30th Post!

Let me just take a moment to congratulate myself on actually keeping up with this blog thing! I must admit, when I started it I wasn't sure how long it would last. I had the best intentions, but sometimes I run out of time for things like this what with all my other projects. (Such as the second Kailey book - which is now DONE!) And I also must thank my loyal readers who keep reading no matter how boring or trivial my posts get, and for always commenting! I love reading the comments and it's nice to see who's actually reading this thing!

Anyways, on to today. I turned down a job this morning for a first grade bilingual class. I subbed in this teacher's class last year and I remembered how some of his plans were in Spanish, and that I was expected to teach reading and science in Spanish. I muddled through solely because I do know some Spanish, but I just did not want to deal with that stress/annoyance today. So I turned it down, and for a while I was thinking I might end up with no job, but then I got a call for an afternoon in a third grade in Keizer (all in English as well!)

It was a fairly easy day. I taught a reading group of 10 students (all the third grade ability grouped so lots of my class left and a few additional ones came in), then supervised a science activity with the original class and then they went home. There was this one kid in the reading group that was exhasting! He was a good kid, he always followed directions and he did his work but he could just NOT sit still!! I was constantly telling him to sit down, put the toy away, follow along, etc. He always did it, but just lost his focus about 1 minute later. So I couldn't really be mad at him - he was trying - it was just tiring. It's what I imagine my friend Donna would have been like as a child.

For the science project, the kids had to pick an item in the room and describe it (color, smell, weight, size, shape, etc.) and then write a riddle so others could try to figure out what item they chose. They all got pretty into it, and lots of them shared their riddles - and I couldn't figure out any of them! One in particular was interesting - I don't believe he completely listened to the instructions. His riddle went something like this: "It's kinda smelly, it's green, and it's all over the room." Figured out your answer yet? A fart. Yeah. Third grade people. That's what goes through their heads. I said, "It's green?!". He laughed and said yes. Then I made some lame statement about how they were supposed to choose an object in the room not a bodily function and moved on really quickly. Still shaking my head over that one.