Monday, November 02, 2009

Ladynay, teachers assistant

Awhile back I agreed to be the room parent for Pooka's class. I also volunteered to spend some time with the kids on Monday mornings since I stopped going to the hospital. Today was my first Monday and it went like this....

Walk through the classroom door, the teachers eyes light up and she tells me that she's glad I'm there. I ask her what does she need for me to do and she tells me to take Pretty braids (self explanatory), Or Man (pronounces the word "our" like "or" and when you correct him he'll say "our", then say "or" again) , and Smarty Pants (very chatty child who is a valedictorian in the making. I could do a blog about him alone but I won't) to the library and then she quickly ran over some reading activities she wanted me to do with them. Off to the library. Soon as we get in the hall Smarty Pants starts talking. He doesn't stop talking till we are walking back into the classroom an hour later *sigh*We get to the library, find us a spot to work and get down to business.

"So your Pooka's mom?" Smarty Pants asked.

"Yes" I replied.

"Do you know that Pooka can draw? She's one of the best in the class!" He says and his 2 peers chime in in agreement.

"Yes, I know she likes to draw. Now let's read page 5" Ready to get down to business.

Or Man speaks up. "She doesn't think she can. When she draws and we tell her it's good or we like it she either turns it over and says it's bad or she rips it up and throws it away"

This grabs my attention. "Really?"

"Yep! She don't like working in partners either!" I ask to be her partner a lot but she always wants to work by herself." Pretty Braids adds.

"Me too!" The other two say together.

"Jinx!" Smarty pants yells while pointing at Or Man and they all break out into giggles.

I get them focused and we go through the activities. Through these activities I learn a lot that I am not suppose to know about these kids and part of me wanted to take the counselor role. For example, we were doing an activity where I would hold up a word, they would say it, define it, and use it in a sentence. If they miss it I tell them the answer, put the word to the side and give the child the word again randomly, which is how Or Man got his name. So I hold up the word "brought" for Pretty Braids. She says it and tells me what it means. Her sentence was....

"My daddy brought his girlfriend a motorcycle"

Before I could finish my praise for her correct response she adds....."They are getting married in January. I don't want them to get married."

I was stuck for a hot second! I mean, what was I supposed to say to that????? So I didn't repond to her additional statements. I just kept it moving with the activities until it was time to go back to the classroom. We get back to class and the teacher is lining them up to go somewhere. She thanks me repeatedly and I get a good feeling knowing that the tiny part I did helped her out a lot. YAY!

I pick Pooka up from TKD and we discuss this whole not wanting to work with a buddy and tearing up artwork that her classmates seem to enjoy. From the discussion I got that Pooka feels it's harder to work with someone and that she's basically over critical of her drawings no matter the praise she gets. We have started to work on it and hopefully it'll get better with time.

At the end of the discussion Pooka told me that her 3 peers said I was "cool" after I left. YAY! I'm a cool mom! :-)

As for me. I've completed one novel and have started the second. I've started on the paper by answering the questions as they apply to the first novel, but one particular question is harder to answer than one would think! Glad I got some think time to figure it out.

OH! Totally forgot to blog about Halloween! I worked from 7-7 like a normal Saturday. Get home to a already costumed Pooka, freshen up and hit the mall. Walk in and notice the sign that said Mall Trick or Treating was Friday!!!! Pooka had her I'm disappointed but I'm going to act like I'm not face on. I told her I'd take her to the grocery store and she could get whatever candy she wanted. She liked that idea! So while in the store I'm thinking Pooka is going to pick up all kinds of stuff right? She picks up a KitKat and tells me she's ready to roll! I ask her if she is sure that's all she wanted and she said yeah! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! Everyone comes home happy! The end! LOL!

8 comments:

Rashan Jamal said...

One Kit Kat? For real? I'm gonna need to school her on the true meaning of Halloween: Free Candy!!!

I had to read the "Or Man" description like 4 times before I finally got what you were saying. Call me slow...

I hope Pooka told them kids to stop snitchin'

AR Gal said...

Awwwwwwwwww Pooka! Learning to accept a compliment was difficult for me for a long time too. It may take awhile but she'll soon learn to take them in stride. :)

I liked your descriptions of the kids. To this day I still say one of the best jobs I ever had was a teacher's aide in a kindergarten class. The fact that she let me take naps while the kids slept didn't hurt either. lol

CTHU at Pooka just grabbing one KitKat. Did she want more candy later? I know I would have. lol

Ladynay said...

Yep, all her Halloween problems were solved with 4 rectangles of chocolate covered waffers! *cheese* Can't get no better than that buddy! HAHAHAHAHA!

I added some markings to maybe make it easier for the next person to read! LOL!

What I posted was the most negative stuff they said. They told me tons of good stuff too, like how she has never gotten a warning since school started, that she is always nice to everybody, and that I should buy her the silver backugon (sp) with the crystal because that one is the best and I should get it for her cuz she has been good all year! LOL At first I thought that last comment was a set up by Pooka, but she didn't know who I was going to be working with when I came today! LOL!

AR, I hope so.

I swear kids say the darndest things sometimes and it's so hard to keep a straight face! I was only with 3 third graders for an hour and there is plenty to say about the experience! I can't imagine what stories their teacher comes home with on the regular! LOL! I didn't know you did that once upon a time! Cool! I liked the napping benefit as well! LOL!

Nope! We went shopping today and she wanted some toy dinosaurs, not candy! *cheese*

blkbutterfly said...

awww... this makes me miss my babies! and, yes, you will have stories for weeks from the things they say. you'll also definitely know more about their lives than you'll EVER want to know. :-)

Anonymous said...

Kids are funny! I'm cracking up at Smarty Pants. "So your Pooka's mom?"

Ladynay said...

BB, awww don't get sad with the flashbacks girlly!

Southern, Smarty Pants is a mess. All night last night I was thinking of the things he said to me that I should have put in my blog entry! LOL

Freaky Deaky said...

I don't blame Pooka. Even as a kid I usually hated working with partners (unless we were friends). It usually lowered my grade or I ended up doing the majority of the work in the first place. I have high standards. Looks like Pooka does too. I can't draw worth a lick but I've been the same about my writing since I can remember.

I thought the whole point of being a teacher's aide was to "aide" said teacher and not actually teach. That's called being a teacher and the pay should be higher.

I thought she got a bag of them but one Kit Kat for Halloween? That makes Sweet Baby Jebus sad.

So working with those kids makes you ready to give Pooka some siblings yet?

Ladynay said...

FD, she's gotta learn how to at least tolerate working with others.

Real teachers that put in the work should definitely be paid more.

That's all she wanted so who am I to complain? LOL!

ROFL! You're funny!