The Po Show

Second Grade Morning

It's National Education Week again, which means parents are invited to visit their kids' classrooms at our public school. This morning I went to Tessa's class during ELA time, and it was so much fun.

As I walked in, the class was finding words using the letters of the word "PRESIDENT," which cracked me up after all the Pathwords I've been playing on Facebook lately :D. They found 58 three- and four-letter words (the teacher wouldn't let them simply put an "s" after three-letter words in order to make a four-letter word :)), which I found very impressive. There wasn't time to move on to five-letter words, so the kids got to stand up and stretch for a minute. Mrs. Shulman led them in making circles with their arms and bending side to side, as she told them to "Get out all the shpilkas" :D :D. (Yes, TC, I do know what that means!)

They were then given a packet on Barack Obama, and Mrs. Shulman pointed out on the world map all of the places associated with Obama in his life. Then the class took turns reading aloud about Obama's life story, and Mrs. Shulman asked questions like, "If Barack Obama was born in 1961, how old is he now?" and "What are some of the qualifications for becoming president of the United States?" I thought these were pretty advanced questions for second grade, and the kids answered them all.

I hadn't really had much contact with Mrs. Shulman yet this year. Ross went to Parent's Night, and when the class went on a walking field trip to the firehouse, Mrs. Shulman could not come along (she fractured her pelvis in three places when she tripped and fell during a field trip to the White Plains Hospital last June, and she can't walk very quickly still). This was my first time to see her "in action" so to speak, and she is just wonderful. She's kind of an old school teacher (no pun intended), but SOOO warm and effusive and patient. I think it's the highest calling on earth, being an elementary school teacher who REALLY teaches, who constantly looks for ways inject more information, more insight, more items of interest, into the lessons printed on the worksheets, all in an engaging way that keeps the kids (LITTLE kids, still) listening and WANTING to learn what she has to offer.

We are fortunate beyond words that we have such teachers.