I:55

Book Fair preview day! This book fair is from a company I'm unfamiliar with. It's called I:55, referring to Isaiah 55, and it's a Christian company. I've used Scholastic and Usborne in the past. Definitely cons to both of them. Scholastic had a lot of books inappropriate for Lutheran schools. Usborne had great books for littles, but not many for middle grades. This one had a good selection for all ages and a wide variety of mainstream books alongside God-themed books. I saw a few that were on my to-read list, already read favorites, and some on my books-to-buy list!

The kids each got a book wish list slip to fill out. We had fifteen minutes to peruse and write down titles. I had a few slips to fill out for classroom wish list items. No problem filling that out. 😉

My students were on my case about coming back next year to be their part-time teacher. 

"You just explain things so well. Like, I actually understand stuff when you explain it. And you're so kind and never yell." 

"Yeah, you should follow us to 6th grade. If you have a baby, maybe you can bring it to school with you and teach us with your baby!"

"Yeah, we had a different teacher who did that!"

Somehow, I doubt that.

There's a 5th grade boy into Christian rappers. Obsessed, I'd venture to say. He wants to be a rapper when he grows up and is actually writing his own raps. He did one after school waiting for his parents to pick him up. He said it was from his Greek Album. The song was about going to get a Big Mac. He's pretty talented actually. It sounded like a rap, but I could understand everything he said. A kid from the other class stopped in to drop off an assignment for me and he stopped to listen. Apparently, this song has been a work in progress because this other kid wanted to hear the latest version. Rapper boy said, "Okay, but I'll start here, since you've already heard this part. This is the new part." Very cool.

I told him so. 

Pretty sure his classmates think he's weird, including the girls. They seem to tease him or make fun of him, always in a subtle way that gives off that 'making fun of' feeling but is never mean enough for a teacher to call them out about it. Right before I complemented him on his rapping, it seemed like the ringleader of the girls was going to say something, but she stopped herself when I commented. The look on her face makes me wonder if I gave her something to think about with my praise of his ability. 🤔