Unwrapping the Greatest Gift

This quote comes from a book given to me by one of my students for Christmas:

Teaching is one of the few professions that permit love. --Theodore Roethke

Third graders are so easy to love (most days, that is). They're so easy to please. You let them watch a movie, give them a snack and a gift, and they make exclamations such as, "You're the best teacher ever!" and "This is the best day of my life!" It's such a pleasure.

All month long, we've been talking about how Jesus is our greatest gift. I know that they "know" it in their heads, and I pray that they know it, in their hearts. I had them write a paragraph about Christmas, and one boy wrote this:

I will remember the real meaning of Christmas this year because my teacher reads a book it tells the real meaning of Christmas and is a countdown.

So we finished the countdown yesterday.

Here are a few of Ann Voskamp's thoughts on the real meaning of Christmas, taken from Unwrapping the Greatest Gift. I pray that all of us can remember this truth this Christmas.

Christmas isn’t about getting something big and shiny. It’s about God’s doing whatever it takes to be with us – and our doing whatever it takes to be with Him. 

All the other love stories don’t compare to this one – because this is the truest, realest story that ever was. 

God is with us. Jesus is with us. Jesus stays with us. The Christmas candle burns hot tonight, giving its brilliant light, because Christmas goes on forever. Because we have Jesus with us – the greatest Gift of unfailing, unbeatable, unstoppable love that we can keep unwrapping all our days.

Little snippets

Here are a few snippets of my life in the third grade from the last month.

• One student told me she had a dream that I stole her family's car. And here I thought I was having a good impact.

• Math problem: "Name an object in your classroom that is about one yard in length." Several students' answers: "Tanner."  Creative answer. 

• On a Social Studies test, the students were asked to write about one of the Christian martyrs from the Early Church. One student wrote this about one of the girls we learned about: "She was weak but strong innerwords." 

• I gained a little perspective on King Josiah from the Bible when a chapel speaker asked what 8-year-old boy would like to be king, and most of the boys in my class raised their hands. 

• We've been learning about homophones. (In case you've been out of school for too long: words that sound alike but have different meanings.) I gave them sentences and they were supposed to write the correct homophone on their white boards. I said, "My hair is brown." One boy raised his hand and said, "It could be either hair/hare." (Even though he obviously knew what I meant!) I said, "No, because I said, 'My hair is...' Oh, I see what you mean." Smile. 

• Teachers don't teach just academics. One of the many things we try to teach students is manners. So when students come up to me at lunch and say, "I don't have a spoon" or "I need a spoon," I just keep looking at them until they remember to ask, "May I please have a spoon?" This week one girl corrected herself before even finishing her first sentence. :) 

• I walked over to two boys who were standing at the mailboxes, because I suspected something fishy going on. My suspicions were confirmed when immediately, without me saying a word, one boy declared, "I didn't do that!" I'm still not sure what he didn't do. Sometimes my presence is all that's needed to stop mischief! 

• This last week, most of the class has gotten involved in solving this puzzle that one of the boys brought in. It was neat to see them work together and persevere until, low and behold, four students figured it out! They were so excited, that they begged me to take a picture of it. They were hoping to get in the school newspaper. 
  

Bubbly, fizzy laughter

For Christmas this year, I decided to read an Advent book with my class. It's called Unwrapping the Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp. On Friday we read about the gift of laughter. Ann puts it this way:

God brings us the gift of laughter - like bubbly, fizzy, soda-pop joy for our hearts.

Laughing is one of my most favorite things in life. I invited the students to share about the last time they experienced "bubbly, fizzy laughter." I loved hearing them tell their stories and smile and giggle the whole way through. One girl, who is typically very shy and quiet, could hardly get through her story because she was giggling so much. I've never seen her smile so wide. Another boy told us a story that made all of us erupt into fizzy laughter. He said he went to the bathroom and when he came out, his mom asked him if he flushed his hands and washed the toilet. 

I told them their assignment for the weekend was to enjoy laughing with others and to thank God for the gift of laughter. I had lots of opportunities to complete that assignment on Friday night with my sisters. I don't know the last time I've had such bubbly, fizzy laughter. 

I'll end with another one of Ann's quotes, because it's so good: 

Jesus is the end of our story - and the beginning of our story - and the best part of our story.  Because of Him we can sing fa-la-la-la-la and feel what laughter does inside of us - it sends soda-pop-fizzing, bubbly joy all the way down to our toes.

Feel the love

One of the things I'm most thankful for is having a job that I love. I'm so thankful for my students and all the little ways they show their love for me. This includes little gifts, post-it pads, love notes, and even a phone number. It includes cards and pictures of my very own bobble head doll!

Jumping Jacks in Math Class

Writing can be very difficult for children. For example, when using vocabulary words in sentences, one student wrote: "It is unusual for a mouse to eat a dog." Unusual indeed.

On a language worksheet, they were supposed to write two sentences with an action verb in present tense. Most students came up with sentences like these:

They run a lot. They hit the ball. 
The pitcher pitches the ball. The batter hits it. 
I like playing baseball. I play baseball with my dad. 
They run in baseball. The catcher catches the ball. 
We will find a book. (She missed the baseball part of the directions.)

This baseball fan's sentences made me smile:

Brad Lidge winds up and pitches strike three. The Phillies win the World Series. (A bit of fantasy involved as well, perhaps?)

The yearbook staff asked me to have the students write a 75-word paragraph about a highlight or special event from third grade. Those of you who know third graders can imagine how hard it might be for some of them to write about one topic using 75 words. If you don't know any third graders, let me enlighten you. Here are some sample sentences from a few paragraphs:

I love reading! It is fun!... I love the stories. Stories are so much fun… I like books a lot! Do you like books?

I like Bible class. Learning about Bible characters is always fun… Bible is always fun! I think I will always enjoy Bible.

Language is fun! Do you like language? I hope you do because I do… Do you have fun in language? Have fun in language… Did you write a letter? I like writing letters. Do you like writing letters?

I also like handwriting. I’m really good at handwriting. We are doing cursive in handwriting. Do you like handwriting? I do. I enjoy handwriting. 

They wanted 75 words? They got 75 words. 

I also have to share my all time favorite 75-word paragraph. 

Jumping Jacks in Math Class 

It is fun to do jumping jacks in math class. You've been sitting for a while and you can do exercise for a little. In Gym class we do jumping jacks but it does not feel as good because you can stand up and stretch. It is not all jumping jacks; you can do lots of other exercises too. In math class the exercises do not make me feel like they are hard work. They feel easy. 

We've done jumping jacks maybe three or four times in math class. But let me tell you, I think I should have this student teach persuasive writing, because today we did jumping jacks in math class.

The Romans built Agu-Ducks

I'm enjoying this school year so much, that I can barely believe we're halfway through November. I'm afraid that if I blink, it'll be the end of the year already. I'm not nearly ready for that. That's not to say there aren't still challenges. 

On Wednesday, one student walked into the classroom in the morning, looked at the schedule, dramatically sighed, and exclaimed, "Ugh! We have math today. I hate math!" I was thinking, Dearie, we've had math every day so far this year, and we're going to have it every day for the rest of the year. Get used to it.

I guess I should realize by now that when I tell students not to worry about correct spelling for words like "aqueducts" and "conquered" on their social studies test, they really don't... much to my amusement. It's a good thing I knew what they meant:

The Romans built _____________.

agunducks 

akadus 

acwaducks 

ocwabocks 

aqcduxs 

Agu-Ducks  

"I came, I saw, I _______________."

quntend 

cucer 

concord 

conkerd 

Okay, to be fair, some of those spellings actually make more sense than the correct spelling. I also had an honest student who wrote, "I could not get the answer so I skipped it."

After five years of teaching, classes still manage to do new things to surprise me. For example, one day they were listening to Adventures in Odyssey, as they do every day at lunchtime. Apparently there was a prearranged plan, because all of a sudden at a certain point in the theme song, half of the class got out of their chairs and hid underneath their desks. Although now I appreciate the creativity a little bit more, at the time I did not think it was funny. (No wonder it takes so long for some of them to finish their lunches.)

Another day I gave directions to the students to "Write your answers on paper." One boy quietly said, "On your head!" At the time, I didn't think that was funny, either. Now that I stop and think about it, I guess I wouldn't have had to say "on paper." Either way, he didn't follow directions: he wrote his answers on his hand, which I realized when I called on him and he glanced at his hand for the answer.

Just a typical day

A typical day in the life of a third grade teacher might include some or all of the following:

• Untying a girl's shoelaces which she knotted together and couldn't unknot, because her fingernails were just trimmed

• Telling one of the boys that he should not take his snack with him to the bathroom

• Listening in amusement when the boys think one girl's birthday treat is a fishing rod... and listening to the girls explain that it is actually a shoe

• Having one of your students tell you she is saving her birthday money in her piggy bank for a car... She already knows the one she wants. 

• Marking answers wrong on a language test, even though they make sense. (The plural of wife could be women.)

• Deciphering answers written as doodles. 

(Okay, I admit... not all of these events happened in one day. But they did all happen in the last two weeks.)