put enough emphasis on this subject that it will remain in their psyche for years to come. KYHFLOOTY!

I had to.

This morning I had a lot to do before school started. That means more work than I really had time for. But don't worry, my kindergartners started a fight on the playground before school, so instead of doing that work, I was having to be down at the office, dealing with unruly children.

So, here's the basic interview process when talking to kindergartners about fighting...

"So, would you like to tell me what happened?"
Child A: "I fighted him and he fought back!"

That's right. That was this child's argument for why he should not be responsible for what happened. Then, I turned to the other child.

"So, would you like to tell me what happened?"
Child B: "He hit me, and so I had to hit him back!"

Hitting him back including repeatedly slamming his backpack over the other child's head. Had to. There weren't other options. HAD TO.

Later that day we were still having troubles with several of the other children keeping their hands to themselves. So, we talked about what those behaviors would lead to, including being sent to the principal's office. And do you know what the response was?
"I like Mr. Adams!"

Kindergartners! So, I had to finish that threat with, "You'll go to the principal's office... and then he'll call the police!"

That finally got their attention. Maybe a little extreme... but when you spend all day everyday with five year olds, your thought process gets a little out of whack. :) I had to say it. I HAD TO.

Birthday and Puzzles

Well, happy birthday to Nathan! This past Tuesday was Nathan's birthday. That's pretty exciting, since it was Veteran's Day too, so he got a parade on his birthday! I also made him dinner that night... and I'll have to say it turned out pretty well. Here is his birthday cake. Mostly, I didn't have any cake decorating tools, so I squeezed the frosting out of the corner of a plastic bag-- how's that for clever?
Nathan also reintroduced me to the world of puzzles that evening. I don't really do a lot of puzzles. Only because I'm no good at them and they take me forever. (Let's be honest... I get frustrated when the kindergartners dump out their "hard" puzzles... not just because I have to put them back together, but also because it takes so long for me to figure them out!) I really liked this method though. I just sit there and attempt to put pieces together. Every now and then I get really lucky (by pushing the pieces together really hard), and then I still get to see the puzzle make progress as Nathan puts the rest of it together for me. What a good team!

Language Translation

I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to write today, but the Boy was telling me that I needed to report something. I had a really fun weekend, where I went ice skating and watched a movie with Nathan, and then Sunday evening we had dinner and went to Julie's house to watch the movie, "Emma".

Things must be going really well between us. I base that comment off of Nathan's facebook, where he wrote in Portuguese, "Nathan is very happy because this 'courtship' is going well!" Maybe he doesn't know that I took 3 years of Spanish, and could figure out most of what it said on my own. But even if that were not the case, I guess he forgot that it takes about 3.2 seconds to google that phrase to get a translation into English. Either that, or he wanted me to read it, but didn't want to make it so obvious. Either way, it made me laugh. :)

The First Snow of the Year

So, today was most definitely the first snow of the year! Last night it snowed a little tiny bit. And then today, we woke up to a blizzard. This meant a forty minute drive to school when it's usually under 15. It also meant that I was having to zip up a whole lot of coats. I think we are definitely going to need to work on the coat zipping skills of my students. The more that can zip their own coats, the happier we will be!
Today was also Vianne's very first snow. I think they don't have much snow in Burundi, and I think it was awfully overwhelming. He went running outside to recess with all of the other kids, got out onto the playground where it was snowing like crazy, and then began to bawl. This child is silent most of the time, but when he cries, he howls. So, I helped zip up his coat, and cover his hands with his sleeves, and then had him stand next to me, and rubbed his back to help keep him warm, and he calmed down. I think he just didn't know what to think. And if you have never seen anything like this, and no one around you can explain it to you since you don't speak English, what are you supposed to think? He is one adorable little boy though. He has long black curly eyelashes, and all of the snowflakes get caught in them.

I also had children that did not know how to get dressed for the weather. As school ended, one little boy, Beau went running outside wearing nothing but his t-shirt. When I asked him where his sweater, coat, hat, and gloves were (his mother had been so kind to send him prepared for the weather), he told me that they were all inside his backpack! I told him to come back and inside to put them on, to which he replied, "But Miss Parrish, I'm cold!"
We're going to get this figured out. I'm sure of it.