First-Graders Can Be a Little Scary

Life is still crazy as a first grade teachers assistant. The workload still keeps me busy (luckily), my coworkers are still cool and the kids can still make me laugh.

Sometimes they scare me, too. Nothing strikes fear in my heart like the phrase, "I think you're confused, Mr. Haworth."

I must say, it is quite amazing how observant those little six and seven year-olds can be.

"You got a haircut, Mr. Haworth," one student told me recently.
"Why, thank you for noticing," I said to her.
"I couldn't help but notice, Mr. Haworth," she responded. "You needed it pretty bad!"

There are other times when my students are spot on and I would do well to be more observant myself!

"What," my student said.
"What do you need, buddy?" I responded.
"What Mr. Haworth," he said.
"I said, what is it," I asked, keeping my cool.
He said 'what' one more time, giving the word a little more emphasis. The girl beside him began to giggle.
"The word on the the flashcard is 'what,' Mr. Haworth," she said.
Well, it turned out the flashcard word was 'what.' That was not the same word that was on the back of the card. As I flipped through the cards, I discovered all the cards had different words on the fronts and backs.

Score: kids, one; teacher assistant, zip.

Who knew the upside-down words on the backs of the cards weren't the same as the words on the fronts of the cards?! Go figure!

The bad news is that, with this being my second year at the school, a large portion of the second-graders remember me from last year!

"Oooh Mr. Haworth," said one of my first-graders from last year. "You got a haircut! It looks better than that time you spiked it!"
"Mr. Haworth has never spiked his hair," I told him.
"Actually," a teacher behind me said, "it seemed pretty spiky last year when you got that really bad haircut."

Funny, I'm not sure if I mentally blocked that experience out or if I just plain forgot about it. Regardless, I believe the current score comes to kids, two; teacher assistant, still zip.