Chivalry Is NOT Dead... in P2!

This week in class we are reading a book entitled "Being Rude". It is one in a series of books that teaches kids how to essentially be better members of society. Like the other books in the series it began with examples of what NOT to do and illustrations that show what it looks like. The second half of the book follows up with examples of what kids should do alongside illustrations of what it looks like.
In the middle of the book there comes a part when the two polite kids (one boy and one girl) go to by ice cream. The author's example of not being rude is to not insist on always having the best. Both kids wanted chocolate ice cream but there was only two ice creams left, one chocolate and one strawberry. To model this the girl says, "You can choose first," and the boy replies, "Thanks!"
Before I could continue on to the next page one of my ELL boys raises his hand and starts shaking it wildly so that I am sure to see him. I called on him and he said in his broken English, "Um, Ms. Jennings.... why.... how come.... the boy go first?"
And then, as if to translate his thought, one of the girls then says, "Ya, aren't girls supposed to go first?"
You see, all year long I have been telling my kids that girls go first because it is the polite thing to do. So nice to see that someone is listening.

Off With a Bang

Today was the first day back to school following a wonderful 10 days off, better known as Spring Break. After ten days of absolutely no commitments and a very long laundry list of things to get done that were never even attempted, I returned refreshed and ready to take on the final quarter of school. I wasn't at school but ten minutes this morning when I found myself saying to one of my students, "What did you say?"
As I was walking up to the office to sign in, a few of my students were following me up. One of them, who is a real chatterbox, proceeded to tell me about her spring break. While she was talking she mentioned to me that she had dinner at a restaurant with her family.
"What restaurant did you eat at?" I asked.
As she walked in front of me she replied, "I don't know what it is called. It was a restaurant."
I didn't quite hear or understand what she said, so I asked, "What did you say?"
"I said, 'It was a restaurant.'"
I still couldn't understand what she said since she was walking in front of, and essentially away from me. So I tried once again. I firmly replied, "I can't hear what you are saying when you are not facing me. What kind of restaurant did you eat at?"
She then stopped, turned around and said to me, "It was a BUILDING restaurant." I thought, building restaurant? Aren't all restaurants in a building? I was expecting something like Thai, Chinese, Italian. But no, this 6 year old thought that best adjective to use to describe the restaurant was building. But, in her defense, she lives in Kona and most restaurants here are not really in "buildings". They are mostly outdoor seating. And then, with out even missing a beat, she continued on with her story.

The Why...

For the past 5 years I have been spending hours upon hours upon hours with five and six year olds. And, as you can imagine, they say some of the most hilarious, interesting and ridiculous things. I've decided after all this time to finally write them down some place so that years from now I can still remember them. Why do it on a blog? Well, I find these stories pretty entertaining and I figure other people will hopefully find them entertaining as well.

So let's begin...

One of my biggest struggles with my class for this year is that they really don't listen. Apparently, they think they already all that is going on and don't feel the need to listen to directions. They also feel forever entitled to "choice". Now, I think it is important to give kids choice, but it is another thing when they consistently expect it. Even when I give them choices for what they can be doing, it is not enough and they'll ask to do something different.

Which leads me to today's story...

In the afternoons after writing I give the kids a quick break before the last stretch of the day. They can either do a quiet floor puzzle or eat a snack. As kids were finishing up their writing and most were working on puzzles one of my boys came up to me and asked, "Ms. Jennings, can I play with the beach ball outside the classroom?" I laughed... yes, laughed, and replied, "no".
He then asked, "Can I play with the beach ball inside the class?"
I said, "No, you can go do a puzzle."
"Can I play with the geoblocks?"
"No, you can go do a puzzle."
"Can I play with the shape puzzle?"
"No..."

This kind of thing seems to happen a lot to me this year, but I have never had a kid be this insistant on doing something other than what he was told he could do. As I left class today and reflected back on this encounter all I could think of was, "This is my life."