It started off with reading and math problems. Nothing too exciting, although the technology is pretty cool. There are no more chalkboards, everything is done on a Smart Board. The teachers can project anything up there and then even mark it up with an electronic pen, John Madden style!
Bella had a pretty good mix of girls and boys in the class, a nice number of different ethnicities mixed in too! By far my favorite, next to Bella of course, was her classmate Silvio. He was easily the biggest kid in the class, probably by about a foot. He had a mop of blonde hair, that was only marginally kempt. He was also slightly portly, which added to his character . He looked very much like what I imagine Chris Farley looked like at his age. By far my favorite thing though was that he was wearing this really awesome down vest. First, you don't see a lot of people rocking vests, but I think they are a great invention. Keeps your core warm and leaves your arms free. His vest was awesome though because it was a mix of camouflage patterns but the bulk of the camo was in tye-dye colors! Similar to this
This is the best approximation I could find. I hope he continues to rock the stylish outerwear for a long time. I also really liked that his name was "Silvio" The only other Silvio I have encountered was in the Sopranos. He didn't seem to mind me calling him Sil. I wish I could have convinced him to call me Tony.
The morning was pretty routine. The class rotated between different stations. I was running the number bingo station and doing a hell of a job. The kids had to count by tens and find the matching number on the electronic bingo card. I quickly realized that I probably should not be a 1st grade teacher. It seems that you need to rule with an iron fist, but I love the chaos and kind of encouraged them to be a bit crazy. Time seemed to fly by, we were headed to lunch. Lunch was pretty similar to what I remember. The big difference it seems is that almost all the kids brought their lunch and hardly any bought it. This is the exact opposite of what I remember growing up, almost noone brought in a lunch from home. I sat across from Bella and next to my good buddy Sil. For such a big kid he didn't eat much at lunch. Lunch seemed to take way longer than needed. All the kids were done eating and we still had another 20 minutes it seemed. After lunch was recess.
Recess was largely confined to a playground, an area to play basketball and not much else. There is a much bigger play area in the back, but I think the older kids play there. Most of the kids formed into groups of 5 or 6 and chased each other around. Not Silvio though. This guy loved climbing to the top of the playground and launching himself off the top and hitting the ground. It was probably 10 feet or so and he just loved it. He would tuck and roll and the ground was woodchips so he didn't get hurt. I don't think the other kids had any problems with him, he chose to do his own thing. Another thing I really respected about him.
After recess, we went to Music class. This was pretty chaotic. The kids were still pretty wound up from recess. They were learning about different notes and how to keep a rhythm. The idea was that when a song played they were supposed to walk on their tippie toes for the fast notes and squat down for the longer notes. Most of the kids followed it to some degree, there was a good deal of running on tippie toes, but good old Silvio had other ideas. His idea was that he would run around at full tilt and then do these headfirst slides across the floor. He could tell that I was loving it and cracking up, so I think I egged him on a bit. While they were sitting on the carpet learning the next activity, he was wrestling with this other kid, just a madman. At the end of class, we got rhythm sticks, essentially drum sticks. Silvio and I were goofing off, he put his on the top of his head like antenna, I put them in my mouth like walrus tusks etc. Only Silvio got caught though, he had to go to a brief time out. I felt a little bad that I had gotten him in trouble, but he didn't hold it against me. We were supposed to keep tapping the rhythm sticks to the song. Silvio alternated between tapping his sticks as hard and loud as he possible could, to pretending they were num-chucks, to breaking into an air guitar session.
Gym followed Music Class. We immediately started off with two laps around the school. Silvio, true to form, started out at a full sprint. Unfortunately, he was unable to keep up the pace and fell to a walk pretty early on into the first lap. I ran with Bella and we convinced him to come along with us. He seemed pretty winded, but he obviously has the heart of a damn lion and kept up with us. In gym, they were learning about different ways of moving and different paths. They were broken up into 6 groups and played follow the leader. One group would skip in a curve line, the next would gallop in a zig zag etc. Silvio was initially number 3 in his group, but wanted to be number 2. The only rule was that you couldn't pass people. That was one too many for Silvio. He just bowled over the kid in front of him, while skipping, to ensure that he would be number 2.
The last part of the day consisted of learning about continents, countries and states. Poor Silvio was having trouble sitting still, and had to leave the group a few times. It didn't seem to phase him. I noticed that he was sitting next to another adult at one point. I guessed that it was his Dad, but he seemed like a totally normal guy. I was hoping for a similar outrageous fashion and hair choice.
As we were leaving class at the end of the day, I saw Silvio in the hall. I asked him if he had been sitting next to his Dad. He explained that he had been. He then said something that I don't think I will forget. He explained that the guy used to be his Cousin's dad. Without skipping a beat he explained that his Dad died. And he was rock solid about it. I still have trouble coming to terms with my Dad's death even now. Silvio seemed to take it all in stride. I wouldn't expect anything less from him.
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