Stats

Since I did this with my Taiwan classes, I decided to put up some stats about my preschool class.

Boys: Daniel, Gage, Ayden, Ryder, Elijah, Joey, Alex, Bradley, Robbe
Girls: Ellie, Gia, Kayla, Lauren, Annie, Gabby

Mondays: 10 students (Daniel, Gage, Ayden, Ryder, Elijah, Joey, Alex, Ellie, Gia, Gabby)
Tuesdays: 10 students (Daniel, Gage, Ayden, Joey, Alex, Bradley, Ellie, Gia, Gabby, Kayla)
Wednesdays: 11 students (Daniel, Ayden, Joey, Ryder, Elijah, Robbe, Ellie, Gia, Gabby, Lauren, Annie)
Thursdays: 9 students (Daniel, Gage, Ayden, Alex, Bradley, Ellie, Gia, Gabby, Kayla)
Fridays: 11 students (Daniel, Gage, Ayden, Ryder, Elijah, Robbe, Ellie, Gia, Gabby, Lauren, Annie)

5 kids come everyday
1 comes 4x a week
4 come 3x a week
5 come 2x a week

3 are bi-racial
1 is Chinese-American
1 is Korean-American
1 is Hispanic
1 is Italian-American
1 is African-American
7 are plain white Americans ;)

4 come from single-parent homes
1 is a foster child in the process of being adopted.

8 are the oldest in their family
1 is a middle child
3 are the youngest
3 are the only children in their family

5 have an infant brother or sister
2 have a toddler brother or sister

1 former student moved down to the toddler class after 2 days of school.
1 former student moved up to the 4's class after 2 months of school.

4 have never had a time-out in my class :)
4 have had 3 or less
8 have filled their sticker charts (9 days without time-outs) once or more.

3 have never needed their spare change of clothes for any reason :)

15 precious gifts from God brought into my life for this season of time :)

Highlights from the Cole Reunion

October 17-19, 2008 Columbus, OH

weird day

I had such a weird day with one particular student today. She's the newest koala in the koala class and this was only her third day of school. We had a lock down drill today, so we talked a bit about "stranger danger" and practiced for the lock down. Well, as soon as we started talking about it, she got really scared and started crying! Then she was ok for a bit, but when the lock down code came over the PA system and we assumed our lock down position, she started crying again and getting all worked up. Even after the "all clear," she was still inconsolable. I explained and re-explained how this was just practice and there was no stranger in the school and let her sit on my lap and hug a stuffed koala, but she couldn't be comforted. Every little sound she heard- she freaked out- "what was that?" "I heard a noise!" She was an absolute basket case. When she would calm down a little, another student would invariably mention the lock down or stranger danger and she'd start trembling and bawling all over again. Finally, I had to tell each child individually not to mention the word "stranger" anymore because it would make her cry. I eventually got her distracted enough to calm down and forget about it.

Later in the day, while she was supposed to be washing paint off her hands after art---she flooded our classroom restroom! From what another 3-year old witness says, I guess she was sticking her finger right up the faucet, making it spray everywhere- soaking her and flooding the floor. What a mess! Fortunately, I had just taken our cloth paint tablecloth off the table from art and it didn't have much paint on it- so I just threw that on the restroom floor and that got most of it soaked up and the rest dried while we were at lunch and recess.

I told her mom about the flooding, but didn't get a chance to tell her about the fear and trembling about strangers because we got interrupted and they left. It was quite an odd day for her and hopefully we don't have many of those!

Field Trip Nightmare

This past Wednesday was our field trip to a pumpkin patch on the outskirts of Columbus. Everything was going ok as we gathered and got on the bus even though it was sprinkling and chilly. However, when we got there, the people who run the farm/pumpkin patch were not on the ball and we had to wait outside in the rain for about 20 minutes. The kids were all shivering and bored and already looked like drowned rats as we couldn't keep 10 kids dry under the 4 umbrellas we had between all the adults. Finally, we got on a wagon for a hayride to the pumpkin patch, but of course the wagon was wet and so we all got our bottoms soaked. When we got to the patch, there were a disturbingly small amount of pumpkins left! 3 of my kids didn't have parents along with them, so I had to keep track of them and find pumpkins for them. They didn't want to touch the pumpkins because they were wet and muddy and then when they did pick them up; they were too heavy for them. So, I had to carry 4 pumpkins back to the wagon. That's when one of the girls I had with me started to just lose it- she was soaking wet, shivering, now muddy and just wanted to get out of there. She started bawling and had to be carried making me much more muddy. Then we were supposed to pick indian corn, but the corn was too high for the kids to really reach, so I had to pick 8 ears myself for the kids without parents with them and carry those along with the 4 pumpkins and drag the crying girl along with me and keep the other 2 kids close by, which wasn't too much of a problem because they were so miserable and wet, they just followed like puppy dogs. Then we went to the gourd patch, but most of the gourds were broken or smooshed, so that was hard and the crying girl was in a full on screaming fit now. So, I just grabbed gourds left and right for the 3 kids and myself (for our classroom) all the while carrying all their pumpkins and indian corn still. Then we were corraled into an area with crates and had to sit on wet again. All the while it's still raining and we're trampling through the mud and just getting terribly messy and wet. We had some apple cider and a farmer tried to teach us about pumpkins and gourds but even some of the kids who had their parents with them were losing it and crying, so the farmer quickly caught on that he just needed to let us get back on our bus. I had to drag the screaming girl back up to the bus and sit with her the whole way back. Then when we got to school- everyone was so muddy so the parents that were there were trying to change their kids and asking me for their child's spare set of clothes and I was trying to help the 3 kids without parents....it was just chaos- muddy clothes and shoes and muddy bags of pumpkins, gourds, and corn all over- mixing up whose is whose. It was just crazy. Finally, I got the parents to leave and finally got everyone into some dry clothes. Then it was lunchtime already and we didn't get to do any of the post-field trip things I had planned. The kids were still pretty blitzed and tired from the nightmare of a field trip. I think a few kids had fun, but the parents looked miserable and most of the kids were just ready for the field trip to be over, especially the screaming/crying girl. Oh man....it was just craziness. I didn't bring any extra clothes, so I was soaked to the bone for most of the day until I finally dried out. I'm disappointed that I didn't get any pictures- there was just no way I could have- trying to help the 3 kids and since it was raining...we were supposed to make a class book about the field trip...but maybe it's an experience best forgotten!

Fall

Whoops! I missed a whole month again! Not only have I been too tired to write updates, but also so much has happened I just cannot keep up with it.

Fall is now in full swing and it's just absolutely beautiful. I didn't realize how much I missed fall these past 2 years. It's so gorgeous; I'm just in awe of the trees. I love seeing all the fall stuff too like pumpkins, hay bales, indian corn, apples, scarecrows, etc. If only there wasn't so much Halloween stuff too.

School is going really well, just super fast and it's not slowing down as I thought it might eventually. There's always something going on besides the usual daily schedule and curriculum to implement. My 'to do' list never ends. It's been really challenging, but I love my kids and am enjoying getting to know them more and more. It's a lot of trial and error, as the first year usually goes, but I have a lot of support and am establishing good relationships with the other teachers, especially some of the younger ones. My kids are a hoot and crack me up half the time. Kraig mentioned making a reality TV show of the day in the life of a preschool teacher and I think it would be such a hilarious show--even more funny than when I'm actually in the situation and don't find things funny or don't notice as much anymore some of the weird things the kids say and do. :)

I've just recently hit 3 major teaching milestones for the first year and I'm happy to have them under my belt now. Picture Day, Field Trip, and Parent-Teacher Conferences. The field trips were the worst (see next post), followed by picture day and then today was the conferences and they really weren't too bad at all. Just getting up at 5:45 for them was annoying. :)

I spend pretty much all my time at school...8:30am-7pm. But when I am home, I really enjoy my apartment. Any free time I have is spent decorating and rearranging my space and making it home. However, I am still lacking some major furniture items: couch, dining room set, washer and dryer, end tables, dresser, and a TV. I have learned to live without them, but will be pretty happy to finally get them eventually.

I still haven't found a church yet. There are so many to try in this area and I've been out of town on so many weekends, it's taking awhile to try the ones I want to.

So, things are going well. I've settled into a routine somewhat and am setting up a nice little American life here which feels really great at times and other times feels a little weird and I feel lame for wanting to live here in comfort and familiarity. I miss my adventures overseas sometimes. I am especially missing Taiwan now that my best friend from college moved there with her husband and I hear about what they are doing there. I also miss it a lot whenever I see updates on my church and my friends there via Facebook.

So, all in all- things are going well. I'll try to keep up with this, but I know it'll be hard. All my interesting stories about school and stuff just take so much explanation and background info to make sense, but I'll try to come up with some. :)