4 weeks down!

I knew I would be bad about updating this thing!

This first month of school has been AMAZING! I love my class, they are wonderful. I have some tough kiddos, but it makes it challenging. I have been making a lot of games for my classes and they seem to love them so far. They are so excited to "play" in school and they don't realize they are learning/practicing. I'm loving the Kagan things that I have implemented so far and they are so beneficial.

I have chosen my first student of the month. He doesn't know yet, I want it to be a surprise for him, he has never been chosen before. I was warned about him by his previous teacher. I already knew him before this year. He was sent to my room last year to await a parent-teacher-student conference because of his poor behavior. While he was in my room, he got in serious trouble. This year, he has been wonderful. He is very responsible, gets all of his work done, and well. Does extra work, is super helpful and overall a fabulous kid. Every week we have "Buddies" with a second grade class. His young buddy is a behavior problem and is all over the place. My student is so cute with his buddy. Yesterday he said that Step 4 is not a place you want to be because it doesn't feel good. (Step 4 is when you go to another room, which is why he came to me last year.) I called his dad yesterday to let him know that I selected him as student of the month and dad was shocked. I told him all the reasons why and he was completely floored. He thanked me and said he was proud. My heart melted. I'm so excited for him to hear his name called in front of the whole school. I'm keeping it a secret from him (usually the kids know ahead of time) and I asked his dad not to mention it, also. I can't wait to see his reaction!

This past Thursday was Open House night. I only had 8 families come out of 29. However, I got to meet a bunch of families from the other classes, since I see all 3 classes for Social Studies. It was great. One little girl, as she was leaving introduced me as her "next door teacher". It was so cute. We all laughed. Then a mom told us a story about her son. She is pregnant and was asking her son if he wanted a boy or a girl. We'll call him Johnny and her Sue. Johnny asked what she wants and Sue said she just wants a healthy baby, Johnny agreed. Well this week Sue found out she is having a boy. Johnny said, "mommy can I tell you the truth, I have been praying for a baby brother and I think God listened!" Sue said she broke down and now is so thankful it's a boy. All three of us did the "AWWWW" in unison and I of course almost cried. It was such a sweet story.

That's all for now. I need to get to planning and cutting for more folder games. More to come later, eventually! Once I figure out how to post pictures, I will.