The first weeks of school are always a blur of activity.  The students in our upper classes are steadily making sure that they have established themselves as the bosses of everyone else.  The students in the middle are trying to recover from being the youngest the year before and don’t quite know what to do with themselves.  Then, the youngest students, who I affectionately call ‘the babies,’ are just in awe of the program and amazed that they get to come every day.  As teachers, we are unreasonably hard on the senior class.  We feel that after three or four years in the program, they can handle it.  We have higher expectations and less tolerance of the middle group than before.  After all, they were babies and confused last year.  This year, we expect that they should know what they are doing.  The youngest students are our special ones.  When we begin, we are always shocked with how little they know.  We are slightly impatient that they have no clue about how to “do” school, and we realize afresh how much they grow in the course of one year.  Then, as a collective, we all remember where everyone began and immediately feel much more encouraged about how far we have brought the other two groups.  Here are a few of the gems that we met with during the first two weeks of school.

Last week marked the end of the school year for the Kurland Learning Center.  The week was filled with tests, final assessments, and Science Fair projects; all of which our students were anxious to take.  Unlike the laziness and moaning that usually mark the end of the year in most schools, our students demand more final tests and as many assessments as we can give them.  We try to oblige them by creating challenges that encourage them to work hard in the race to finish the year well.  I am sure that you are wondering why our students are so excited and anxious for as many tests as we can give.  It is not because they are abnormal children, and sadly, it is not because we have totally transformed them into the type of people who all want to work hard.  No, we have a secret.