more art retreat pics with a new-school story that won't match. pshaw! you don't care.
i love the class i inherited! i'm fascinated by all the chinese students & staff. in case you didn't know it i love to be surrounded by a culture completely different than my own. it was the same at the last school i was stationed at. i was always surrounded by native spanish speakers. i delight in being privy to a fascinating secret world.
today during breakfast in the classroom one of the students wanted to know what the funny thing wrapped in the tortilla was called. "a quesadilla," i told her. the ones who heard my reply thought that was the funniest word and impossible to pronounce. i share their tongue twisting confusion when i pronounce some of their names. they are different and beautiful! in another week they'll come more automatically.
i've inherited an extremely dirty & disheveled classroom. the desk and all other surfaces were piled high with…debris. i found a shriveled pear underneath a pile of paper on my new desk. if/when the regular teacher returns i doubt she will mind that i have organized everything for her and thrown out a ton of garbage she definitely didn't need. i told the kids that our first order of business was cleaning up the classroom! during recess i've enlisted some excellent helpers to assist me in removing dust & grime from every surface. books are coming out of boxes and being lined up on the newly cleaned bookshelves. teacher manuals are being corralled into one location and labeled. everything is being herded and categorized. including the kids. i've changed their seats, moved their desks, and put them in an ordered line. ms. moss cannot function in a disaster area.
today i began my after-lunch story reading ritual. i brought one of my roald dahl anthologies and started reading esio trot. what a pleasure to read to 5th graders. i carved out a small reading space. half the class sits around me on the floor and the rest sit at their desks to listen. when i first began, some of the students were reading or writing, i didn't say anything to them, but after a few pages everyone had swiveled their heads and layed down their pencils.
and also…the principal is very nice. a pleasant person with a very agreeable disposition. i'm keeping my fingers crossed that my temporary position can become permanent, but if not i'll just move along to the next place and continue my rotations through the schools till my new home is found.
2 days till the weekend working stiffs! a 48 hour recess will be just what i need…
I will have to say that my second grade teacher reading to our class during lunch is what got me into books. I think it was “Tales of the 4th Grade Nothing”. That led to me being a bookworm and I think that is what separates me from the rest of my family in the best way possible. I think it’s amazing what you do!!
Hi Mary Ann, I love your passion for teaching and your students. I am a teacher as well in Sydney and completely understand where you are coming from. your students are lucky to have you and I hope you find a permanent position soon so you can make it your one. I am totally inspired by your work and love to see your art journal.
Sarah
And I love this too!!
What a lovely beginning…ordering and cleaning the physical space together is so validating for the kids, as well as being crucial to you. What a wonderful learning community. I always had a secret desire to walk into the classroom on the first day of school and construct it together with the students, instead of having them walk into the space I created for them. I hope, for their sakes, that you get to stay with them for a while.
I love the photo of your sister and Pam taking photos of journals. No wonder my pictures turn out all wrong. Clearly, I’m not taking my life in my own hands by perching on a chair!! (eh, I have a heights thing ….)
Seems you have landed in a most perfect place (at least, for now)! So glad that you’ve a new culture to absorb and enjoy and so happy for the classroom (clean!) of new little ones to introduce into the world of MAM. I think you will all benefit from the cultural contact! Wish I was there for story time….
XO
What a blessing….for you and also for those students!!! I am sooo happy for you!! Your retreat looked sooo relaxing and fun. And what a trio you must be!! You are also sooo blessed with your sisters and Pam as a friend….I might add….they are blessed by your friendship and presence in their lives too….you can just see it!!! It is a picture that makes one want to cultivate that special togetherness with a sis or friend!!
Karma in action! You have given others so much eye candy and humor and honesty. Now you are being given a fresh experience that is much more to your liking! Others have said it better but I’ll restate: those kids and that school are very lucky. P.S. It’s FRIDAY!!!
Love that picture of people taking pictures at the art retreat. I wanted to send you a “puzzle” in pig Latin but it got too complicated! Oodga uckla!
Sounds like a good group has found you! I look forward to hearing your stories about your new “temporary?” home. As someone who has taught 2nd for 14 years, a move to upper is sometimes on the horizon. I love my kiddos, but each year their behavior is becoming more and more difficult due to what I can only figure are societal changes. Maybe your experience will encourage me to take the plunge! 🙂 Good luck and happy (almost) Friday!
Mary Ann, Those fifth graders are SO lucky!!!!!! I wish I had been at your parent meeting, maybe sitting in a back corner desk where i could go, ” Psst…..Psst…..Ah, you are so lucky to have your children in this room with Ms. Moss . Just wait and see….it will be wonderful! ” I am also very happy for you too, Mary Ann! What a breath of fresh air for you, for however long it may last! I am certainly thinking of you these days.
想象一下，你现在要熟练掌握中国。哈哈哈哈哈哈。我喜欢谷歌翻译！很高兴听到你爱你的新类，并最好希望有一个好年！Just a little puzzle for you:)
I didn’t read the comments above, you get so many, so forgive me if I am unknowingly repetitious?
Anyway, I want to add my sigh of relief for you.
From a retired teacher here , I have silently felt for you as you courageously regrouped to return to battle
and I really feel you will ultimately conquer and thrive.
And of course, they will soon realize how lucky they are. We already know.
What a yucky start having to clean up the old teacher’s mess. But you will really be leaving your mark on that room, hee hee! Hope you continue to love the school, kids and principal.
Second, you find the coolest places to stay for retreats-did you 3 make the paper things hanging above the table or were they there? Love those tealight holders!
Third, please tell Carol, do not stand on transparent or any other chairs to take photos of books. Put the books on the floor and look down on them with your feet firmly on the floor as well!! tsk, tsk!
Fourth, what is that striped “thing” that Pam is wearing? I want that, too!
That’s all from me. Have a great weekend!
I must say, you have a great attitude and one great website/blog.
Congratulations!
You’re amazing. Those students are sooooo lucky.
Great news about your fortunate fifth grade! And you’ve traveled to a new place without even leaving moss cottage. xox
My sixth grade teacher would read to our class for half an hour after lunch. I loved that ritual. I’ve always loved stories, but she was the one who really cemented my belief in the power of words, the transporting experience of being somewhere else, part of a world that was very different from my own. Bless you for bringing stories to these children who are more tech savvy than their elders, who are growing up in a world so different from mine at that age. Yet the power of words still moves people at a level that can’t be touched by all this high tech gadgetry. It’s the power of imagination, of wonder, of wanting to know what’s coming next. Nothing can equal that! I can’t wait to hear what your art sessions are like with this class.
EEEWWW on what the permanent teacher left behind for you…filthy class room, disorder? Who can learn in such an environment?
Mary Ann, prepare for more serendipitous luck and wonderful developments. I can feel them coming : ) And even just the reading of your organizing made my day feel clearer!
mary ann, i am so happy for you. glad that you have landed in a position that you will enjoy. i bet those kids are glad to have a clean and organized classroom. and they will slowly learn how lucky they are to have you for their new teacher. look forward to hearing about and seeing these kids and their creative monkey adventures.
mary in northern new york where the wind chill is -5, brrrrrrr!
I am excited!! Can’t wait to read the next installment of your teaching adventures and see how it subtly works it’s way into your journals!!!
Missy from the bayou
What a blessing after the chaos of your last class! I’m so happy for you. You must have been in heaven getting it organized.
Erin in Morro Bay
can’t wait to see the journals you will create with the 5th graders…this is my favorite grade level…all of the curriculum is so fun to teach, especially when they want to learn. I recall one class I had…41 students, algebra advanced placement…fun yes…problem 30 desks and 30 books…not fun…enjoy!
What lucky pups those 5th graders are to have you in their lives and classroom. And what a great stroke of luck that you inherited them. The opportunities for learning are going to flow both ways—for them and for you! The fact that you are taking matters in hand in that classroom will help you establish authority and be a great lesson (among the others you will teach) that they can take with them going forward in their education. Even messy folks need to have some “order” in their lives and who better to convey that than you?
The Art Retreat Pictures that you just keep taunting us with….OK, you’re just sharing your experience, right?….are icing on the cake. I echo the post above that said it’s cold in Florida. Yep. Sure is. Expecting a hard freeze tonight here in NW Florida and colder next week. So your pictures of that inviting pool remind us that even as we shiver and sip hot tea, there are places that are warm and where the swimming pool can be USED instead of just be a backdrop in a photograph!
Glad to hear your life is still continuing to move along it’s interesting path. We’re all ears (or should I say eyes?) to hear/see more!
Melinda is right, you do sound like Mary Poppins! Ugh, I would be scrubbing out that classroom too. A clean, fresh start is just the thing for you and those kids. They are lucky to have you and it sounds like you are going to enjoy your time with them, yippee! I for one think the photos and the story go perfectly together, the beautifully presented art retreat location is a standin for your newly tidied classroom and Carol and Pam are your fascinating and fascinated students, as you are theirs! 😉
As other have said, maybe your role IS to bring order and the joy in learning to many, many schools. So many places in our lives need just that and it’s definitely one of your gifts.
YIPPEEEEEE! You have found a classroom who needs and appreciates your wonderfulness – and I do hope that will become permanent if that is what’s meant to be. And back at the Art Retreat: the pool, the covered patio seating, the fabulous decor, the captivating artists and their work…a divine intervention!
what a wonderful adventure you’re on!!
Yeah- glad to hear this new school is so fantastic. Who can keep their classroom so dirty though? Yuk. Enjoy the rest of your week.
I taught (subbed long term) a mixed third and fourth grade class for a while. Reading to them was such a treat. It sounds as though this situation will be totally different for you than the last one. Hurrah for you!
Didn’t know good souls like you still exist, Ms. Moss. xoxoo
Congratulations! Lovely pics.
Congratulations on your new class! Many years ago, I had a 5/6 combination class of second language Chinese and Hispanic students. It was AWESOME! The kids taught me SO MUCH. They taught me how to make kites, piñatas, New Year celebration decorations and lots more. My favorite part of all was their curiosity. It made teaching them a joy. And Roald Dahl…one of my all time favorites. My grown daughter, Tessa, is named after one of his daughters. So many connections.
Enjoy your new kiddoes!
Don’t hate me for saying this, but I almost hope you don’t get to stay at this school permanently, because now I have this picture in my head of you going from school to school leaving a trail of freshly cleaned classes and kids full of wonder with a new found love for storytelling. People will come to these schools and go ‘what happened here?’ and they’ll answer ‘Oooh, Mary Ann was here!’. 😉
It could be like your superpower, breathing fresh air into schools!
On a completely different note: is there anything more attractive than a picture full of paint brushes? I don’t think so!
So glad you are happy with your new students, tho the classroom sounds pretty darn horrible, I’m with you, I’d be up and cleaning straight away, putting things in happy, new homes. 5 graders make super duper helpers. Your retreat pics are a delight and then some, all that sunshine and sparkly, shiny surfaces and that pool…skooch over while I do a rip roarin cannon ball right in the middle, course that would cause a tidal wave as well as empty the pool…just joshin’ but whoop, whoop, I do love water. I’d be floating in one of those big blow up chairs with cup holders and sipping a fizzy lifting drink. The 3 of you look so content and happy it makes my heart skip a beat thinking about how much fun you had together and you all deserved a little getaway. GO TEAM MOSS/GARRISON!!!! Rah Rah Rah!!!!!
So glad to hear you got a good classroom and a good principal! After what you went through BS (before sabbatical), you certainly deserve it. I can’t imagine how a teacher (the one currently not there) could be so disorganized, such a hoarder! Is she on mental-health leave? — I say that only partly tongue-in-cheek. Anyway, enjoy the heck out of this phase of your teaching career!
1978…my first year teaching…32 first graders (remember ‘Math Their Way’? manipulatives up the ying yang)…28 were Cambodian boat children…very little English, but they took notes(!) to teach their parents, who made me warm pork bao in the morning…we learned sign language and made peanut butter wontons…BEST class ever!!! Enjoy the magic!!
As I scrolled the first three pics, with the post-name, I thought you’d found the coolest school ever…
lovely to hear you waving your magic streamlining wand around overthere.
The kids will love that, too.
I had fab Chinese neighbours in London, I often had dinner with them, everyone yabbering, forgetting I couldn’t speak/understand. I always felt like I was on holiday when I went over for our delicious feeds. YumYum!
And the soaps on satelite teevee were the maddest. I liked the ‘do’s and the costumes of the historical-set ones.
My little girl-pal called me ‘honey-jaihn’, a version of ‘anteejaihn’, from when she was tiny. Ahhh I miss them!
When she was first learning to talk, I asked ‘what did she say?’ ‘No, not Chinese – juss Rubbish’, they replied. So funny.
Wish you continuing sparkling brightly with your new pals, for however long your paths meet, too.
xxxj
Lucky kids!!! I hope you can stay too. If one has to work for the pennies, better that they be shiny ones.
It’s cold here. (Yes in FL; don’t laugh! Really, it’s true!) I have my toes on my European old-fashioned hot water bottle, cup of herbal tea, and your blog.
Not bad way to fall asleep.
I cracked up imagining the funny things that were coming out of your mouth and the countenance of your face as you ordered these fifth graders around. I loved reading the details of your classroom and how you took your Mary Poppins magic and transformed the space and environs . I hope you stay there for a good long while. Your art retreat looks amazing Carol seems so endearing! Bravo MS. Moss really miss you!
I could picture all of it as you and the kids cleaned and organized that classroom and you read them a story that held their attention. Fingers crossed you get to stay there! And the art retreat pics – I feel like a fly on the wall, seeing/hearing all your fun!
I’m amazed how your spirit leads you to the best adventures. Or maybe it’s your spirit that makes the best adventures out of wherever you’re led. Either way you inspire me to make my life better.
Kudos to you and many thanks!
Oh Mary Ann. What music to my ears!! I’m so SO glad you have a nice (albeit disheveled) class. I will keep my toes crossed for you- a good/nice principal is like finding a unicorn, hope you can stay. Hugs, Tanya