Mornings with Miss Bishop

I have morning and afternoon bus duty. I'm there at 7:30 AM and I'm the first face some of the kids see in the morning and the last one the see as they load the bus. I love being able to greet them each day with a smile and a cheerful "good morning!".  I can somehow ignore that I am up earlier than anyone should be because I love seeing their sleepy smiles as they hop off the school bus. 

However, the older kids in the school do not really appreciate my chipper 'good morning's and 'have a good day's. They scowl and occasionally grumble back to me. They're still wiping the sleep out of their eyes and trying to wake up. It is almost as if once a student leaves Pre-K and goes into Kindergarten, they can no longer wish you a smile-laced "good morning". My babies are the only kids in the whole school who smile and wave at you when the get off the bus. I even get the occasional hug! K through 5 kids just give me death looks for smiling at them. 

I felt like I really bonded with Ben on the first day. The second day, I saw him hop off the bus and head towards me with a smile that made his little brown eyes disappear in his smooth olive skin. 

I said "Good morning Ben!" with excitement in my voice and a huge goofy smile on my face. 

Ben replies "Who are you?", all the while with his big, eye-disappearing smile still on his face.

Leave it to a preschooler to humble you every chance they get. 

What's In A Name?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose 

by any other name would smell as sweet"

 -Juliet, Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet

Does one's name really matter? The kids in my class cannot seem to get my name right, despite the fact that I knew all of their names on the first day. Four and five years olds have an adorable knack for forgetting and messing up all sorts of words but I really thought Miss Bishop was pretty easy. In just my first week, I have been called: 

Miss Fish

Miss Brooke

Miss Bush

and my very favorite, simply "teacher". 

I love to hear what they come up with. I guess one day they'll get it but there are much more important things for them to learn than my name...or at least that's what I'll keep telling myself. 

An Introduction: My Very First (Half) Week as a Pre-K Para-Pro

If you're looking at my blog, you may or may not know me. You may or may not be my friend on Facebook. 

But if you are, you might have noticed that I began working as a Pre-K Paraprofessional at a local elementary school. 

I came upon this job after I fell on hard times and had to move back home and in with my family.

I love my family. I was the college kid that came home all the time because I would just get plain ole homesick. But, it's different when you've experienced six whole months of living in your own house, with your own timeline and rules and level of cleanliness.

I moved back home the Friday before Thanksgiving. Around two weeks later, I interview for a Pre-K Para job, and about an hour after the interview, I received a call that I got it! It seemed to be a miracle.

I felt like I had spent two week applying everywhere. I was resistant to working in the school system initially, simply because it was something I felt was being pushed on me. My mother is an educator and loves her job. But I had other plans in mind and wanted to pursue those. I also wanted to relax, after having just left a very stressful and frustrating job.

But I figured I'd give it a shot and the more I thought about it, the more fulfilling I knew this job would be for me. I then began to really want this job. Most people would shudder at the thought of spending all day with a classroom full of 4 & 5 year olds but the thought of it made me nearly giddy.

I started the job, officially, on Tuesday but my first day with children in the classroom was Wednesday.

There are 22 students in Ms. Blalock's class, but one has been out sick this first week so I've been working with 21 kids. They are all so unique, each with their own life experiences, their own little personalities, and their own special classroom needs. 

My first day was all about learning the ropes and adjusting to our schedule. I get to take a small group of students to breakfast every morning. After breakfast, we do calendar time. On the first day, we had to switch the year from 2012 to 2013. So, the teacher who's classroom I'm in, Ms. Blalock, asks them what the year is now that we have gone into a new year. This precious little asian student, we'll call him  Ben, who is missing teeth and has a bit of a speech impediment yells "TWO FOU-SAND FURRTEEN!", in a very matter-of-fact manner. This little Ben is quite the handful. Smart as a whip, but quite active. If I was paid to tell Ben to "find his seat",  I'd be in Cabo with a drink in my hand, soaking up the sun.

Most of the little boys in my class just love on me, hugging me, and asking to hold my hand or sit by me. There are a few who just stared at me on the first day but have since warmed up to me and talked to me. The little girls in my class are hilarious. They are all just like little mothers. If there were only the girls in the class, there would be no need for the teachers to be there.

Probably one of the highlights of my first day was the discussion of birthdays. They were all telling me how old they were and, like kids tend to do, what age they would be on their next birthday, despite how far away that next birthday might be. I love to ask children questions, because they always have the BEST answers.
So I prompted them "So, how old do you think I will turn on my next birthday?"
The tallest little boy in the class, who we will call Kyle, says "hmmmmm....46?!"

...I guess it's my fault for asking...