Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs

A classroom story for you...

Last week, I read a story to my reading group called Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairsby Tomie DePaola. If you've never read it before, it's about a young boy named Tommy who visit his grandmothers every Sunday. His great grandmother lives upstairs at his grandmother's house. He calls them Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs because one is usually upstairs and one is usually downstairs.

Side note: Tomie DePaola is one of my favorite authors of children's books. If you have a chance to read his stories, do it. They are most appropriate for school-age children.

In the story, Nana Upstairs passes away. This story always makes me teary - thinking about how much Tommy loves his great grandmother, and how sad he is when she dies. This time reading it was no different. I got to the part where Nana Upstairs dies, and I started to get a little teary. And then one of my students pipes up, saying...

Wait for it...

"Now she's really upstairs."

Oh my gosh, I could not stop laughing! I could barely make it through the rest of the story. Then I really had tears from laughing so hard.

And now I've probably ruined the story for you, so you can never read it with a straight face. Sorry about that.

Lonely

Every day at school, I have to leave the classroom to pump. I usually do this twice a day; once when my students are in PE or Spanish, and once during lunch. At lunch time, a parapro comes to my classroom to relieve me to pump for about 10-15 minutes.

Surprisingly, my students haven't asked me much about it. When I did this after having Leland, they all had a million questions (thankfully they were satisfied with very simple answers), but my current students have only asked me where I go at lunch time. I tell them that I have to go get Alden's milk and they are totally fine with this answer. Some kids know how it all works because they have younger siblings and they prefer not to talk about it.

Last week, a student asked me where I go to get Alden's milk, and I told her I usually go to the principal's office.

"Is Mrs. Ferris (the principal) there when you go?" she asked.

"No, she's not." I said.

"So, you're in there all by yourself?"

"Yes."

"Maybe you should ask Mrs. Ferris to stay with you sometime so you have someone to talk to. It's probably pretty lonely in there."

I managed not to laugh. I smiled and assured her that I'm okay, and I don't get too lonely. Then later I had a good laugh at the thought of inviting my principal to hang out with me while I pump. Awkward...

Oh, the innocence of children.

Classroom Observation...

At my school, teachers are observed a lot by administration. It's pretty much always unannounced. You'll be teaching and suddenly there's someone in your room watching you. Sometimes it's just for a few minutes. Sometimes for forty minutes. You just never know. While I'm still not exactly used to it - I still get major butterflies when they come in - I am much more comfortable with it than I used to be. 

This year, we have a new system for observations. We are required by the state to have a "formal" evaluation once during the year. So, when the administrator comes in and takes notes, those notes are now sent to the state. And besides that, we also have to do a self-evaluation and a peer evaluation. 

Our peer evaluation is due March 1, so people are starting to set up their observations right now. My co-worker that was assigned to observe me came in to see my reading group today. Even though she's my friend, I was a little nervous. Maybe I was more nervous because she's my friend. I don't know. But I know that part of my anxiety was because of the class she was observing: my reading group.

My reading group has been a challenge for me this year. They are a great group of kids - very bright, very fun, very sweet, but they talk a lot. It's really difficult to keep them focused and on-task. Quite honestly, I'm slightly terrified that my formal evaluation will be during that time. I have pretty good classroom management in my opinion. But I just don't feel like I have it together with this class. We get our work done, and we learn a lot, but it's not easy. I feel like I'm constantly trying to reel them back in.

So anyway, my co-worker came to observe me during reading today. One of my students approached her and asked why she was in our classroom. She replied, "I'm just here to see how Mrs. Nowak teaches you."

The boy responded, "She does a really good job. But sometimes kids don't listen."

When she told me that, I about died! The boy speaketh the truth!

Well, at least he thinks I do a good job.

Breakfast of Champions...

Sunday morning, when Leland woke up, the first word out of his mouth, before I even got him out of his crib, was "Doh-wah?" He was asking for a doughnut.

While I would have loved a doughnut too, we didn't have any. When I told him we didn't have any doughnuts, he said, "Candy?"

"No, we don't eat candy for breakfast." {Well, mommy might sometimes, but I don't need him following in those footsteps.}

Leland then responded by asking for a "bah-muh-min" {vitamin}.

As I was getting him a vitamin, he opened the refrigerator and pulled something out. Before I could see what it was, Leland said, "Hot sauce?" Ha ha.

I think it was safe to say that Leland was hungry.

In case you're wondering, we settled on some peanut butter toast and an orange.

End of Discussion!

Yesterday, one of my first grade students was upset with me. I don't remember why, but he was mad and pulled his fleece vest over his face and refused to look at me.

When I continued on with my lesson, he was a little perturbed at not getting any attention for this behavior, and said, "I am NOT looking at you!" And then some other words came mumbling out that I couldn't quite decipher thanks to the fleece over his face.

So I said, "Did you just say I'm disgusting?" {That seriously was what it sounded like.}

The boy replied, "No! You're beautiful! I said 'END OF DISCUSSION!'"

I about died laughing. Apparently, he wasn't too mad at me if he still thought I was beautiful. And he got over it a few minutes later.

A Fish Story...

Today I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Marriage Confessions, in which Katie wrote about her son's fish dying. It reminded me of a funny story from when I taught preschool a few years ago. I'm pretty sure I shared it on my old blog, but that is not available anymore, and it's so good it must be shared again. So here goes...

Every morning when I got to school, I would check our classroom fish tank to make sure we didn't have any "floaties." We had them fairly often that year. Goldfish and a classroom of three and four year olds don't mix well apparently.

Over Christmas break, the custodians said they would care for my fish so that I wouldn't have to come in every day to feed them and such. Upon returning from break, I checked the tank first thing and didn't see any floating fish. Wahoo! I didn't want to break any bad news to my munchkins right after Christmas...what a damper that would have put on the day!

Fast forward a few hours. Kids have arrived and are enjoying free play, when suddenly Jack starts yelling and is very upset. Apparently, we had a dead fish, but it wasn't floating. It had sunk down to the bottom of the tank and was just lying there. Great.

Jack started to cry and was just so sad at the loss of our beloved fish. I told him the fish went to live with Jesus {I worked at a Lutheran school, so I could say things like that}, but he was still upset. Then sweet li'l Gavin spoke up. "It's okay, Jack. The other fish are going to die, too. And you're going to die. We're all going to die."

Oh man.

I was laughing so hard at Gavin's blunt and brutal honesty, but I was a little worried about how Jack would react to this explanation. While Gavin was speaking the truth, this wasn't exactly the message I would have said to our friend, Jack. I thought for sure I was going to have a hysterical four year old and I would have to talk to his mom.

Not so. Sir Jack just looked at Gavin, wiped his tears, and said, "Oh, okay." And then went along with his day.

Huh. Brutal honesty from a friend was all the kid needed, I guess.

Now that I teach in a public charter school, I can't talk about Jesus, so I refuse to have any pets in my classroom. I don't have any other nice ways of saying, "It died," so no pets for my class anymore!

Student of the Week...

In my classroom, I have a student of the week. Each week, that student decorates a poster about themselves to display in the classroom and the whole class writes them "bucket filler" notes {compliments}.

My students wanted me to be the final "Student" of the Week, so last week, I decorated my poster with pictures from childhood to now and shared it with the class.

The first picture I talked about was of me, my brother, my sister, and my mom at Christmas when I was little. The kids asked how old I was in the picture. When I told them I was three years old, one student said, "They had color pictures back then?!"

Then I had a picture of my Grandma Josie and Papa Ralph, and the kids were shocked to hear that my grandma is still alive.

Geez, kids, how old do you think I am?!

Time to Get to Work...

Girl #1: "Mrs. Nowak, are you having another baby?"

Me: "No, not yet."

Girl #1: "Oh, it just sort of looked like it last week at Girls on the Run."

Me: "Yeah, sometimes it takes a long time to look normal again after having a baby."

Girl #2: "How long does it take?"

Me: "Well, when you don't exercise, a LOOOONG time."

Guess it's time I start exercising again, eh? Seeing as my son is now 5 months old. Although, in my defense, I don't have running shoes anymore {mine are destroyed}, and I don't have a sports bra that fits my giant milk jugs. Also, I was this chubby before I got pregnant with Leland, because I never lost the weight I gained from my first pregnancy. Either way, I have some work to do.

Hurray for summer being just around the corner, when I'll have time to go for walks/jogs with my baby!

Judy...

My 2nd graders were working on writing rhyming poems today. They were having a hard time at first and a couple of them tried to copy out of a book. I had to explain what plagiarism is and that it is actually illegal. One student said, "If we do that, will we get sent to Judy?"

I was thinking he meant Juvie, and then another student said something about Judge Judy. So now I'm not sure which one he meant, but either way, it was hilarious.

I love my job.

Some People...

Today, my 2nd grade students were creating sentences using their spelling words. For the word "themselves," one student wrote, "Some people play with themselves."

 I'm pretty sure he meant BY themselves. Ha ha ha.

It took a whole lot to not burst out laughing. Cause I'm mature.

Kids and Gifts...

One of my students approached me the other day and told me, "We're getting you a present for Christmas."

I don't like to make a big deal about presents in front of my students {not everyone can get their teacher a gift, and I don't want any of my students to feel bad if they can't}, so I said, "Oh, you are? Well, that's very kind of you."

With a sheepish grin, he said, "It's for your baby, but I can't tell you what it is."

I smiled and told him that I look forward to the surprise.

He walked away and returned about 45 seconds later and asked, "Does your baby have mittens yet?"

I told him not yet, and he replied, "Okay, good!"

Ha ha...kids are so cute.

Life Lately...

Yesterday, one of my first grade students decided to write down a list of baby name suggestions. The first name he wrote down was Flamer. When I read it, I thought perhaps I read it wrong, like maybe he was trying to spell something else. But then I looked at the next name, which was Pale Boy, and I realized that this was no mistake. He explained that they were superhero names. Some other names he showed me later: Tan Man (his brother's name is Tanner, so I'm guessing that's where that came from), Snow Boy, and Sandee. Sure gave me a laugh.

School pictures were delivered today. Yes, I am among the lucky few who get to take school pictures as an adult. You know you're jealous.

I'm not a huge fan of this year's photo. My smile looks fake, and my face looks chubby. But the beauty of it is that I don't have to send these out to friends and family like I did when I was in school. And...there's always next year.

I ordered my paper and ribbon for Baby Nowak's scrapbook last week and a bunch of it came today! I got my paper...

Sage green paper for each page of the book, with blue, yellow, and dark brown for the photo mattes.

And one pattern of ribbon {I ordered two different ones. The other one is blue with green and brown polka dots}...

I put ribbon on the bottom of each page, alternating the two patterns. Of course, I will share pictures when I actually complete the album (which may be a while, just so you know).

Also, Dave and I went to Lowe's and Home Depot last weekend and looked at some paint sample cards for Baby Nowak's room. It's so stressful to me to pick out a paint color, because it never looks the same on the wall. I always lean toward the medium colors and Dave says that they will be too dark. He's always right of course and we usually go with the lighter one. But something just draws me to the deeper tones.

Right now, I'm leaning toward the top color on the right. For once, I was drawn to one of the lighter colors and not the middle. I think it would look perfect with the furniture and the green and brown in his bedding, etc.

Of course, the painting will have to wait until the office furniture is moved out of his room and we take down the horrible wallpaper border, but it's exciting to me to finally be starting something.

Teachers and Weekends...

This week, one of my students approached me and said,"Mrs. Nowak, I bet teachers are really sad on Fridays."

I was a bit confused. I mean, who in the world is sad about Fridays (unless you work weekends). So I asked him why.

He responded, "Well, because they know they won't see their students for two whole days. I bet they miss them a lot."

It was really cute and very sweet. I told him that, yes, I miss my students on the weekends, but that it's nice to spend time with my family as well.

I remember as a child, I thought teachers were sad on snow days and summer vacation. The thought makes me laugh hysterically now. I bet I rejoice more at the news of a snow day now than I ever did as a student. Sleep, sweet sleep, and a full day of relaxation are the best gift a teacher can get.

But I guess I'm glad my students don't realize that. I'm glad they know I love them.

Funny things my niece says...

This summer, I am spending my days watching my sweet and adorable niece, Ella. When she first heard that Aunt Nae {that's me} had a baby in her belly, she looked very concerned. She stared at my belly for like an hour and when I would look at her, she would look away.

After a few days though, she got used to the idea and now is very excited about her cousin. She asks me often when the baby will come out. Since she's only three, she doesn't really understand the concept of time/months, so I told her it would be after Christmas. I figured that would help her understand that it's not going to happen anytime soon. Well, she does understand that it's a ways away, but she now thinks she's going to meet her baby cousin on Christmas - like it's her Christmas gift. It's pretty cute. Ella keeps saying, "Hers gonna  be my cousin. And hers gonna come at Christmas." Oh yeah, Ella thinks it's a girl.

A few days ago, Ella told me, "Aunt Nae, you gettin' big!" I said, "I am?" She said, "Yeah, you're almost as big as me!" Ha ha.

Ella is very concerned about her cousin too. She heard my stomach growl one day and said, "Aunt Nae, your baby's snoring." I told her that the baby was hungry, so Ella said, "Let's go get your baby some crackers."

She's always asking me how the baby is doing. If it's hungry, if it's full, if it's tired, if it's growing. One day, it was around Ella's nap time, but she didn't seem very tired, so I wasn't really going to push a nap on her. Ella saw me yawning though, and said, "Aunt Nae, you tired?" I told her that the baby makes me tired sometimes, so she said, "Oh, well let's go take a nap!"  Ummm...okay! I won't complain about that!

Ella is such a great cousin already. She likes to rub my belly and say hi to the baby. I can't wait to see her when the baby finally arrives.