Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Back to school, back to school

First grade is a learning process for me and will be for J.R.  Here are my random thoughts about it all.

He has a desk -- oi!  It's only the third day, and I've had to clean it out for him.  He had four or five papers jammed in the corners of the desk all with different drawings on them.

He has three folders, one notebook (for spelling), one binder, one grammar notebook, and a pencil box shoved into his little desk.  I sense confusion and disorganization this year.

So far,  I've already had to thin out his materials in his pencil box. The simpler, the better.

We had to drive back to the school to get his homework folder, and then I had to tell him to turn in his homework from last night because he didn't do that this morning.

If you were to walk into his classroom, you might think he is out of control as he rolls around on his exercise ball/seat.  However, if you know him, you realize that he is over-stimulated, and this is his way of calming down.  This is how he puts the world back in order.  I'm grateful his teacher is willing to let this happen in class.

I think all Kindergarten and First Grade teachers deserve an all-paid vacation just for surviving the first week. 

2 comments:

Heather said...

Wow! A desk in frist grade. My oldest will be in 5th this year and still hasn't encountered a desk. Next year he'll be heading off to middle school where he'll change classrooms too often for a desk. Good luck with this! It's a battle I hope to never fight.

Ruth said...

This desk is at school? Does he have a desk at home too?
Good Luck with the homework folder! We had a seventh grader who could not handle the homework papers. It was Thanksgiving before we found out he was just stuffing them in his backpack.
Funny, we just expect kids to accept and figure out the new "school rules" all on their own, when we could be so much more helpful and useful if we only realized it.