Back to School

School is back in session. This year I changed from Kindergarten to 4th grade. It has been quite a switch. I expected the kids to be much more mature and independent than kindergarteners, I was wrong. I constantly have to repeat directions and I have had to ask more than one person to remove a foreign object from their mouth. I am adjusting and hopefully by next week I'll be settled in.

Some of the funniest moments so far have been:

• in the cafeteria two boys tapped their milks on the table, did a "cheers", and then chugged it. Making me wonder, "where have they seen flip cups?"
• a boy said, "damn" while reading his social studies book
• a boy asks every day to go to the clinic, "it's an emergency"
• after I wrote my name on the board, a boy wrote his teacher was Ms. Buttry
• a boy wore bright lime green shorts yesterday, this same boy regularly sings Britney Spears songs

I am very nervous about my class passing all of their state tests this year. They don't seem to have much of a clue about the world. Today when I asked what they knew about the water cycle a boy said, "don't kill all the animals or there won't be any animals left.......in the ocean". Not quite, my friend.

I am teaching in a trailer at the end of the trailer park. Here are a few pictures of my new home.



The "trailer park" is located across the bus lane from the main school and contains about 40 trailers. It is a loooong walk to any where, including the bathroom and the cafeteria. I should be pretty skinny by the end of the year.