Well, the first day of school was a huge success! Both the girls had a wonderful day!
They both have friends in their classes and they both love their teachers. I am hoping these sentiments aren't just one-day wonders, but will carry over at least for a couple of weeks. I really could go the rest of my life without hearing the early-morning whining about: "why do we haaaaave to go to school?" "why did they invent schooooool so eeeaaaarly?" "I already knooooow how to read...why do I haaaave to goooooo?", but I know it's coming no matter how much fun these first few days are. So I'm determined to milk every bit of their excitement that I can. So far so good...the second day was a roaring success too! K said it was: "Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!" You can't get much better than that.
Let me break down the details of the girls' classes (from what I know and from what I've gleaned thus far)...
B is in Mrs. Bounds 4th grade class. B LOVES her! She says Mrs. Bounds lets them have a snack "whenever" they want. She has ALL the Harry Potter books in her class for free-time reading. (This put Mrs. Bounds over the top for B.) When the students start to get restless, Mrs. Bounds turns on some silly song and has the kids dance. B has been explaining to us that this is because "if you move all 4 of your arms and legs at the same time you are using both sides of your brain and you'll wake up and have more energy." Mrs. Bounds also told the class that the first day wasn't even the "funnest" day they would have! So I'm sure you can imagine super-excited B is to see what is going to happen that could be any better! I personally hope Mrs. It-Just-Gets-Better Bounds really does keep up the momentum. If so, B will have a fantastic year and Mrs. Bounds will be getting a fantastic Christmas and end-of-the-year gift.
K is in Mrs. Humphrey's 2nd grade class. Let me clarify...K is in Mrs. Humphrey AND Mrs. Porter's 2nd grade class. Yes, she is in a team teaching class. She is officially under Mrs. Humphrey, but she also is taught by Mrs. Porter. This is a new thing at school this year. 2nd grade is the only grade trying it, and I'm pleasantly impressed with the setup so far. (And I'm fairly picky when it comes to my girls' teachers and such.) Let me explain how it works... There are 38 students together in this class; 19 for Humphrey/19 for Porter. The class appears to be set up as one cohesive room, but if you look closely, you'll notice a slightly wider aisle than the others splitting the desks right down the center of the room. One side is Humphrey, the other is Porter...but they are all together. They learn together, they eat together, they play together...they are, in actuality, one class. Wondering where they found a room big enough? They transformed the Science Lab. And I mean they transformed the Science Lab! I told them at Open House they were miracle workers. The room truly looks phenominal. One teacher teaches a subject while the other teacher roams the room, does crowd control, and answers one-on-one questions. These two teachers work extremely well together, are impressively organized, and are good solid teachers all the way around. So I'm going into this with a positive attitude. Some parents are upset about the size of the class, and I can understand that, but I'm not going to assume this is a bad thing just yet. According to K, this is "the best"! With 38 kids in one class, the odds were pretty good she would have at least a couple of friends with her...and the odds were right on. K is having a blast seeing and playing with all her buddies from previous years! My biggest concern about this team teaching/large class thing is not that she'll fade into the background or be overlooked (like that could happen to K! I'm rolling my eyes...), but that she'll slowly learn to take advantage of the situation. She loves to be the class clown. It does help her cause that every student in there thinks she is flipping hysterical, even if the adults don't always appreciate her "humor". Oh well (big sigh), maybe her desire to please (which is big) along with her drive to have the best grades in her class (which is bigger) will overshadow her desire to be so darn funny. One can only hope...
So there you have it. Two wonderful days of school down. Only 873 to go. (Okay, maybe that number is slightly exaggerated, but I'm sure it's something close to that...)
They both have friends in their classes and they both love their teachers. I am hoping these sentiments aren't just one-day wonders, but will carry over at least for a couple of weeks. I really could go the rest of my life without hearing the early-morning whining about: "why do we haaaaave to go to school?" "why did they invent schooooool so eeeaaaarly?" "I already knooooow how to read...why do I haaaave to goooooo?", but I know it's coming no matter how much fun these first few days are. So I'm determined to milk every bit of their excitement that I can. So far so good...the second day was a roaring success too! K said it was: "Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!" You can't get much better than that.
Let me break down the details of the girls' classes (from what I know and from what I've gleaned thus far)...
B is in Mrs. Bounds 4th grade class. B LOVES her! She says Mrs. Bounds lets them have a snack "whenever" they want. She has ALL the Harry Potter books in her class for free-time reading. (This put Mrs. Bounds over the top for B.) When the students start to get restless, Mrs. Bounds turns on some silly song and has the kids dance. B has been explaining to us that this is because "if you move all 4 of your arms and legs at the same time you are using both sides of your brain and you'll wake up and have more energy." Mrs. Bounds also told the class that the first day wasn't even the "funnest" day they would have! So I'm sure you can imagine super-excited B is to see what is going to happen that could be any better! I personally hope Mrs. It-Just-Gets-Better Bounds really does keep up the momentum. If so, B will have a fantastic year and Mrs. Bounds will be getting a fantastic Christmas and end-of-the-year gift.
K is in Mrs. Humphrey's 2nd grade class. Let me clarify...K is in Mrs. Humphrey AND Mrs. Porter's 2nd grade class. Yes, she is in a team teaching class. She is officially under Mrs. Humphrey, but she also is taught by Mrs. Porter. This is a new thing at school this year. 2nd grade is the only grade trying it, and I'm pleasantly impressed with the setup so far. (And I'm fairly picky when it comes to my girls' teachers and such.) Let me explain how it works... There are 38 students together in this class; 19 for Humphrey/19 for Porter. The class appears to be set up as one cohesive room, but if you look closely, you'll notice a slightly wider aisle than the others splitting the desks right down the center of the room. One side is Humphrey, the other is Porter...but they are all together. They learn together, they eat together, they play together...they are, in actuality, one class. Wondering where they found a room big enough? They transformed the Science Lab. And I mean they transformed the Science Lab! I told them at Open House they were miracle workers. The room truly looks phenominal. One teacher teaches a subject while the other teacher roams the room, does crowd control, and answers one-on-one questions. These two teachers work extremely well together, are impressively organized, and are good solid teachers all the way around. So I'm going into this with a positive attitude. Some parents are upset about the size of the class, and I can understand that, but I'm not going to assume this is a bad thing just yet. According to K, this is "the best"! With 38 kids in one class, the odds were pretty good she would have at least a couple of friends with her...and the odds were right on. K is having a blast seeing and playing with all her buddies from previous years! My biggest concern about this team teaching/large class thing is not that she'll fade into the background or be overlooked (like that could happen to K! I'm rolling my eyes...), but that she'll slowly learn to take advantage of the situation. She loves to be the class clown. It does help her cause that every student in there thinks she is flipping hysterical, even if the adults don't always appreciate her "humor". Oh well (big sigh), maybe her desire to please (which is big) along with her drive to have the best grades in her class (which is bigger) will overshadow her desire to be so darn funny. One can only hope...
So there you have it. Two wonderful days of school down. Only 873 to go. (Okay, maybe that number is slightly exaggerated, but I'm sure it's something close to that...)
2 comments:
Wow, sounds like a great first few days and some good teachers!
Any ideas on how to keep the 'happy-in-the-morning' momentum going? Carden already flopped on the ground this morning and did VERY slow motion brake dancing all over the floor in protest of having to wake up (huge sigh). I CAN be hopeful that she will snap out of it! :)
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