Week One

Well, after one week with the grade twos I have a few short stories to tell.

1. I often say "excusé moi" instead of "excuse me". I said this to a student and the student said in an offended tone of voice, "This isn't french class!!"

2. My teaching partner always gives the kids a high five at the end of the day as they walk out of the classroom. I decided I should do something different, so I tried pound it, instead of high five. Do you know what I mean? When you just knock fists with someone? So I told the kids to do this. Well, my assumption that they knew what I was talking about was clearly wrong. Most of them wound up and punched my knuckles as hard as they possibly could. They we quite red by the end of it. I'll have to work on that...

3. One of the great things about teaching grade two is that they get excited about almost everything. As long as your excited, and use exciting words, they get totally into it. So a lot of mornings we play this game called Sparkle, where the kids sit in a circle and spell their spelling words, each students saying one letter. When the word is spelled, the next person says "sparkle" and the student after them is out. Anyways, they love playing this game. So I decided to spice it up, since they knew their spelling words pretty well already, and add in some other words from around the classroom. I told them this and they were thrilled. So I called out the usual words for them to spell and then threw in "October". In unison they all said "Oooooh!!!" and spelled it. I called out "math". "Aaaaaaaah!!" they cried. "Routine". "Yaaaaaaa!". They were hilarious. And all just about a little spelling game. Amazing.

So it begins. Of course there is a LOT to think about, but I'm having a good time, and the class is wonderful.