A few weeks ago, I used a "jeans pass" and wore a new pair of jeans to school. I was sitting at the front of the room in one of the little chairs with the kids gathered around me for our writing time. I was writing some thoughts on the chart paper when I heard some of the kids snickering. I turned to look at them and said, "What are you guys laughing at?" There's one boy in my class who always does and says the right thing. He looked straight at me and said, "Mrs. Kerby, they're laughing at you." I said, "Oh, really...what is so funny?" The other kids were still snickering a bit and the little boy said rather reluctantly, "Well, Mrs. Kerby, they are laughing because we can see your undies!" Everyone broke into laughter. Those darn low-rise jeans! It was all I could do to keep a straight face and say, "Well it's not nice to laugh at someone. Next time, you should just tell me."
The same little boy who is very honest is also very concerned with my happiness. For instance, when he thinks that I'm stressed out or upset with the kids, he will come over and just pat me on the back. Not just a few times, but he will continue to pat my back until I finally have to ask him nicely to go to his seat. One day when I was on my knees helping another student at her table, he brought his chair up to me so I wouldn't have to be on my knees. What a sweetheart! He will make a good boyfriend someday!
I have one student who has been begging me to let him get on the computers at center time, even though it isn't his turn. After telling him no about a million times, he finally said, "But Mrs. Kerby, the computer is lonely and needs me to play with it!"
Our classroom has motion-censored lights and whenever we sit still long enough (I know...this is rare in kindergarten!) the lights turn off. The kids used to jump up and go crazy trying to get the lights to come on (they think this is funny) even though they are way too short for the censor. Well, they learned quickly that it isn't acceptable to me for them to go berserk. Now whenever it happens, the kids sit still and several of them say in unison, "Don't even think about it!" I must have said that once and it stuck with them!
Last Friday was 70s dress-up day at our school. About a week before, I started telling the kids so they would get excited about dressing up. When I told them we were going to dress up like the 1970s, they said, "Mrs. Kerby, what's the 1970s?" I started to describe it but it is very hard to put that in terms that a 5 year-old can understand. I finally told them that it happened a long time ago and that it was when I and most of their parents were born. They said, "But we don't have any clothes from back then!" They are too cute! Below is a groovy picture of me.
My last day in kindergarten will be December 21st and it is going to be very hard. I am very attached to a lot of these kids and am somewhat hoping that their teacher will decide to stay home with her baby. I have learned a lot from this experience...not only in the way of teaching, but I also think it will help me to be a better parent someday. What I love most about working with kids, especially kids this age, is that no matter how much they might get in trouble from me, they still love me and I still love them.
