Families of all shapes and sizes

On my very first day two little boys came up to me and told me their daddy's were dead without any prompting whatsoever. Today, after sharing photos of my family with my students, the tiniest girl in my class asked me why my papa was only in some of my photos. I told her it's because I don't see him much since he doesn't live with us all the time. She smiled at me and said "my papa doesn't live with me either, he's in jail." Later in the day I suggested she bring some of her stories to her papa the next time she visits him because her stories are so wonderful. She said it takes her more than a day to travel to her father's prison, so she doesn't get to go too often. She looks to me and says "Ms. Yuen, my papa is going to be in jail for the rest of his life because he did a real bad thing, he took someone's life."

She then went on to finish her story.

The Beginning...

...of a beautiful friendship (:

ALSO, if you're looking for Water Ice in Philly, forget about Rita's. John's is the BEST.

"TFA's my pimp and I'm their Goodies" - a mentor who will not be named

They may be bad, but they're incredible!

Again, kids say the darndest things. I had the most incredible day today, and it is all thanks to The Rainbow Fish! I promise you, this is the MOST magical children's book EVER. Without too much behavior narration or prompting, my kids were abnormally quiet and engaged. They were able to identify the problem and solution of the book, even the low kids.

We were mandated to survey our kids about why they come to school, their teachers, etc., and let me tell you, do not ever underestimate the honesty of children! I have taken a few responses (my favorites) from some of the characters of my class and posted them below (:

"They like me because I'm funny and I look like Gary Coleman" ... if you want to know what this kid looks like, google a picture of Gary Coleman and I swear it's him (:

"I want to be a teacher a dancer and a singer. In order to do that I need to learn how to dance and how to sing" ... apparently you don't need to learn how to be a good teacher. great.

"I want to be a ninja and I have to listen to all the things my master tells me to do" ... too much karate kid?

"When I grow up I want to have a job, be smart and have a lot of money. I'm going to come to kindergarten every day, grow up, go to teenage school, go to college and go to work" ... right now all he cares about is snack, at least we know he wants to go to college!

"I'm going to be a regular worker and I'll have to have patience for customers. I'm going to go to college and live there, as long as the dorms don't have elevators." ... this kid better make it to college, he's too smart not to

"I want to be a rose princess. I need to learn how to listen to the teachers and my mom will teach me how to do that. I come to school to see (K). The kids in our class are like butterflies, they are mean and also nasty." ... as you can imagine this little girl is a joy to have in class... (:

"I want to be a princess and a cheerleader. I have to go to big kid school to learn about princesses and cheerleaders." ... of course, because that's what you go to school to learn ahaha

Happy Thursday to all!

Happy TFA Day!

Today's afternoon session was titled : ARC- Intro to Acronyms

Of course, like any other major organization, TFA has it's own language, so of course as employees we are expected to be able to communicate in such a way.

First Acronym: TFA

Teach For America, and whatever it is you believe stands behind those words.

Little did we know that for the day, TFA stood for TOTALLY FREE AFTERNOON

(of course I was a little slow to catch on but once I saw people jumping, screaming, and even a few with tears rolling down

their face...I knew it was Christmas in July)

Instead of getting ahead with some work, I passed out and took the best nap of my life. I don't care what I missed out on, it was the best nap of my life (:

TFA day propaganda

First Day of Teaching celebration

Monday, Sweet Monday

There's nothing more magical than waking up at 5 am on a Monday morning...

There IS something magical about having a child say "I don't like doing procedures, it's getting in the way of my learning!" in response to having to model behavioral expectations because of a few unruly students.

Progress is progress regardless of how long it takes (:

Love your kids no matter what

Kids will remember you for your love over the consequences you give them (even if it means getting sent to the calm down corner five times a day and they cry each time). With all the violence and aggression they are exposed to, a little love can go a long way. Today was a perfect illustration of this.

We have a little girl who has so much love to share and a disability (which cannot be mentioned here) that causes behavioral problems. Today was a particularly rough day for her, she couldn't even complete her short term goals of 5 minute tasks. We found out at the end of the day that her rough day was a result of not being medicated in the morning. She only has enough medication for two days, and there are still more than 10 days left before she can fill her prescription. Hearing this reinforced why I'm here.