Crescent Heights Day 3

I felt like I finally had a handle on the diaper changing situation today. It's like Sosie and I had a routine or a rhythm for getting the kids in and out, like we're a pit crew.

The substitute for Miss Jodhi is Miss Lopez. She deferred to me, like I knew what to do and when, I must exude authority. I also got to meet another teacher/aide, Miss Nadia, who was making paper flowers for the kids. 

I used Jodhi's timer tool to mediate all of the tricycle fights. I had two timers going at a time, and tracking who goes next. Eventually, they started sharing the bikes on their own. 

Miss Leslie opened up more today, my paranoid brain thought she was going to tell me I was doing something wrong when she said, "have you noticed that we don't bring toys out for the kids, they just play with what's already out." My mind thought, uh oh have I brought out toys that they weren't supposed to play with? But Leslie just wanted to tell me about the options of bringing toys out now that there are more aides and adults and fewer kids. She said that I can talk to the teachers about creating games for the kids to play outside and trying them out. Basically to communicate as much as possible with the teachers. 

I didn't realize Miss Leslie is an aide, I thought she was a teacher. She commands the kids like she's the boss, I need to learn that. She told me how she's worked for LAUSD for 20 years as an aide she tried private schools for four years and came back to LAUSD. We agreed that we like that we don't have to be the fully responsible teacher, and that we're just there to support. 

When the classes merged to the late kids, there were new faces. One girl named Zoe attached herself to me. She's five and started talking to me about her paper flower, then she tried sitting in my lap as I leaned on a table and Miss Tatiana had to tell her to sit down. She would hold my hand, ask me to sit with her, try to sit on me, it was like a moth to a flame, I don't know why! I'm a magnet.

Emma gave her mom the paper flower that Miss Nadia made for her. Emma's mom said, "oh a Father's Day gift. I'm her father. I'm her mother." Miss Nadia said, "you're doing a great job with her." Emma's mom responded with a smile, "I know." Emma's mom is tall, maybe six feet tall, and she wears long skirts and long sleeves and has long hair that looks dark with highlights. She has a subtle Eastern European accent.