Wonderful, Rebellious, Outstanding Teacher

I am loving my son's new teacher, and not just because she told me my son was a super genius, really.  She said he was a sweetheart, too, helping out the other kids when he finished his work.  Pretty much melted right onto the floor then and there.  We had a rough start to the year, but that's nothing new.  It was the first year my son didn't cry on his first week day of school.  He ended up with the teacher who, as acting principle, wanted to suspend his little brother after he got his nose bloodied last year and hit back. She turned out to be a super funny teacher, so that was good news.  One week later, though, he got a new teacher.  In order to reduce class sizes, they hired a new teacher and made some class changes, and although a group of buddies all moved, tears were shed and emotions ran high with the kids and parents.  My son does not adjust to changes well, and while he's a great student, he's not a fan of this whole school thing. 

The first week he had a different complaint each day about the teacher, but on Friday he had some anecdote told with a big smile.  I was concerned, though, and checked in with a few parents who'd been in the class.  In his view she was really quick to crack down on misbehaviour (mostly talking) and snapped loudly at the kids.  The parents saw this as her way to nip issues in the bud, but I wasn't so sure.  I suspected this complaining might just be his way of coping and adapting to a new teacher.  When I went in and volunteered myself I found one of calmest, nicest teachers I've ever met.  Actually, every teacher I've met at this school has been wonderful, although I've only gotten to know a handful.

She seems absolutely wonderful.  She asked me to call or meet with her because my little guy was sitting on the curb at recess, waiting for it to be over.  At our meeting she said the girls would come over to chat, but wanted to see if we could come up with ideas for lunchtime activities for him.  Ironically he's very athletic, unlike his mom who would never have attempted a game of tag in school, but the kids basically make up new rules during the game, especially the 5th graders as they hate to be bested by the speedy 3rd and 4th graders, so he doesn't really join those much.  Even though lunch and recess are break times for teachers (unless they have yard duty) she goes to watch her class to see how they are doing in these early weeks.  How great is that ? She's going to bring in a chess set and is working on getting the library open, although reading would not top his list.

She praised his artwork (he never does art at home) and confessed she had to sneak in some of the art projects and any free time (his favorite) in case the principle walked in. I love our principle, but she's pretty obsessed with test scores and extra time should be filled with academics.  I swear this woman is a saint.  She told me she never made her kids read at night and Keegan does plenty of reading during the day so not to worry about that (I was already about 70% given up on this nightly reading thing).  She's even going to tailor the homework to each kid, tossing the regularly issued homework.  (His last two teachers were not fans of homework and pretty much did all they could to avoid the worksheet busy work.)  She even conveyed a little excitement that he broke out of his normally good behaviour and ended up in the "red zone" for acting silly during music time.

These teachers who have big hearts, smart minds and are confident enough to break a few rules are what give me hope for our educational system.  Now if I could just get my little boy to admit he likes school just a little bit.

Sometimes you just have to laugh

After a few months of failing to find a job in this tough market, I started on the path to becoming a teacher. Teachers, too, are getting hit in this economy, but high school math teachers seem to be always in demand. I've already realized I'm not cut out to be an elementary school teacher, but a huge shout-out to those who are. Last year Keegan had a truly awesome 1st grade teacher, who started out the year saying he wasn't "cute or artsy enough" to teach 1st grade (he'd moved from 2nd). Suffice it to say he did a bang-up job, even managing to learn a few things when he made his very own sock puppet bandero for market day.

Teachers don't just need patience and skills and creativity, though, what really gets them through the day I think is a sense of humor. Helps as a parent, too. Check this little ditty out. It was a in a book of Spanish nursery rhymes my son brought home in his kindergarten homework bag. He usually gets one book in Spanish, and even at the kindergarten level I usually can't understand most of it. This was translated, though, and we got a huge laugh. Was that wrong? I'm sure it sounds better in Spanish.

My younger son's kindergarten teacher is really a saint. She has an amazing amount of patience and an awesome sense of humor. She told me once she'd lined all the kids up to go to the cafeteria. The leader took it upon himself to march the rest of the kids down, forgetting they were supposed to wait for a teacher, or at least an adult, to accompany them. She was very proud. To date my son's been asked to stop throwing himself down on the carpet in his patented wrestling move, moved from the spot near the wall since he stopped paying attention when he leaned against the wall, and not to get sucked into hitting and spitting at your friends. Seems the boys love to play the "how hard can you hit me game?" and I was once warned that he just might mention that a little boy had pulled his pants down and several others followed suit. My friend was called to the principal once when her son had been caught competing for who could pee the farthest, so I'm feeling pretty good right about now.

My other son does not seem to posses the "boy" traits that keep kids from sitting still, so I asked my son what he did that drove his teacher crazy. "We tell the girls to hide all the erasers in their desks." He said when someones absent and his teacher can't find the erasers she'll usually find a stash in the absentee's desk. Erasers are a rare and valuable commodity in the classroom when I volunteer, and I remember the teacher pondering where on earth they all go each day.

It's book club time again at Silicon Valley Moms blog and this post was inspired by Phillip Done's second book, Close Encounters of the Third Grade Kind: Thoughts on Teacherhood. I reviewed this book here and if you're interested, his first book here. Those of us who live in the bay area got to hear him read from the book. I feel a special connection, since he started his teaching career in Sunnyvale, where I live, lives in Mountain View, where my kids go to school, and now teaches in Palo Alto, where my mom wants our kids to go. Maybe if I knew he'd be teaching them I'd jump on board. Little tip from Phillip about teacher gifts. In addition to telling your friends and neighbors (and blog readers) how much you love your teachers, give them a card thanking them.