my job

i just realized something. i haven't said a darn thing about my job on here yet, which is crazy, because my job is awesome and rife with hilarity on a daily basis.

if you didn't know, i hold the glorified position of teacher aide for the three first grade classrooms at an elementary school that shall remain unspecified (no point getting sued, now, is there?). basically, that means i'm teacher #2, but luckily, my kids don't know that. i'm a big person, and therefore, i am a legit teacher who can get them in BIG trouble. mostly, i work with either the class as a whole, just meandering and making sure nobody's dying, or--more frequently--i work with kids who are struggling on a one-on-one basis.

i also do a reading group each morning with the advanced readers, which is awesome, because in my 3-going-on-4 years as an aide, i've always worked with the kids who can't read a thing. it's kind of fun to be able to have conversations about books that don't involve dick OR jane OR spot. as an additional bonus, each page says something totally different than the page preceding it. it blows my mind that we actually condemn kids for succumbing to boredom when they read, "the mouse goes under the door. the cat goes under the door. the mouse goes over the broom. the cat goes over the broom," over and over--how does that make a story???

anyway, back to the job. there are a few constants: the aforementioned reading group, outside duty to pick up the kids in the morning (mostly i just dance around and freeze and make them count to 100 by 10s, 5s, and 2s, and they laugh at me and tell me i'm weird), and alphabet practice with on ESL student whom i ADORE. the kid knows 12 letters, which is 7 more than when we started our alphabet book together last month. i'm exceedingly proud of him. the idea behind the book is that he can add only the letters he knows by name and sound, and when he does learn a letter, he gets to draw a picture next to it that starts with that sound. we whip through the book each day at the beginning of our session, and i almost die laughing every time he says, "O, o, OCTOPOOOS!" there's no way to explain it, but the last syllable sounds so... strange...

this kid--i'm going to call him ernesto, because that's pretty much, well, not his name at all--"ernesto" is one of my favorites for many reasons. one is that he is so determined to learn absolutely nothing, but he does it with the biggest grin on his face. and actually, the past two weeks have seen enormous improvement in that arena; we learn a new letter every two days, which is huge. in fact, the other day, he wrote a story, and i didn't tell him a single letter. instead, i just sounded out the words with him. this is what he wrote:

halowen

hoos

skeleton!

i almost busted up with pride.

eh, more later. time for grocery shopping with al. sorry for the total lack of continuity and purpose in this post ; ) i just love my kidlets!