I'm over it

So, I'm over my self. It might have had something to do with the fact that I engaged in many hours of writing with my students today. I found myself sticking out my tongue so you could see the "th" fly, blending and stretching like it was my job (which it is, by the way) and saying, "is that what you are trying to say?" over and over again. When you are six (and five and seven and twenty-nine), writing is a physical process. You break pencils because you are pressing down so hard. You spit because you are sounding something out. You use both hands almost all of the time. And, you fidget....you fidget a lot. I think one of my students walked a mile per page. Most of that mile was in the three square feet around his desk. My over developed sense of empathy makes their writing process almost as grueling for me as it is for them. I literally feel as if I have run many miles or talked for too long today. But, it was worth it; my students can do so much more now than they could do last year. I am about to take some time to examine their writing, use all of my training in literacy development, and figure out the next thing to do to teach them the next step.

The other thing that is making me happy is the fact that I have 24 sets of chopsticks in my purse right now. Tomorrow we are concluding our unofficial unit on Chinese Culture and we are celebrating by going to see Chinese folk dancers preform and eating bamboo with chopsticks. I'm very excited.