snippets of first grade dialogue

**it's the po-po (upon seeing a cop car outside the school)

**we don't live with my dad anymore because he slept with another lady and made my mom mad.

**I know another color name-- mulatto! (spoken by my one beautiful black/mulatto student while we brainstormed names of colors)


(We had a great conversation today about how we use problem-solving in real life, and many shared their own problem-solving experiences)

**my baby sister kept waking me up with her crying, and so I made her a more comfortable bed.

**I helped them get up on the (monkey) bars outside by getting down and having them stand on my back (followed by very detailed demonstration)...and if they need me to be upper, then I get upper like this (standing up).

**my fork and knife fell on the floor at a restaurant. I picked them up and set them off to the side, and I got new ones (spoken with pride).

first grader realities

I sometimes wonder... Can it get any worse? Each year I am astonished by the lives led by the little friends in my classroom; many of them deal with many more challenges than I've dealt with in my much longer lifetime. And yet, despite the harsh world surrounding them, there's still an incredible innocence that rises to the top.