"...for christmas, I'm thankful..."

We've only had two school days since the school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. It makes me sick to type those two "s" words in the same sentence. It makes me just as sick to think about what has happened.
Despite the tragedy, it was heart warming to welcome my students back to school yesterday and today even though they're too young to know about the recent events. For me, it was a reminder of how much trust their parents have to leave their precious, tiny children in my hands for a few hours each day.
There have been extra "goodbye" or "how was your day" hugs but for the most part, life seems the same in my class as usual, except for these few sweet stories...
Yesterday as one of my dads dropped off and later picked up his son like he does every Monday repeatedly told me, "Thank you for all you do."
This morning, one of my loving moms got down on her knees to give her daughter a hug and held on to her a few extra seconds. When Mom stood and her daughter confidently walked into the room, Mom's eyes filled with tears. It was so heard to watch, but so beautiful to see.
During circle time this morning, my smallest little girl with the cutest little speech delays you've ever heard said , "Ms. Richardson, for Christmas I'm thankful for you".
Later in the morning, one of my sweet little girls came up to me and said "I love you Ms. Richardson."
While kind words like this often come from preschoolers, it meant so much more hearing them today.

Broken Hearts in Newtown

It's been four days since the horrific shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School and it still consumes my every thought and wakes me during the night. A million thoughts run through my head during all hours of the day and night...those poor children who lost their lives, how are the little survivors supposed to ever recover from this, oh how my heart breaks for the families who lost their child, those teachers are heroes, those children are braver than superheros, what would I do if this happened at my school, what do I do or say to my preschoolers if they ask about it, for crying out loud these are CHILDREN!
CHILDREN!
I've watched death happen before my own eyes and I've hit the rock bottom of grief. Both of which still linger in my heart and mind every day. Grief is the worst thing my heart has ever felt. It's something I never, ever want to experience again. EVER! Yet there are hundreds of innocent children in Newtown who are in the midst of it. My heart breaks for them.
My hope is that something like this never happens again in our schools.

Presidential Events in Fifth Grade

As I watch the presidential election tonight on television I am reminded of a day in the classroom almost four years ago.

DON'T WORRY!
THIS STORY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHICH SIDE YOU ARE ON OR WHO YOU VOTED FOR!!

On January 20, 2009 Barack Obama was inaugurated as President of the United States. At that time, I was student teaching in fifth grade at an elementary school in Laguna Niguel. We arranged for the fifth graders to watch the inauguration on the big screen in the Multi-Purpose Room.
We sat and watched...And watched...And watched...
Honestly, I don't remember much of it, but what I do remember is something I will never forget.
To my surprise, the students were so engrossed in the historical event, they did what the live audience did at the inauguration. Almost anytime the audience gave a standing ovation, our fifth graders stood and applauded. When the audience was asked to stand, our fifth graders stood. When the audience applauded, so did our students. And when the audience stood, took their hats off, put their hands over their hearts and sang the national anthem or a patriotic song, our fifth graders did the very same thing.
The incredible thing is, these 10 year olds participated on their own!
We NEVER told them to take part in what was happening on the TV. We NEVER asked them to stand, applaud, sing the songs, etc. We only told them to sit quietly and watch. Yet, us teachers SAT there and watched our fifth graders VOLUNTARILY, and without hesitation, participate as if they were a part of the live audience. They were fully engrossed in that historical event which is still so incredible regardless of who was becoming our president.
It still amazes me when I think about it.
Those fifth graders are now in ninth grade!
Gosh, this makes me feel old!

Wet Shoes

Last Thursday was an extremely rainy day for So Cal standards. Much to my surprise, my class handled it incredibly well, other that they arrived at school during the biggest down pour of rain we have seen in a year or more. All of them were soaked from head to toe!
VERY SOAKED! 
Every morning I greet each student at the door, give them a hug and expect a "good morning" or "hi" or some sort of response back from them. On this rainy day, one of my little three and a half year old girls stopped in the doorway when I greeted her. Instead of responding to my greeting she said in her cute, squeaky voice, "Wait! I have to dump the rain out of my shoes!" And then sits down in the door way like they normally do when they have to dump the sand out after recess. She rips off one shoe, turns it over to dump it out, puts it back on and does the same with the other shoe. Of course there was no rain IN her shoe, but it probably felt like there was.
How simple their little minds think!
I long for the day when simply dumping the rain out of my shoes would solve all my worries!

"What's my name?"

Working with preschoolers and having a really long name like Ms. Richardson results in being called some very interesting things...

1. MRS. Richardson...students, parents, coworkers, etc ALWAYS marry me off! The sad thing is, I constantly call myself Mrs. Richardson too.
2. Teacher...to which I respond, "What's my name?"
3. Ms. Witch-ardson...I try not to take this one personally even though I really love Halloween and witches. In my students defense, the beginning sound of "R" is hard to pronounce at their age.
4. Richardson...said by one of my afternoon kids who I've had for 2 years now. And said in a tone that adults use when they might say "damn it" in an angry tone. But he's never angry. EVER! It just comes across that way only when he said my name. And he has NEVER used the Ms. part. It makes me smile inside every time he says it.
5. Mom...they're little kids! Of course they get confused and call me mom in a weak moment. We've all done it at some point during our school years.
6. Aunt Teri...for the past two years I've had two of my nieces in my class who call me Aunt Teri. They called me that at school too, which I let them get away with because to them, that is who I am. The funny thing is, both years there was a few girls in the class who tried to call me Aunt Teri too. One of the girls happens to be a girl who's family I have been babysitting for since before she was even born. She seemed to think she would get away with it because she was aware that we had a special connection too unlike the rest of the kids. I definitely didn't let that fly.

There's more, but these are the classics, and the only ones I can think of at the moment.

You Get What You Get...

There's a saying in preschool that goes "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit". We use it most when students say things like "But I want pink" or "I don't like this one"....
My afternoon class is a little crazy, mainly because I'm by myself with 11 preschoolers who are either full of energy or want to just fall asleep (and to be honest, all I want to do is fall asleep too). Yesterday was crazier than normal in a lot of ways. Two seconds before the clean up bell was going to ring, I spotted a boy who had gone potty in his pants for the second time in a week. I sent him into the bathroom, had my snack helper ring the clean up bell, dashed out to the boy's bucket to get his change of clothes, tossed the clothes into the bathroom in hopes that maybe this time he could change all by himself, rallied the rest of the class to clean up every inch of the carpet area they had been playing on, all while trying to throw snack out on the tables because right after clean up is snack. If you're not one step ahead of preschoolers, you've lost them for the day. At this moment I was no where near one step ahead which resulted in all my students (minus the one in the bathroom still standing there in his wet underwear and pants) sitting at the tables with a cup of water and a napkin in front of them wondering where the rest of their snack was. This is where I lost them. 10 kids sitting there acting and sounding like wild animals while I try to pass out bananas. Chris is loudly saying "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah..."which can be heard over all the other ciaos. As his neighbor Nate shouts out "I don't like bananas. I don't want one!" I think in my head "I need to tell Chris to Shhhhh!!!!" but realized I needed to address the "I don't like bananas" issue first and then tell Chris to "Shhhh!!!" So I turn to Nate and start to say "You get what you get and you don't throw a....". In the back of my head I'm still thinking "Shhhhhh Chris". So what ends up coming out of my mouth is "You get what you get and you don't throw a sh*t"....because what happens when you combine the words "fit" and "shhh"?....yes, "sh*t"! I said sh*t in preschool!! Fortunately it either went right over the kids head OR they didn't hear it because they were making so much noise. As I'm literally doubled over laughing at what I just said I hear Chris start to repeat the saying and start to panic that he is going to repeat exactly what I just said. Thankfully, he said it the right way and then shut himself up.
Ooops, Ms. Richardson lost her brain for a second! That was a close call.

The sweetest story

The first story I have to share is a sweet story rather than a funny. A few days before preschool started my cousin and her daughters made a surprise visit to my classroom. I had Grace in my class 2 years ago and Ruby last year. This will be the first year without seeing my love bugs EVERY DAY for two years. It really does make my heart sad. Anyways, Katie and I were chatting as the girls patiently stood and had a look around the room. After a few minutes, Grace interrupts our conversation by randomly blurting out to no one in particular, "It's like your dreams came true." Katie asked her what she meant and she responded, "Aunt Teri! It's like her dreams came true!" Katie and I both looked at her puzzled and asked again what she meant. Grace explained to me, "I remember you told me a long time ago you dreamed of becoming a teacher and now you have your own classroom. It's like your dreams came true." She said it so sweet and innocently, with so much thought, care and excitement. She realized something that had never even occurred to me. This is why I love her more than I could ever explain...Yes Grace, this has been a dream of mine and it has come true!

Funnies

I decided I needed to start a blog to keep track of all my work stories. Almost daily something happens that makes me think "I gotta remember that" and I never do remember it. Now that I have my very own classroom, why not have my very own blog to keep track of all the "funnies" that happen. With 45 students, there's bound to be a lot of funnies. But in order to keep things confidential, I'll change the names of the students in my stories.

funnies = funny stories