Thanks for the Alcohol, Mr Gardner! and Teeth Marks Fade (old livejournal posts. Remember those days?)

Thanks for the Alcohol, Mr. Gardner!

One of my students certainly picks up new vocabulary with enthusiasm.  Before lunch, I always line my kids up at the door and give them a squirt of sanitizer.  One of my students was upset that it burned a small cut on his hand.  I told him that it's the alcohol in the sanitizer, and that it's good for the cut.  It helps clean it, which is why it burns.  Not thinking anything of it, we continued with our day.

The next day, I followed the same procedure.  Line them up at the door.  Recite our "Line Time" poem, and gave out the sanitizer.  We then just starting walking out the door, when my vocabulary astute student yells out at the top of his lungs, "Thanks for the alcohol, Mr. Gardner!"

I'm pretty sure my face took up gymnastics.  “Sanitizer!  Let’s call it Sanitizer!”

Ugh:

That was a stressful.

I felt like taking a hot frying pan to the face.  It's so frustrating trying to do writing with them at this stage.  I have two people come in to help, and it's still hair-pulling.  They just can't do it.  Yet.  But, I don't know why in God's name they should be expected to. We're still teaching them their letters!

"Here's the letter 'A'.  That's right.  'A'.  Now give me a five to seven word sentence about what your favorite animal is and why.

As you master the Venn diagram.  And cutting and pasting."

They have their writing test on Thursday.

And all of the rushing around trying to figure in Holiday activities and projects is also driving me crazy. This morning it felt like Wednesday. This evening it feels like Thursday.  It's still only Tuesday.

Still wouldn't trade it in, though. 

Highlights:

- Suddenly realizing I have a sticker on my hand from a student, with no memory of them putting it there.

- A student telling me he's changed his name to Kris. When I ask him what's wrong with his old name, I get a long stare into space, then, "I can shoot baskets now."  He's a fun one.  One of my two white students in the class, he's in a world apart.  Not because of race, he just resides elsewhere.  Very involved with intensely studying and memorizing anything to do with bugs or dinosaurs, and very smart, but barely registers that he's surrounded by students in a classroom.  Occasionally, he'll break out in a country love song for a few seconds.  Once, after coming up to ask me a question, he slow danced back to his seat.

Teeth marks fade:

I've been half-assing it this week at work.  I'm sure it shows.

           On the other hand, I was informed that I had a "GQ" look going on today, which I found amusing.  Apparently, I make half-assed look good.  Don't worry, I took pictures with my digital camera and uploaded them onto my websites.  Oh, wait, that would require my having a digital camera...and websites….  You'll just have to trust me that, for a day, I was a hottie. ::nods head::

I'm not doing enough with my students in the phonics department. I also need to improve classroom management and transitions.  It's preventing me from getting to everything that I need to.

Bah.

But, with kindergarten, every time you're feeling kind of poopy, one of the kids says something really sweet to you.

That, or they bite another student.