Jucod

So I am now back at school with my 17 new little bits. Whew. I forget how little and tattle-tale-y and just how-not-with-it they are when they arrive in room 221 each August. Cause when they leave in May, they are not at all like the above-mentioned children. No! They are book readin', journal writin' little rock stars, that's what they are. Oh, and last year's class, the dream class, the ones who asked on the first day of school (after 20 minutes of journal writing) if they could write SOME.MORE??? and they did.....for 40 more minutes.....

Nope. The new batch is NOT like that last class. Most years (last year being the exception) I don't LOVE them until about Halloween. This time it's not about the LOVE. I am trying to get to the LIKE part....those teachers out there understand from where I speak......

So anyhooooo....I have this shiny faced, be-speckled, tall boy named Jacob. I secretly call him Jucod cause that's how he writes his name. A "u" instead of an "a" and a "d" instead of a "b"....see what I mean, "Jucod". Jucod is in love with life. He dances. He talks...ALL.THE.TIME....if he has a thought, the rest of us know it.....he makes up the most elaborate stories when he thinks he is reading the words to the story, Sam Come Back. He does not know a shape from a word, from a color....letter sounds? Forget about it! Numbers? What are those? Despite all of this, Jucod is pretty entertaining. He loves life. He has a good time. He loves him some lunch. He loves to talk to me about his daddy and the drums while he's got a big ol mouthful. He wants to go to the library about 39 out of every 60 minutes, despite the fact that we have a couple of thousand books in our classroom library.

He absolutely does not "know" squat-ola. But you know what? He does not know that he does not know. The probability that special services are in his immediate future are high. I am not sure another year of Kindergarten would "fix" Jucod's issues.

He's just happy to be here. And be here he will. Our kindergartens are overcrowded and there will not be a new teacher hired. So we're stuck. Jucod and I. There will be no going back for him. No relief for me from the constant barrage of verbal onslaught that is Jucod.

He won't be in a reading group. Nope. He'll be in a very small group of one. Jucod. And me. That's all. Cause he and I will have to make our own way with this. So, while the others are sounding out words and reading and taking AR tests, Jucod will busy himself with learning Kindergarten skills in a first grade class.

We are not so different, Jucod and I....."kindergarten people" stuck in a first grade world. Maybe he will learn a little from me, and perhaps, I can learn a little from him.....

after all, someone that happy with life all the time can't be all that wrong Princess....they can't be all that wrong.....