The Ritzes 3.0
  • Family Update
  • Jason Jabbers
  • Carla's Blog
  • Timotheology
  • Pictures/Videos
  • Contact Us

Carla's Blog

Second Grade

6/1/2012

1 Comment

 
Picture
This morning I watched a video on YouTube that made me smile and it brought a tear to my eye at the end.  The video is at the end of this blog post - it will make you smile too - not sure about the teary-eyed part... guess it depends on your hormone levels, feelings about education, love for kids, compulsion toward social justice, etc.  Let's face it, tears are more complicated than smiles.

Any way, this video made me think back to my second grade year.  Second grade was the year that my family moved across the country, so I started out in one school and then transferred to another mid-year.  I have more memories from 2nd grade (good and bad) than any other year in elementary school.  In 2nd grade I...
  • Threw up in class... and, sadly, down the hall on the way to the nurse's office.  Then I had to go back and sit at my desk in class until my mom came to pick me up.  I can still remember the disgusted stares of the other 2nd graders as I came back in the room to wait while the janitor cleaned up the mess I'd made.  ugh.
  • Participated in my first school-wide track meet.  GLORY!!!  I didn't realize until 3rd grade that everyone got ribbons at the track meet, I sure thought I was big stuff coming home with all those ribbons.  The best part about the elementary school track meet was the snacks that the moms brought.  Jello jigglers were my fav.
  • Went swimming in P.E.  The school I went to had an olympic -size swimming pool, so all of the P.E. classes in elementary and middle school had a swimming unit during the year.  It felt strange to change out of my school clothes and into a swimsuit in the locker room during the middle of the day.  I remember walking out of the locker room and into the pool area in my little size 7, ruffled swimsuit and thinking that the pool looked HUGE to me and the deep end was SO DEEP.  The first day of the swim unit, everyone had to try to swim the length of the pool.  Those who didn't make it across without flailing or holding on to the side would spend the duration of the swimming unit in the kiddy pool.  Let's just say for one day, I made a point to "forget" that I knew how to swim. That kiddy pool looked a whole lot safer...and more shallow.
  • I learned that raising one's middle finger was inappropriate.  During second grade, we frequently split up into reading groups by ability level for different activities.  One day I remember reading aloud to my small group and putting up only my middle finger to follow along with the words on the page.  My small group buddies were appalled.  One of them quietly whispered to me, "That is a bad finger!"  BAFFLED, I put it down and tried using my index finger from then on.  
  • I found that school could be both challenging AND fun.  Kindergarten had been fun... singing songs, playing with toys, baking brownies, making crafts, just plain fun.  First grade was torture.  I was shocked after a cushy year in kindergarten to find that in first grade you had to do hard things... a lot and repeatedly.  Second grade was my saving grace.  I was in a huge classroom that was actually two 2nd grade classrooms put together with a teacher work station in the middle.  The two classes had two different teachers (Mrs. Roberts and Mrs. Dewey), but would work cooperatively at times too.  I knew it was going to be fun when I saw that they had a huge picture of R2D2 from Star Wars on the door to the classroom.  (Roberts - 2nd, Dewey - 2nd was shortened as R2D2).  The teachers were loud and a bit irreverent and they were having fun, so we had fun too, and it was easier to do hard things as a result.
  • I figured out that we were growing up and could do big things. My teachers would routinely challenge us to do more than the textbooks asked for.  If we could spell every word perfectly on the spelling list, they would keep giving us harder and harder words until it was a challenge.  One girl in my class, Melissa, kept spelling harder and harder words until they ran out of words to give her.  So they gave her a made up word from the movie Mary Poppins to spell. You can probably figure out which one.  :)  

Turns out, in other countries, just saying that word is hard, let alone spelling it.  Enjoy!

1 Comment
Sandy Dart
6/1/2012 11:51:15 pm

Once again you have made me smile. You're memories are wonderful and you express them so vividly. Again I am so proud of you.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Carla Ritz.  Proof positive that God uses cracked pots!

    Twitter

    Archives

    June 2022
    June 2021
    April 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    August 2020
    August 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    February 2018
    August 2017
    May 2017
    December 2015
    September 2015
    February 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    May 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2010
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009

    Categories

    All
    2 Peter
    Adoption
    Amazima
    Armor Of God
    Artistry
    Attitude
    Authenticity
    Avengers
    Baby Boy
    Balance Beam
    Battle
    Bible Study
    Blessings
    Calling
    Christmas
    Commitment
    Compassion
    Contentment
    Conversation
    Conviction
    Cookie Baking
    Creation
    Darkness
    Date
    Date Night
    Depression
    Discipleship
    Do Something
    Do Something
    Emotions
    Encouragement
    Enemy
    Engagement
    Evil
    Evil Thoughts
    Faith
    Family
    Favoritism
    Fear
    Feast
    Foster Care
    Francis Chan
    Friends
    Fruitfulness
    Fun
    Generation Gap
    Giving Up
    Goats
    God
    God's Glory
    God's Glory
    God's Goodness
    God's Sovereignty
    Gods Word
    Good
    Graduation
    Growing Up
    Guest Blog
    Hard Times
    Heaven
    Holy Spirit
    Hope
    Humility
    Intimacy With God
    James
    Jesus Birth
    Katie Davis
    Kisses From Katie
    Laziness
    Leadership
    Letter Writing
    Life
    Light
    Loss
    Love
    Love Your Neighbor
    Lyrics
    Manners
    Marriage
    Mary
    Memories
    Mentoring
    Mom
    Mother
    Motherhood
    Movie
    Movies
    Nose
    Nostril
    Orphan
    P31 Wife
    Parenting
    Patience
    Perseverance
    Prayer
    Premarital Counseling
    Purpose
    Random
    Reality
    Ridiculous Story
    Risks
    Rock Bottom
    Safety
    Self Control
    Self-control
    Service
    Significance
    Silly Story
    Sin
    Smile
    Son
    Speech
    Spelling
    Suffering
    Sweets
    Technology
    Thank You
    Thessalonians
    Timelessness Of God
    Timmy
    Tooth
    Tooth Fairy
    True Love
    Trust
    Truth
    Uganda
    Unchanging God
    Usefulness
    Waiting On The Lord
    War
    Wisdom
    Witness
    Works
    Worthwhile
    Zany

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Family Update
  • Jason Jabbers
  • Carla's Blog
  • Timotheology
  • Pictures/Videos
  • Contact Us