P is for Piglet

Last weekend, the whole fam went camping for Labor Day weekend.  As per the usual custom.  I try to tell all the people who are my kin that camping over Labor Day is a treacherous thought to a teacher, but no one believes me and off we all go.  This year, however,  my knee was being a party pooper, and I was unable to camp.  I was able to join everyone, however, for dinner and fireworks one of the nights.

Daisy Mae is hip to life now, as she is 12 and in 7th grade and all, and she has mastered the art of the “Selfie.”  And she is also good at the “Groupie.”

So, here is her “Groupie” of all of us waiting for the BIG fireworks show.

Handsome Dude decided to snuggle with me during the fireworks and was interested in a selfie with the two of us.  Bad news for him:  I am terrible at the selfie.

I absolutely have no idea where to put my eyes.  One would presume one would look at the actual camera on the phone.  And I 100% believe that is where I am looking every time.  Oh well.  I am 35 now, so it is expected that I would struggle.

So camping came to an end, and so did summer, and the boys and I were off to our first day of school.  (The girls had already started the week before)

Little Dude is in 3rd, I am in 1st, and Handsome Dude is in 4th.

We had the first day of school, and a more exhausting day it could not be.  Let me tell you something friends:  there is a BIG difference between an end of the year 2nd grader (students I left in June) and a beginning of the year 1st grader (students I met this week).  Oh my lands.  I went into panic mode after school the first day and tried to figure out all the ways to improve things.  I have a “spirited” class.  They are definitely going to be my most challenging group since I started teaching, NOT counting my 6th graders from my long term sub gig, of course.

My kids are weary little Teacher’s kids.  HD had about enough of this staying late business on day one.  He fell asleep for a bit over an hour while I worked hard to try to come up with a game plan for Mrs. M’s Wild and Crazy Firsties.

Poor Kid.

Day One:

Me:  How was your day?  Did you make any friends?

HD:  Good.  Yeah, I have 1 and `1/2 friends.

Me:  Huh?

Day Two:

Me:  How are the 1 1/2 friends?

HD:  Good.  It’s two friends now.  I wasn’t sure about the 1/2 friend, but I found out today I am pretty sure he is my full friend.

Alrighty.

Anyways.  I have survived week one.  Barely.

You know how we used to live in town and not have 4 billion farm animals and then David moved us out to the country and now we have had 4 billion farm animals?  I have oft wondered why.  You know, like why is this my lot in life?  To have a multitude of pigs and whatnot?  Well, this past week, I have discovered why David has turned into a pig farmer.  It was to help me tame my wild and crazy firsties on day three.

Allow me to explain:

This may surprise you, but it is tricky to get first graders to sit still and be engaged and want to listen to the teacher.  And on this particular day, we were practicing our letter sounds with my large ABC cards.

Well, we were going for it, and I was trying very hard to get them excited about the fact that “T says ‘T’ like ‘Turtle'” and I noticed I was about to lose them.

It became particularly worrisome when I was distracted (never good) by watching some of the kiddos and I held up the L Lion card and said “N says ‘N’ like Nest” and not one kiddo corrected me.  I did correct my mistake, but ohmygoodness, why didn’t any of the kids say, “But Mrs. M!  That is the letter L!”?

Nope.  They all went with it.  I might have my work cut out for me.  But I digress.

Luckily, the very next card was:  “P says ‘P’ like ‘Piglet'” and the Lord smiled upon me and gave me a brilliant idea.

Me (in my most bestest teacher voice):  Class, do you know something?

Class:  What, teacher?

Me:  Mrs. M lives far away and Mr. M loves farm animals.  And do you know what Mr. M has at our house?

Class (thoroughly enthralled):  What, teacher?

Me:  Mr. M has horses and ducks and chickens and pigs!  And this baby piglet picture on this card reminded me of something funny that happened with Mr. M’s pigs.

Class:  What, teacher?

Me:  One of Mr. M’s pigs is a mama pig.  And she has four baby piglets.  And sometimes, that mama’s piglets are naughty.  Would you like to know why?

Class:  WHY?!?

At this point, dear readers, I am completely rocking it.  They are all engaged, completely with me, and behaving.  It was a moment that would have been just perfect for an administrator to walk in and see.  And that administrator would think to herself, “Wow, Taylor really has this wild group of first graders under control.”  But, no.  Administrators only walk in during a transition time when most of the children have forgotten your instructions, one kid is spinning circles, and one kid is tugging at your shirt and saying he needs to go to the bathroom but “needs help wiping his buns.”  (True Story)  But back to the pig story.

Me:  Well those baby piglets are so small, and they can squeeze through the squares of their fence.  But the mama pig is too big to go through the squares, so she can not follow them.  And those naughty baby piglets leave their mama, and do you know where they go?

Class:  Where?

Me:  They go into the chicken pen and they play with the chickens and the ducks!

Class:  Cool! (They have stars in their eyes and are looking at me like I am the most magical teacher ever.  And maybe I am.)

Me:  And do you know what that mama pig does?  She grunts and stomps and I think she is telling her four baby piglets to come back!  But do they listen?

Class:  NO!

Me:  No they don’t, those naughty little piglets.  But after a while, they get tired of playing with the chickens and the ducks and miss their mama, so they do go back.

It was amazing.  I completely had them after that and we were able to get through the rest of our letter sound cards.  So, I now know why the good Lord put it upon David’s heart to become a pig farmer:  It was to help me reign in my “spirited” group of firsties and get them back to their learning.  So, you know, everything happens for a reason.

As the week came to a close, I started to feel more encouraged about my group and like I had a bit more control over the class.  On Friday afternoon, I was basically done.  I was beat, the kiddos were beat . . . we were just tired.  I ran into a group of teachers in the break room while the kiddos were at P.E.

Me:  Oh my word, I don’t know what to do the last 45 minutes.

(This may surprise you, but sometimes teachers aren’t planned down to the second of every day.  But only sometimes.)

Other 1st grade teacher:  Me either.

3rd grade teacher:  I think they will have free time.

Me:  I am thinking a story and play dough.

1st grade teacher:  Yes.  Perfect. That is what I will do, too.

Me to 3rd grade teacher:  OR you could bring your kids down to my room and your kids can read to my kids?

3rd grade teacher:  Yes.  That is what we are doing.

And so we did, and it was brilliant.  All parties involved were happy, and 3rd grade teacher and I decided we were winning at teaching.

Phew.  Week one.  Check.

***

I saw the doctor this week and he feels something might be wrong with me knee, as I should be much farther in my recovery at this point than I am and not be in so much pain.  So, he sent me for another MRI, and I am waiting for those results.  I am pretty discouraged about the situation.  I am in a lot of pain all day, and I am so trying to be a good teacher to these little kiddos, but I am hurting and weary.  Hopefully I will have some answers soon.

A mama of one of my kiddos told me she asked her son how he liked me and he said, “She is nice, but a little non-walky!”

Ha!  It is a perfect description of me right now:  Non-Walky.

Happy Weekend!