A Sense of Urgency

Dear Friends,

     Today is Friday, September 23, 2011. The weather today is sunny. I predict the weather tomorrow will be sunny.  The color today is pink. The shape today is an octagon. The letter of the week is a Bb. This is a big B. This is a little b.  Some words that begin with B are boot, bean, baby, brain, and bug.

                                                            Love, Miss Glass

In preschool you have to be spontaneous.  You never know what could happen at any given moment.  Sometimes after breakfast I'll take my big kids to the bathroom and everyone will complain that they 'don't gotta use it'. Sometimes, big kids will beg me for a bathroom trip.  I explain the sense of urgency to my friends by saying "big kids use the bathroom quickly and quietly. Who can show me they can use the bathroom like a big kid?" I send 3 into the boys and 3 into the girls- there are 3 stalls in each. With a classroom of 17 friends, this process usually takes around 8 minutes.

One of my friends P, has a tendency to play in the bathroom.  On Friday, after he'd been in the bathroom for a solid 3 minutes, I shout in "P, quickly and quietly!"  Just as my principal is walking by, in the loudest voice I've ever heard P use, he exclaims, "I'M POOPING!" Legitimate.

Well, I could take the other 16 friends back to the classroom while my teaching assistant stays with our bound big kid, but she's on her break. The bathroom we chose to use was right next to the stairs leading up to the cafeteria, and the lunch rush was coming any minute. We're trapped. I got sixteen 4-year-old's squirming in the hallway, and one squirting in the bathroom and I don't know what to do. I'm trying to bridge the achievement gap, and shit's getting in my way. Literally.

"Alright friends sit down on the blue line."  After we got through the ABC's, counting to 50, identifying all of the colors that we were wearing, clapping the syllables in all of our names, and singing the days of the week song, I decide to check in with P.  "How you doing, P?" "I'M WIPING MY BUTT." Really? I asked how you're doing not what you're doing. Cool.  At least my principal wasn't walking by- this time it was the very attractive, very young, and very single, Family Advocate working at my school. I gave him one of those looks- the 'yes this is what I do everyday and I love it' one.

Best Moment(s) of the Day:

Push in Special-Ed Teacher: "Good Afternoon Favorite Class! Miss Glass, I love coming into your room. The culture you have is so supportive and loving."

Me: "Oh, I'm sorry H, block center is full. Take your ticket and choose a new center." (H takes his ticket and slumps away to a new center)

D: "No H, I will leave blocks so you can play here!"

Funniest Moment of the Day:

Me: (reading Where the Wild Things Are, in a circle next to all of my friends) "That night, in Max's room a forest grew".

M: (stands up, walks over to me, and hugs me) "I love you Miss Glass."

Me: "Thank you Maya, but what did we talk about when you want to hug someone."

M: "Well, I know that I'm supposed to ask but I knew you'd say no because you're reading but I just really wanted a hug."

Grossest Moment of the Day:

J: "Ooooooo, Miss Glass look!"

Me: "What did you make J?"

J:"No look at my tissue. The buggers are green!"

Goodbye Teachers and Friends,

Miss Glass