My Kids

Yesterday, Ms. T-- came to my room with an adorable little boy holding all of his things. "This is J--," she said. "He's supposed to be in your class now, says [the principal]. I can't handle him, and his parents want him out of my class. You're supposed to give me one of yours." J-- looked up at me, adorably.

I said, "Okay. Hi, J--, I'm Ms. H--. Hold on just one minute." I ran across the hall to the storage room and lugged a desk back into my room and squeezed it into a middle row. "Sit right here." I didn't know what to do about giving up one of my children. I wasn't ready to say, "Here, Ms. T--, take R--." I have sevaral children who are difficult but they are also used to me. I love them. Nobody grates so horribly...

I didn't want to give her an active kid because that is what J-- is, and besides, I'm getting better at handling them. I might as well have four especially active children if I'm going to have any. So this morning, I took one of my little girls aside. She is not especially bad nor is she especially good. I haven't identified what makes her tick yet, so I didn't feel like she was losing out. She is sometimes hard to handle because she is a blamer/tattler. But she tries to do the right thing. I said, "R--, I looked at some of your work and I can see that you're trying really hard. You're doing a great job this year, and you're definetely a star learner. Ms. T-- needs another student in her class, and I was thinking you might be perfect for the job. She especially asked for a star learner and for someone who is really good at following directions. I know that you are really good at following directions, aren't you? Would it be okay with you if Ms. T-- was your teacher from now on?" She nodded happily and readily began to gather her stuff.

On my original roster, I had 22 students. Two never showed up. Now I've traded one with Ms. T-- (today, R--), one to Mrs. J-- (way at the beginning, the principal told me to switch K--, and I got one of her special Ed kids in return), and gotten one new student in the district.

I have put three students on extra behavior management plans to help them stay in their seats, and I think J-- will need one, too. But that's okay. I've got to squeeze in a lesson on "fair is not always equal" and we should be fine.

This morning, I didn't want to go to school at all. When I got there, I felt ill and I just was wishing with all my might for someone to say, "Oh, Ms. H--, why are you here? School is cancelled today." But for some reason, by the end of the day, I was just floating. At silent lunch (one of my punishments), I looked at the four kids that were sitting across from me (who included J--) and realized that I just adore them all and want them to succeed.

One of the reasons that I think this day went well is that I had a little time where I broke up some of the kids and three different activities were going on -- I was working with my eight least advanced mathematicians, my four most advanced mathematicians were playing an adding game, and everyone else was working out of their books, supervised by my assistant.

So tonight I'm working hard to give them more differentiated, interesting learning opportunities. I just got a LeapPad in the mail from some wonderful person that I've never met, and I'm so excited to bring it in and teach my lowest readers how to use it during Independent Reading time. I also got some new Big Books and tapes from the school. Soon, everyone will be able to read during Independent Reading!