Andrew asked...
What was your favorite thing about 1st graders?
- What was your favorite thing about first graders? Maybe that's a good first teaching question. What was it about first graders? - They were wonderful. The big thing is that you saw such a tremendous progress between September and April. Remember, children are more advanced now, but I had, even from my first class, some of them hadn't been to kindergarten, couldn't even count to 10. I can still remember the one little student, he had not been to kindergarten, didn't know anything, but at the end of first grade, I could still picture him, Joseph Zilinski, with that big, wonderful smile. He said, "Ommest, Omest Charlie, I'm so happy." Me so happy. - Right. - So that's me so happy. Who would say that today? But they were just like sponges. By April, they were writing stories, and I always had art appreciation. Like every month I would show them a different artist. And then at the end of the year, I would show something from that same artist, but something they had never seen to see if they could recognize. Of course, you're not gonna get everybody to do that. To know that. - Right. - I always, also, sometimes as we were having quiet time, we'd have play opera, so they would know the stories, and they would listen so intently, yeah. And they were just, I remember one time reading a story, or I loved it, but it was a race, and then the boy carries the dog. It almost brings tears to my eyes now to the final thing, and we were all sitting on the floor, and tears came to my eyes, so they were all crying. The door was open, 'cause you always left the door open. The principal just happened to walk in there. Whoa, crying. He said, "What's goin' on here?" Well, it was all for the story. No, I loved that age group. - How many, this is a side question just for me. How many kids were in a typical class? - Well, when I was in Newark, I had as many as 39. - 39? - When the principal came in with one more child, I didn't know what I was gonna do, to have 40 in one class, and I was, I guess a little more progressive, you know. The desks was screwed to the floor, but I didn't like that, so I had them take it out, and I thought, what am I gonna do with one, 'cause I had tables? What was I gonna do with one more was very upsetting, but then when I went to Milburn, I had like, I think 25 was the most, and when Army was in my class, I had 13, but that was too low, because if you got two or three, they were absent. - Not enough. - Yeah. - Okay.