Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Sweet Reunions and tired teacher

Everyone made it in today. It was wonderful to see all of the kids today as there were low absences right before the break. It seems as though they grew up a lot in our relatively short time away from each other.

In general, I notice a greater awareness of letters in the environment and better understanding of letter- sound relationships. I notice students who came in knowing some sounds but unwilling or unable to commit that knowledge taking the risk, sounding out words and using inventive spelling to put their ideas on paper.

I notice kids who came in writing their name now are able to copy 3 whole sentences at once with little to no assistance. Kids who came to school unable to recognize their own name in print are recognizing and writing it.

Students in general are excited about books, and are very eager to go to the book area when they notice new books have been added. They notice more in general and have become such great observers. When we were going outside today to find a parcel of ground without too much ice on it, they noticed that there was considerably less snow than yesterday and that their foot prints had melted and other students had made other foot prints and that there was dog poo in the school yard ironically, right below the sign that said "No Dogs Allowed: Waste from animals transmits disease". At recess someone noticed that sun was "not reaching all of the snow in the corner. It cant melt. The sun is lazy".

They are more eager to learn than when school started in the fall and they already have learned so much in just a few months. In thinking about their progress thus far and feeling excited that I still have 6 more months to be their teacher , I am a little tired. Yesterday was rough as I had a hard time sleeping Sunday night. Sometimes, I still get a little case of back to school jitters. Sometimes I just think and think about the students and their families and doze off and wake up again and then before I know it is 4am. Today their energy and eagerness both inspired and exhausted me.

Early to bed

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ya know, I found my students to be far more motivated and compliant as well. There must have been something about this holiday that was special! I also get the back to school jitters, and wake up throughout the night. Its good to be back though :)