There are 29 kids in each of my 6th grade classes this year. It feels like a blessing because the were 38 and 39 in last year’s classes. It was a huge challenge to conference during writer’s workshop because we were packed in like sardines. compared to last year, conferencing is a breeze. Not only do I have space, but I have fewer students, so I can talk to each.
There was a time I would have considered 28 an abomination. I remember the first year I had 25. The I groaned, but I long for those days. I wrote this poem last year after I watched a skinny little girl squeeze between tables – a feat I could not perform.
38 kids
I watch
the petite 6th grader
dance
and
weave
between chairs,
lithely
navigating
obstacles in
our overcrowded classroom.
How must it look to her
as my half century bulk
rises and squeezes
through
the
maze?
Chairs are
pulled in
and I
suck
in
my
belly
hunching my shoulders
to keep my matronly bosom
out of an eye.
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