school

The beauty of being a woman...
10:30 AM "I LOVE this school. I LOVE my students. This is better than I could have imagined."
2:00 PM "I don't know if I can do this."

Thus was my day. My first full day of teaching.  Monday and Tuesday were half days, and I got quite used to them (so did the students).  I tried not to take it personally when the kids were asking, "Mees, I go home now?"  But honestly, my students are incredible.  It never ceases to amaze me how much love little kids have bottled up inside that they just pour all over the place all day long.  What happened to us adults?  It's those times when you have your back turned and all of the sudden you feel little arms around you for five seconds before they go bolting back to whatever they were doing; those are the golden moments that keep you going when their tiny eyes and tiny hands can't seem to control themselves in school.  This is definitely where I want to be; it's just hard to remember sometimes in the afternoon. What I love most about first grade is not just the love factor the students give, but also how excited they are about school.  I am teaching them to raise their hands to answer questions, but they just can't contain themselves when they know the answer.  It spills out.  Also, whenever they finish a paper, they come up to me and say, "Mees, look, I finish!"  It's just plain adorable. 

If you haven't caught on yet, they call me "Mees" because the "i" sound in Spanish sounds like "e."  Wrasman is apparently pretty hard to pronounce, but the kids know it.  They just prefer "Mees" or "teacher," and I rather like it too.  Probably the biggest challenge right now is that my students speak Spanish, and it makes it hard to get to know them (and, of course, teach them in English). It feels bittersweet when one of them comes up to me and rambles off a story in their native tongue, and all I really caught was "esta" or "tengo."

One story from this week that has grabbed my heart is prayer time.  I'm so glad to be teaching in a Christian school.  I have one little boy who always volunteers to pray (and well, he's kind of the only one who can do it in English).  But his prayers are so pure and good: "Jesus, thank you for today. Thank you for the third day of first grade.  Thank you for a great day tomorrow. Amen." 

Amen.