Today we got to something some of my students have been waiting for, hoping for, begging for.
They drum-rolled as I went to switch the slide.
They cheered as the new slide appeared.
It was finally time to learn…

The cursive capital G.

It’s always nice to be able to make them so happy.

We started how we always start a new cursive letter, “pencils up in the air!”

I took them step by step. “Start at the bottom. Curve up to the top. Loop around to the left and swing up to the right. Pull down to the bottom and swing left to cross. Swing up to the right.”

“This is hard!” Someone complained.
“No it’s not, it’s easy,” someone else said.

My student teacher reminded them that things can be easy for one person and hard for another. She asked them to be encouraging.

I moved on to the next letter we were learning. My student teacher complimented my ability to read the formation directions while drawing the letter.

I thanked her for her kind words and added, “It actually is tricky sometimes!”

“No it’s not” that same someone else said again.
“She wasn’t talking to you,” another student said.

I looked at the clock.

We started practicing the lower case w. One of the students said something about it that I couldn’t hear. I asked 3 times for her to repeat herself, when my para told me. “She said it looks like an outline of a bum.”

“Oh.” I’m annoyed at myself for trying so hard to understand what she was saying.

“Well, it’s just a w. It looks like a w, and that’s what it is. That’s all.”

In the back of my head I remembered how a few days ago my student teacher said she admired my patience, and I laugh to myself as we finish up cursive and head to lunch.