Tamer Things

All first and second grade teacher RELISH winter break.  No duh, you say.  Who wouldn’t devour three weeks off, not a care in the world (NOTE: failing economy with daily headlines about the Governator cutting jobs, cutting education budgets, cutting the school year, cutting yacht taxes… hmm…one of these things just doesn’t belong here.)  But I digress.  We teachers of younger beings particularly relish winter break because we know that when we return, the wild things will be tamer.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

He returns 5-7-year olds to their January classrooms noticeably kinder, gentler, wiser, more focused, less squirmy, and able to pee at appropriate times of the day.

I returned today somewhat stunned to be back on campus.  My charges felt the same way.  Except for two, who were far more than stunned.  They were bawling.

Both boys.  Randy (who is turning into our class crier) and Osvaldo.

Me: Hi guys!  Welcome back!  Are you so excited to learn a trillion new things?!

An eager chorus of voices: Yes!  Hi Ms. B!!  Yeah!  Hurrah!  Awesome!  Woo-hoo!

From the back of the line:  Weeehnguh! Hnuhnn! Hungg! Waaaaaaaaah!

I herded the rest of the crew into the classroom–where, in their newly mature guises, they remembered they were supposed to get out their homework packets and begin reading–while isolating my two weepers in the semi-privacy of the front stoop.

Me:  What’s up, guys?  Why are we weeping?

Randy:  Waaaaaah!

Osvaldo (slurping):  Eeeeemigomooommmy!

Me: Let’s take a deeeep breath.

Breaths.  Many breaths.

Me (suspecting missing homework packets might be the underlying issue):  Did you forget your homework?

Osvaldo (wailing):  I miiiiiiiissssssss my mommmmmmeeeeeee!

Me: Is she away?  Will you see her today?

Osvaldo (sniffling):  Yes.

Me: You march yourself into that classroom and act like a second grader.  You’re going to learn a lot of new things today, and then you’re going to go home and tell your mommy all of it.  Now GO!

Randy remained.  Crying even harder.  I just knew it was a homework thing.

Me: Randy, did you forget your homework?

Randy:  My mommy took it.  I left the pages on the table and she took them and my brother took them and…

OK.  So maybe, not all of them were visited by the maturity Santa Claus.  But MOSTLY THEY WERE.

They worked so hard today.  They wrote and wrote.  They practiced telling time and doing subtraction with regrouping.  They sat through a very boring discipline assembly with barely a fidget.  They smiled.  They discussed their vacations.  They wrote about their vacations.  They thought about their goals for 2009. They learned about Martin Luther King, Jr. and responded thoughtfully and bravely to a racist role-playing demonstration.  In short, they were awesome.

And as I began testing (yup,  mandated testing on day 1 back from break), the half that I tested today had increased their reading fluency by 20-40 words per minute since I last tested them at the end of October.

Now that’s a lovely Xmas present.

Almost as good as three blissful weeks of sun, surf, and sand.

Let’s hope tomorrow’s half does the same.