Halfway through

As you know, Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. If you've been following my blog for the last several years, you also know that I usually have my students write about their dreams after listening to a portion of the famous "I Have a Dream" speech. So here are a few of my students' dreams this year:

“I want to teach art. I want to work at a grocery store. And finally I want to work as a doctor.”

“I have 3 dreams. You know how people drive cars and crash and sometimes die. Well people should just ride on eagles. My 2nd dream is that half of the world should live on Mars. My 3rd dream is that I want to live in a barn. Most of the house is going to be a home. The rest of the house is going to be a barn and there are going to be horses in the barn.”

One girl wrote about wanting to be a teacher and go to different places in the world like Paris, Florida,  Washington, and New York. “Teach and travel T.A.T. is for me! I would also get married and have children after I travel. I do not know how I will fit it all in! But I will somehow!”

We are officially halfway through the year now. This bright group of students continues to ask questions with the purpose of stumping me, I think. ("Where does the sun get its energy from?" "Did Elijah die when God took him up to heaven?" "Did Elijah go through space to get to heaven?")

It's that time of the year when students have become quite comfortable with me and reaaaallllly comfortable with each other! One boy has taken it upon himself to remind his friend (who is always eager to eat his lunch and one time declared, "There is nothing in my lunch!") to wash his hands at lunchtime. I won't complain - that's one less thing I have to worry about!

The girls like to play with each other's hair during read aloud. A couple of the boys thought it would be funny to play with each other's hair. On the inside, I was amused. But my teacher face and voice told them it was distracting and to stop it.

As the year progresses, it seems the class needs more reminders to be quiet during class. One time, in exasperation, I proclaimed, "I don't want to hear a peep!" to which one boy responded, "Peep," in a tiny voice. Again, slightly amused on the inside, but not at all on the outside.

One day I said to them (I have no recollection of what I was talking about), "Use your common sense." The response? "We don't have any!"

Recently a midterm report was returned weeks late with the explanation, "It got lost and dirty," as he held the crumpled paper out to me between his thumb and forefinger. Later he handed me his homework explaining, "It has a little breakfast on it."

Lastly, one boy has taken to saying "Same diff," if anyone corrects him. Like when he was talking about a wedding in a story and we told him it was an anniversary. "Same diff. They're the same thing."

Writing samples to brighten your day

I believe it's time to share some writing samples from my kiddos with you, because there's nothing like reading the sincere words of a child to brighten your day!

On a Social Studies test, they were asked to explain the following quote: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

“It means people are killing people and the martyrs don’t make any excuses. The seed grows and the Christianity grows.”

“It means that even though Christians died for their faith it just helped more and more people to become Christians. So even though the emperors tried to stop Christianity, it just helped more and more people to believe so that made the church even bigger.”

“When Christians are willing to die for their faith, other people see that if they’re willing to die for their faith then God must be someone important. And they turn their hearts to God.”

“People die for their faith and nonbelievers see that, and think WOW! Their God is so great they’re dying for him. And so I believe that God made that happen for good. So other nonbelievers could become believers of him.”

"Write about your favorite place. Include where it is located, a description of it, and why it is so special to you."

"One of my favorite places is….. School. We get to learn a lot and play/talk with friends at recess. We have a lot of fun times learning! If I had to tell words to describe my class they would be fun, awesome, friendly and FF (friends forever)."

On a reading page, they wrote the story of Lazarus's resurrection from his point of view. (We had just studied David in Bible class.)

“I was in heaven and I sang songs with other people. I got a picture of David.” 

“I heard a voice calling to me. It was like a lion’s roar. It said: LAZARUS COME OUT!!! It was Jesus calling me. I stood and waddled out. Jesus told them to unwrap the grave cloth. I couldn’t believe it. I was alive again!” 

“...and then I was in heaven, and there was a race car I could drive it wherever I wanted. First I went to see God. And then David and he signed his name on my shirt. Then God said Lazarus you are going to come to earth again. Before I knew it I was alive. I stood up and hopped over to Jesus and said “hi” and then they unwrapped the cloths.”