Some snippets from my week (a fun week, but a loooong week) visiting the classes at the elementary school, doing my regular job in the children’s room in the afternoon, and tutoring in the evening:
A third grader, standing in line to get his summer reading bag today, twinkled his eyes at me and said, “My sister knows you really well!” “Ah,” I said, “Your sister is Rachael…and I know your sister pretty well, too!”  (His sister is a three year old toddler storytime regular.) He grinned from ear to ear.
Tutoring yesterday, I had to dictate this sentence to A.: “Gerry is a terrific person.” I dictated the sentence, she repeated it back to me, and then she did what she often does – put her left arm kind of over her work so she could write without me seeing. When she finished writing, we started the proofreading process, and she stifled a couple of nervous giggles before I figured out what was going on. She had written the sentence twice, once just as dictated, and a second time this way: “Abby is a terrific person.”
Yesterday afternoon, after I had spent the day at the elementary school, two second grade girls came up to my desk hand-in-hand and said, “We just wanted to say ‘thank you’ for coming to our school and reading to us today!” “Oh,” I said, “It was my pleasure! Thank you for letting me come visit!” The two girls giggled and blushed and dashed away as if they had just spoken to a celebrity.
Tonight my other student, M., told me the results of the fourth grade spelling bee that she participated in this week: she made it to next week’s finals! This is a student who struggles with encoding and decoding, and who has been working with me using the Wilson Reading System for the last year and a half or so, and she correctly spelled seven out of eight words given to her. The only word she missed? Average. Not bad, considering it’s usually pronounced as a sight word (most people don’t pronounce the “er”). Yay! Way to go, M.!!
Yesterday morning, as I was making my way through the school’s lobby to the school’s library, I passed by and greeted another one of my toddler storytime regulars, who was with his mom dropping off his sister for kindergarten. Liam’s jaw dropped when he saw me, and he stood there frozen in place, watching me go into the school library. Shortly thereafter, he and his mom followed me in, and she (a wonderful, wonderful mother, by the way) smiled at me and said that she was just going to give Liam a little orientation and explain about the school library and why he was seeing me there and not in my usual spot. Liam still looked a bit shell-shocked by the whole experience.
Today a young man, an afternoon regular at the library, came into the room and said hi to me, and I responded by wishing him a happy birthday. “Wait a sec…” he said, “How did you know it was my birthday????” “Well, I saw your name at the top of the list on a white board…” “YOU were at MY SCHOOL??? Wow. Wait, why were you at my school?” (He’s a fifth grader, and a smart one.)
And my favorite moment, the one that pumped up my flagging ego: in the fifth grade class that I visited on Tuesday, there were two of my book group girls. One of them, Sophia, raised her hand and asked me, “Did you get a haircut?” When I said yes, the other, Madeline, told me, “It looks really pretty!!!” That’s just the kind of moment every girl (ok, almost forty-year-old girl) needs now and then.Â
It’s been a really great week visiting the school. Lots and lots of great kids, and more stories than I have room for here. Though I’ll be totally and completely and thoroughly worn out by the time I’m done tutoring tomorrow night, I’ll also have enjoyed one of my favorite parts of the year. A favorite part that’s been even better this year, since more kids know me now and thus have been attentive and terrific audiences for the stories I’ve read to them in their classes.
And not to forget my two tutoring students, who have very few lessons left (two for M., one for A.), and whom I’ll really miss this summer. We’ve developed a special bond, and become great learning teams. Though the tutoring exhausts me beyond measure (just that much extra time and energy spent on the top of an already very busy day), I also find it deeply rewarding. Great kids with great attitudes and personalities who have made great progress in our time working together.
Your stories off being seen in a place outside your normal turf reminded me of when I was teaching and would run into one of my students at the grocery store (which is 38 miles from where I taught, but only 7 miles from where I live) or a restaurant or at the movies. They’d look at me, do a double take, explode with “Oh, hi Mrs. Fickett! What are YOU doing here?” I think it was hard to reconcile the woman in the classroom with the mom/wife/woman who needs to eat, shop, and be entertained. As in everything else, context is so important to understanding!
Thanks. I really enjoyed these scenes.
It is funny how kids, especially younger kids, struggle with finding their teacher (or librarian) out of her usual context. It’s as though the kids have never considered the fact that the teacher (or librarian) has a life outside the school (or library). One little boy who comes to my youngest storytime calls the library “Abby’s house.” And is very disturbed when Abby isn’t in her house.