week 3

monday night.
third week.
one child absent due to a rumbly tummy and stuffy nose.
one child sent home with conjunctivitis.
one child with ringworm.
two children with horrible colds.
two bottles of family-sized clorox wipes emptied.

just got home from buying strawberry cake mix and strawberry icing
for daniel's birthday on wednesday.
exhausted on the sofa after watching our new first-grade teacher
scrub finger-paint off of her floor.
throat sore from telling her that the first year teaching is the hardest
and that she shouldn't take it personally
that a parent called her a bitch
because she expects her students to do their homework.
telling her that she can't do this everytime they paint.
assuring her that making them clean up their mess isn't being mean.

is it?

i have been consumed with my classroom.
the shorties (the same ones i had last year) are taking off with their writing
and brainstorming
and book discussions
and math exploration
and just plain rocking out!

we are exploring leadership.
you know...what it MEANS.

and we are writing about people we see as leaders...people we aspire to be like.


and they start writing.
and one writes about his mother.
"she is a leader because she feeds us"
(she doesn't)
"because she always does the right thing"
(she abandoned him years ago)
because she buys me stuff"
(that is not true. and if it were, that is sad that buying him stuff would make her a leader)

so.
we talked again about leaders today.
about how, just because you love someone, they aren't necessarily a leader.
crazy.
deep.
but they got it.
and the wheels were spinning.
and voices started to show good thinking.

tomorrow, we start writing again.
and, when we have made final decisions,
the invitations will go out
to these leaders
my children look up to.
portraits will be drawn.
candles will be lit.
cookies will be made with their own hands
in honor of these leaders.
and they will come to be honored and praised, one at a time,
within the four walls of the place where i beam with pride and
adoration at these sweet faces.

we are back.
this is going to be a stellar year.