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:<\/p>\n
A\u00c2\u00a0third grader, standing in line to get his summer reading bag today, twinkled his eyes at me and said, “My sister <\/em>knows you really <\/em>well!”\u00c2\u00a0 “Ah,” I said, “Your sister is Rachael…and I <\/em>know your sister <\/em>pretty well, too!”\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 (His sister is a\u00c2\u00a0three year old toddler storytime regular.)\u00c2\u00a0 He grinned from ear to ear.<\/p>\n Tutoring yesterday, I had to dictate this sentence to A.:\u00c2\u00a0 “Gerry is a terrific person.”\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 She had written the sentence twice, once just as dictated, and a second time this way: “Abby is a terrific person.”<\/p>\n 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!”\u00c2\u00a0 “Oh,” I said, “It was my pleasure!\u00c2\u00a0 Thank you<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0for letting me come visit!”\u00c2\u00a0 The two girls giggled and blushed and dashed away as if they had just spoken to a celebrity.<\/p>\n Tonight my other student, M., told me the results of the\u00c2\u00a0fourth grade spelling bee that she participated in this week:\u00c2\u00a0 she made it to next week’s finals!\u00c2\u00a0 This is a\u00c2\u00a0student 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\u00c2\u00a0seven out of\u00c2\u00a0eight words given to her.\u00c2\u00a0 The only word she missed?\u00c2\u00a0 Average.\u00c2\u00a0 Not bad, considering it’s usually pronounced as a sight word (most people don’t pronounce the “er”).\u00c2\u00a0 Yay!\u00c2\u00a0 Way to go, M.!!<\/p>\n 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.\u00c2\u00a0 Liam’s jaw dropped when he saw me, and he stood there frozen in place, watching me go into the school library.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 Liam still looked a bit shell-shocked by the whole experience.<\/p>\n 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.\u00c2\u00a0 “Wait a sec…” he said, “How did you know it was my birthday????”\u00c2\u00a0 “Well, I saw your name at the top of the list on a white board…”\u00c2\u00a0 “YOU were at MY SCHOOL???\u00c2\u00a0 Wow.\u00c2\u00a0 Wait, why were you at my school?”\u00c2\u00a0 (He’s a fifth grader, and a smart one.)<\/p>\n And my favorite moment, the one that pumped up my flagging ego:\u00c2\u00a0 in the fifth grade class that I visited on Tuesday, there were two of my book group girls.\u00c2\u00a0 One of them, Sophia, raised her hand and asked me, “Did you get a haircut?”\u00c2\u00a0 When I said yes, the other, Madeline, told me, “It looks really pretty!!!”\u00c2\u00a0 That’s just the kind of moment every girl (ok, almost forty-year-old girl) needs now and then.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n It’s been a really great week visiting the school.\u00c2\u00a0 Lots and lots of great kids, and more stories than I have room for here.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n 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.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve developed a special bond, and become great learning teams.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 Great kids with great attitudes and personalities who have made great progress in our time working together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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\u00c2\u00a0third grader, standing in line to get his summer reading bag today, twinkled his eyes at me and said, “My … Continue reading Why kids are great<\/span>