Sniffly, Sneezy, Coughy Monday

Well, it's here....my first cold of the school year. I don't think I've ever gotten sick this early in the school year before. I think it has something to do with the enormous amount of stress I've been under so far this year. It has lowered my resistance. You would think my body would have built up a high resistance to germs from being around all these germy little babies all the time. Their noses run (and I get to wipe them!), they have a weird obsession with drawing on the table with their spit (oh, yes they really do!), they crawl up in my lap and then sneeze in my mouth, you get the picture!

So, bottom line, I've been pretty miserable the past couple of days. Actually, when I woke up feeling icky yesterday, I thought it had to do with the fact that I got home from my sister's birthday fiesta at about 5am Sunday morning. But, turns out, I was just getting sick! I took a nap in my hammock Sunday afternoon, since it was a glorious, sunny day here in Chicago, and burnt my face. Now my nose is killing me, between the sunburn and the "constantly blowing my nose" burn.

Hey, teach!! This is supposed to be about school, remember!?

OK, so today I finished up the ridiculous DIBELS testing. A couple of hilarious stories-- I was testing L.W., and just like all the other babies, I had to show her those stupid pictures. Now, I name all the pictures for the kids every time I turn the page ("This is rooster, doctor, fly and soldier") while pointing to each one, so even if the child doesn't know what something is, they at least hear the name once from me. Usually what happens is, they remember what I said, but then can't repeat it. For example, when I was testing J.H., he wanted to answer with "insect" but he said, "umm, in...in...infection?" Of course, he was making the sweetest little confused face while he was answering! But, back to L.W. So, I ask, "Which picture begins with 'rrr'?" I'm sure in her head, she remembered me saying "rooster." However, she answered me with, "Cock-a-doodle-do!" I almost lost it! Dear, sweet L.W. gave me a few more giggles. Like A.B. did on Friday, when asked to name the letters in the row, she immediately started saying, "a,b,c,d,e,f,g..." The only difference was, she sang it!! How cute is that?! Finally, when I asked her, "What sound does 'insect' start with?" She looked at me, smiled, and said, "bzzzz." I can't take it! I love it when they give me that look that says, "Jeez, Lady, you are really stupid! How do you not know that?"

Now, here's a little something for the "awww" file. K.W. was out in the hall with me, and didn't do very well on the first two parts of the test. If you read Friday's post, you may remember that the last part of the test is where I give the kids a word, and they have to use it in a sentence. So, the first word on the test is "happy." K.W. smiled and said, "Happy is when you get something you don't have for your birthday!" Way to go, K.W.! That's worth 12!

One of my little darlings is proving to be quite a challenge in the behavior department. This is only Day 5, and he's been put in time-out every one of those 5 days. Usually, several times a day! He can't sit still AT ALL, constantly makes noises, throws things, and so on. He does not like authority figures, and is quite defiant. His mom happened to be in the office this morning, but by the time I realized who she was, it was too late to talk to her. I happened to see our preschool teacher in the hallway when I was looking for the mom, and she asked if I was looking for that parent. When I said yes, she told me that she just finished talking to her about her son in preschool. Apparently the misbehavior is not only happening with my student. Ms. J. told me that in all her years of teaching (and she's retiring at the end of this year, so we're talking quite a few years!) she's never had a child that acted this bad. I was telling her a little about what my darling has been doing, and she says "Yep, his brother does the same thing." Luckily for her, she can tell his mom to stop bringing him if the behavior doesn't change. That's not so easy for me. Not that it hasn't been done, though. I have had to drop kids before because they were so disruptive. Since kindergarten isn't mandatory in Illinois, we can get away with it. I think I'm going to have to share that info with mom, and hope that she's willing to work together on changing things. This early in the year, it's hard to tell sometimes if these behavior stem from actual medical conditions (i.e. -ADD, ADHD) or if it's simply a case of no discipline in the home. My guess is the latter in this case. I've been keeping anecdotal records about his behavior, so we'll see how it pans out.

I didn't speak to, or even cross paths with, the Big Cheese today, so I wasn't quite so irritated today. Just sick :( I was able to send the first homework packet home today, as well as my Kindergarten Handbook. All in all, a pretty good day!

Quote time...

Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction.
---Annie Sullivan

I only wish the higher-ups at the Board of Ed. understood that. Then I wouldn't have to test babies, and they wouldn't be expected to read at the end of kindergarten, along with all the other things they're supposed to do. What happened to kindergarten being about socialization? These poor babies aren't even allowed to play, because it takes away from instructional time. I'm going to stop right there because, like I said, this has been a pretty good day, so I don't want to start complaining now! See you tomorrow!