Second Graders are Cool

I am winding down my 8th year of teaching. I can't actually believe I made it this long, considering for a long time I didn't like kids. Well, not enough to want to be stuck in a room with them for eight hours a day. My, how times have changed. I have to say, taking the leap into teaching has been one of the best decisions I've made in life thus far. Having long summer breaks is cool, but the kids are what do it for me.

For most of my career I taught kindergarten, and then I spent two lovely years in first grade after looping with my final kindergarten class. This year, I wanted a change and a challenge so I decided to try second grade. It was challenging at first, but I've come to love my group of students and this age group in particular. Here's why:

They have opinions and they aren't afraid to express them...



The minds of 7 year olds can be fascinating places. This is the age where they start to develop a sense of self and begin to explore how they want to express themselves, which I think is pretty cool. I told this little guy to write a persuasive piece about anything he felt really strongly about and he chose school lunch. The funny thing is, he is normally such an agreeable little guy, I was not expecting him to take this turn in his writing. I think he got a kick out of my reaction to this piece, so he has since written several persuasive pieces about things he does not like.


They're incredibly thoughtful and funny...



Sometimes we teachers really do bring things on ourselves. Like giving kids punishments that turn out to really be more of a punishment for ourselves. Take for example, my talkative little love bug who can't handle sitting at a table with others. I'm quite sure she'll be in the entertainment business in some form very soon. To keep her from talking to others I place her desk beside mine and she took that as an invitation to talk to me. Nonstop. I needed a break so I told her that we weren't going to talk for the next 20 minutes...so she decided to text me. Gotta love her creativity!


When they love you, they really do love you a lot...

                

And I do mean a lot. I think what I love most about this is that they can actually express their love in written form. I am always getting little love notes from students which is a nice little way to brighten up anyone's day. This love note happened to come from a little girl, she may need a little lesson on the birds and the bees but this is no doubt, a lot of love.

There are, of course, so many more reasons to love my kiddos, but these are just the top three. I've been blessed with a special group this year (thanks, God!) and I've enjoyed my time with them. Sometimes they make me want to bang my head on a table, but that just makes life interesting :)