Tales From the Classroom

More and more, I find myself missing my classroom days.  I miss working with the little guys, and I miss the constant change and ebb and flow of days and schedules.  I've been rethinking a couple of decisions and choices that I've made over the last two years. 

Anyway, this is a repost of an earlier article about the kids.  I'd subbed several days in a row, and there were three very particularly memorable stories I wanted to share.

1) "That's Wrong!"

I was subbing for a Special Ed. assistant, and was sitting through a second grade math lesson with one of my favorite guys.  The teacher was going through a subtraction lesson with the kids.

(The key part to remember to this story is... 2nd grade.  Remember, at that time, they still made us move the big number to the front and then subtract the smaller number.)

The teacher had the problem 3-5=___  written on the board. 

"Now, how do we solve this?"  She asked.

My little friend promptly raised his hand and said "It's negative 2!"

"No, it's not," the teacher replied, "Can someone else help me?"

"No!!!"  He shouted.  "It's negative two!!"

"No, it's not," she replied, looking at me for help.

"Actually, it is," I answered, and turning to my little friend I said "In 2nd grade, most of the kids haven't learned negative numbers yet.  She's trying to get you to set the problem up the 2nd grade way, and put the big number first."

"Well that's just stupid."  He replied.  "The answer is negative two, and she's just making the problem harder for everyone to solve by making them switch it around.  If they're going to switch the numbers, they should switch the signs."

The teacher and I both sat stunned, staring at him for a moment.  The teacher recovered first and said "You guys are right.  BUT, we since we're in 2nd grade, we will do this the 2nd grade way."

"It's still stupid" said my little friend. 

2) The Voice of an Angel

Subbing again in special education, in a different classroom, I was with a friend in kindergarten.  He was working on a cut and paste number identification sheet.

While he was cutting, he broke out into a SPOT ON rendition of "Oh Danny Boy".

He knew all of the words, hit every single note, and sang in the most beautiful child soprano anyone has ever heard.  It brought tears to my eyes, and the classroom to a halt.

When he finished, the teacher whispered to me "I never make him stop singing.  He has the voice of an angel, and I feel like we are blessed every time we hear it."

 

3) Those Letters Spell WHAT??

I was subbing in a kindergarten class where kids were working on the sight word "this".  The kids each had a bag of cut out letters:  t, h, i, s, that they were to glue into appropriate places on a worksheet.

The first group comes up and glues the letters into place, with no comment whatsoever.

The second group comes up, and one little guy starts playing with the letters, rearranging them, moving them around, and finally comes up with an entirely new word and I hear him say "Oh, wow!  Look at what I can spell!"  (Take one guess what that word was...)


You know, there are some bad days when I'm subbing.  There are days when everything goes wrong.  But then, things like this happen that make me laugh, and I realize just how fortunate I am to be able to work in a profession where I get to see the world through the eyes of children.