Why I Love Teaching

Kids really DO say the darnedest things. Cases in point:

I was making a sign reminding parents that we close early on Good Friday (this was Wed. beforehand).

G: What are you doing?

Me: making a sign reminding your parents to pick you up early on Friday.

G: Why?

Me: 'Cause we're closing early.

G: Oh, yeah. 'Cause God died for us on Friday.

Me: (Totally blown away by this statement) That's right! What's special about Sunday?

G: That's when the Easter Bunny comes.

Welp, she's almost there.

On Good Friday, I asked my kids who got a new dress for Easter. This got them talking about church. N said she goes on Saturdays and I was curious so I asked her if she was Jewish. She had no idea so I asked her to describe her church.

N: Well, there's a guy who talks. And we stand and then sit and then get on our knees a lot.

Me: Is there a cross on the wall?

N: Yes.

Me: With a guy on it?"

I: That's Jesus Christ. Christ is His last name.

T lives with his grandparents because both his parents are deceased. He is not embarrassed or sad about this. He will tell you point blank that his parents are dead.

A: Whoa, Momma!

T: Whoa, Grandma!

Me: Are your listening ears on, everybody?

M: My ears are on, and ready to rock and roll.

I: Miss Jessica?

Me: Yes, I?

I: I love you.

Me: Aw, I love you, too, baby.

G: Almost all of us love you.

Seriously, pre kindergarteners are AWESOME. I loved my 2's, don't get me wrong, and they said some funny stuff, but my 5's amaze me, not just in the funny things they say, but the quesitons they ask. This group in particular is just full of SPONGES. Seriously, we're way past where they SHOULD be for Kindergarten. They could probably skip to the 2nd semester of Kindergarten or even 1st grade and most of them would be fine. We just keep throwing stuff at them and they keep wanting more. I love it.

Next year's group will probably prove to be quite the challenge. Their group dynamic is totally different (they're boy heavy as opposed to our 5/11 boy/girl ratio now) and they have a hard time sitting still. They're a busy group of kids and I actually welcome the challenge. My student teaching class was a fairly easy class, too, so having my "rotten" class from the get go sounds nice. Get it out of the way for seven years, LOL. (Seriously, though, they aren't rotten. Please don't misconstrue what I mean. I welcome the challenge.) I know that some things we do now will have to change and our whole approach to learning may have to change, but I'm excited for it.

But, for now, I relish in my sponge class. This week we're learning about ocean animals and I looked up some YouTube videos on my phone with while sounds and played them. They kept asking me questions. Thank God for my Android phone; I just searched for the answers. Yesterday we were talking about Kentucky (we're on a states unit in Social Studies) and one of the kids asked why Frankfort was named Frankfort. Seriously, these kids keep me on my toes and they are teaching ME things because I'm constantly having to look stuff up to answer their questions.

I love teaching, and I love that I love teaching. I love that I have known what I wanted to do since I was a little girl -- and that it pretty much stayed that way as I grew older. I love my job.

(Oh, and here's the story behind the name of Frankfort: "The town of Frankfort likely received its name from an event that took place in 1780s when Native Americans attacked a group of pioneers from Bryan’s Station who were making salt at a ford in the Kentucky River. One of the pioneers, Stephen Frank, was killed and the crossing became known as "Frank’s Ford." This name was later shortened to Frankfort.")