Smiles Gallore

Snippets from a Smiling Teacher

Good Morning
Every morning, I greet our special bus or "short bus," as many call it, with two other adults. We have three students who ride this bus in the morning- two kinders and Dunno, who is now a sixth grader. Dunno rarely speaks more than an extremely basic sentence unless hard pressed with threats of "calling mom" or, more commonly, to earn a most desired prize (yeah, this kid knows how to work it).

We have made it a goal for him to say greetings when he sees adults, such as returning a "hello," or "how are you?" In the morning, outside of his kinder buddy, he never says "good morning" to the adults who greet him so I have gotten in the habit of cornering him on the stairs of the bus, giving him the crazy teacher death ray stare and occasional poke until he says it to me. He is surprisingly good at routine so after the first couple of weeks, he knows my expectation. Unfortunately, my job does not always allow me to greet the bus when it arrives so I have witnessed him, for lack of a better word, cheating.

His favorite form of deception is what I like to call the "drive by." When he notices I'm not there, he sprints to the front of the bus, clammers down the stairs, and literally crash/glides around the other adults who greet the bus, shouting in his best Darth Vader voice, "G'MORNINGGGGG," as he races by to the cafeteria. Commence giggles by all.

I Don't Read English
The other morning, I was prepping for one of my groups when I heard a terrible wailing noise coming from outside. Only when I heard the clomps on the stairs to the back of my room did I realize who it might be. As soon as the door cracked open, I heard our new first grader, Jedi, sobbing loudly. Mentally preparing myself, I spun to greet him with a smile and a, "hey buddy, what's up?" He takes that as his cue to sob (in his best fake cry) even louder and with more articulated fist pumps at his side, all the while yelling, "But I don't want a book in English and Spanish! I don't speak English and Spanish!"

Hmm, okay. Maybe the librarian (who he was just visiting) was sharing some bilingual books. Well, let's offer him an English only book and see if that quells the child, I think to myself. His assistant and I make the plee... "NO! I said I DON'T READ ENGLISH AND SPANISH!!!"

After several minutes of this loop of delightful conversation, we decide the distract-and-redirect route will work best. When he finally calms down, I ask what type of book he was wanting, to which he replies something about a Star Wars Jedi blah blah book but it is only in English and Spanish(!!!). I can't make heads or tails of what the real story is so once he has been completely appeased by something entirely different (coloring dinosaurs), he is able to go back to class.

When he is gone, I check in with the librarian who informs me that she merely read a story and then said they could also find it in Spanish. She then had to clarify that her version was in English for some kids and the next thing she knew, he was yelling at her that he doesn't read English and Spanish. Regardless of her trying to explain that they were currently speaking English, he just kept bellowing that he does not speak English.

Well, parents, have fun explaining that one... in English?

I'm Awesome
The best part of my job is that I get to work closely with a ton of kids in my school, most of which tend to be on the "difficult" side, be it for academics or behavior. I have had the pleasure of sitting with a third grade kiddo who fits both of these categorie and I am quickly beginning to love all of his quirks. I call him Star because, well, he is a star. He rules the roost if you let him, but will shine if you give him the chance. Befittingly, he works to earn stars from me and he has received so many that we are building our own galaxy.

Today, just in reading alone, he earned 72 stars. Seems unimpressive to some but those who work in schools know that 72 of anything is just short of SUPER-FANTASTIC-WOW!!! After walking down to see his favorite teacher to show off todays collection, he showed every adult he passed... beaming (and this kid rarely cracks a facial expression or utters a word). Later that afternoon, another third grade teacher (not his own), informed me that he was so high on Cloud 9 that he stopped her, completely on his own, and said, "I'm Awesome." Yes, my friend, you are.