For those of you who may not be aware, I'm in the midst of student teaching. I spent the first half of the semester in a fourth grade class. Fourth grade was good to me. I could joke around with the students, the students still looked up to me (two of them cried when I left), and the students were able to do a wide range of things independently.
Now, I'm in a first grade class.
I don't want to sound like a whiner-pants, but man, I miss fourth grade.
Sure, the first graders are adorable. That's one of the things they have going for them. I have nieces in first grade that I adore, so it's not necessarily the kids that are the problem.
The problem lies in these factors:
-Half of the students don't know how to tie their own shoes.
-The runny noses.
-The student artwork that ends up dripping great gobs of glue.
-We sing the same five songs Every. Single. Day. While repetition is a good thing, and I'm sure it's great for the kids, I have a harder time appreciating the songs when they're stuck in my head at night so I can't fall asleep.
-The students are not allowed to sharpen their own pencils. As such, the teacher and I spend about 345,602 minutes a day sharpening pencils for the students. I'm becoming quite the professional pencil sharpener.
Oh, the pencil sharpening! This gives me the most grief of all.
Now, in an attempt to be more positive about this experience, here are the things I've enjoyed about first grade:
-The read alouds. I won't lie, I pretty much captivate those kids when I read to them. I like to think it's because of my great use of expression.
-The students, for the most part, are eager to please. And most of them have a positive attitude about schoolwork still.
-The hugs.
-The students rockin' out, singing and dancing along to a song that was playing before an assembly today.
So I suppose first grade isn't so bad. But you better believe I'm visiting my fourth graders during their Christmas party in December.
I hear you on every word of this.
ReplyDeleteExcept the kids I see every day are even younger. But I still hear you.