For the spring concert (like we need one more thing to do in the spring) second grade is singing "Happiness" from You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. (Can't imagine who would've suggested that one...)
Inevitably, when my students hear this song, they start singing their own versions. Really, how can you not? Today, my little SM, who has provided us with the best esl stories this year, has been chirping away. Most of her songs are a variation of
Happiness is having Miss C for my teacherIt's nice to have blatantly happy children in my class. She said to me last week, in utter wonder, "But, Miss C, how you make me like you SO MUCH?" I just told her that I liked her.
And living with her in her 'partment
With my family
And Mia
We're writing books about how to be a good teacher to give our student teacher when she leaves. (She was in Moscow today so we seized the opportunity to get started.) Most say, "You should be like Miss C." "Don't yell like Miss C doesn't yell." "XYZ like Miss C." I know that most of this is just that my little ones are very concrete thinkers and I'm right there in front of them. But, I'll still put these in what a friend of mine called "The Stroke File"--little things to pull out when things feel grim.
Yep. Hanging on to the happy.
8 comments:
Love it!!
That's so sweet! What a nice thing for you to do for the student teacher. When Katya was born, my 8th grade students wrote letters that I'm supposed to give her when she's in 8th grade... About why I'm a good mom, stuff that they want her to know about me when she's their age, and perhaps not thinking as idealistically of me as she did at age four...
Those letters are SO sweet. I treasure them.
Oh... And Katya will have to learn French before she can read them!
Sounds like you're having a wonderful impact on your kids!
Way to go, Teach! It's so wonderful for kids when they adore their teachers. :)
what wonderful comments. and you know what they say about truth and the mouths of babes... you must be a total rockstar teacher!!
I used to have one of those! Funny...I guess I got more confident; I don't keep it anymore. But the compliments I get from students mean SO much more to me than those I get from adults... Perhaps because I can usually add "Yes; you're right!" (interiorly, of course) to an adult compliment. I intended the first communion Mass to be moving and beautiful, and it was. However, when I go into the second grade and they all leap up and give me hugs - THAT is definitely a STROKE I can use. Your little SM sounds like quite a peach.
Annie, the stroke file is not a real file. ;>
Well, the funny thing is, my "file" was real.... I'd throw thank you letters and so forth in there. But this is what comes of writing in the breaks between my "midnight school" classes. I sort of have wavering-reality-syndrome.
Also, I was worried when I saw my reply in the e-mail just now that it sounded like I thought you did need it (the non-existent file - sheesh!) to "shore up" your self-esteem! I know that's not the case! Sorry, I'm tired nowadays even at normal times of day...but I need to curb my comments in the middle of the night.
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