I Am Thankful For...

Working with kids everyday can get frustrating. It's easy for me to get caught up in the pinching, hitting, lying, and overall chaos that is the playground. Every day I spent a good part of my day keeping track of playground politics. There's always a group of girls ostracizing someone, a pair of best friends in the middle of an argument, and a group of hooligans plotting something. That's right, there is ALWAYS someone plotting. The trick is to catch them before they commit whatever it is they've thought up. With all of that drama it's easy to forget what I love about my kids. Which brings me to what I am thankful for this year.

1. The Shifty Eyes I am forever thankful for that look the kids get in their eyes when they know that they can create more chaos. It's a mix of joy and worry. They're worried that you are on to them but so excited at the possibility that they might get away with it. It took me a few months working with my kids before I could catch it on a regular basis but learning the shifty eyes was the best thing I've ever done for myself. Plus, once you catch them a few times they start to think that, like mom, you really do have eyes in the back of your head. I tend to tell them that I'm magic. Who knows? Maybe I am.

2. My Coworkers The ladies that I work with are some of the sweetest and most ridiculous people I have worked with. They know the basics of working with kids. Work hard, play hard, laugh hard, and turn over a new leaf every ten minutes.

3. Punctual Parents It amazes me that even though we close at 6:00 there are often still a few kids at 6:15. I mean really, I have a life too. Also it's not like my district pays me for those extra 15 minutes.

4. Fun Fridays Who doesn't love watching 101 Dalmatians/The Emperor's New Groove/Up with 70 kids? By the way, you have not really seen a movie until you've listened to 70 kids crack up at the jokes, 70 kids cry out at the unfairness of the world, and 70 kids repeat the same jokes from the movie for a week later.

5. Glitter Glue Loose glitter is the bane of every teacher/parent's existence. It gets everywhere and stays there. And it's not like we have a vacuum.

6. The Aha Moment The instant when a kid goes from not understanding to understanding is a mini-magic moment. Think about it. Division? Really really difficult! If you manage to get an 8 year old to understand that putting 24 M&Ms into piles of 4 will give you 6 piles and that the equation for that is 24÷4=6...well, it's pretty cool. Actually, if you give them M&Ms and let them work that out themselves then you are officially the cool teacher. It's a coveted title.

7. Holidays Running out of things to do with the kids? Good thing there is a holiday just about every month! Sure, January and May have weak holidays but you can make something out of them. Presidents Day word search! Yes! Let's make a May Pole! Yes!

8. Snack Time Five free minutes to run to the bathroom. Unless of course some kid decides have a food fight or throw a fit because we have apple juice but not grape juice. Note: those would be the kids that are plotters. Catching the shifty eyes would prevent these issues.

9. Nature There is not a single kid who will not get excited when a squirrel buries an acorn or the cat that lives in the garden catches a mole. For some reason my kids know every known fact about squirrels. They can tell if it's a girl or boy squirrel (though they call them mommy squirrels and daddy squirrels), exactly what nuts they eat and what nuts they don't eat, and how many squirrel brothers and sisters it has. Okay, so the last part they made up. Still impressive.

10. Coffee As much as I am impressed by them, in awe of them, and in love with them, my kids can drive me crazy. And what do I need when Buddy throws a fit about the apple juice? Coffee. What do I reach for when the scotch tape has gone missing and is only found because someone has taped all of the light switches on? Coffee. And what saves me when I've spent 45 minutes trying to talk one of our darlings down from the top of the monkey bars? Coffee. Well, and later that night wine. But mostly coffee.

I have always held a staunch anti-blog position. My thoughts, however fascinating to me, are not always brilliant so why bother? Yesterday I was in homework hour with my kids (3rd graders...20 of them) and I was trying to find something for them to do because they finish their weekly homework packets on Monday. That's when I flashed on a memory from my third grade class at Blossom Hill. I have very few concrete memories from that class. I remember learning what a simile is, learning how to spell "together", fighting with a neighboring 4th grade class about the OJ Simpson Trial, and QuickWrites. Whenever we ran out of things to do before the rest of the class did, Mrs. Larkin would have us just write whatever we were thinking. At the time that was pretty badass to us. We could write ANYTHING that was on our minds -no judgement. In the days of Daily Oral Language and assigned pencil boxes it was the most freeing assignment ever.

Now that I work with 3rd graders I see that part of it was a quick way to make us stop talking so Mrs. Larkin didn't pull her own hair out from frustration. But still, the act of writing what's on your mind has at least two solid perks. First off, they get to put how they feel on paper. It becomes less abstract and they can make something of it. Second, they are writing! It's a miracle! One day these nutty kids might be able to write a research paper or a persuasive speech or hell, a fiery opinion article for their local newspaper.

So yesterday I decided to start the Quickwrites. My kids are a little...well, let's say feisty. Eventually I had them convinced that it would be a cool activity and they set off with their cheap school district provided pencils and copy paper to write whatever they wanted. At the end of the hour I had short stories about monsters, little brothers, weekend plans, and birthday parties. At least one was ripped off from a recent Pixar film and one was ripped off of the kid sitting next to him but overall it was a success. When they turned in their papers the first thing they asked was what I write about when I quickwrite at home (because of course my homelife is just an extension of my time with them). So I decided if I make them quickwrite I'll just have to do it for myself too. So here it is. Quickwrite #1