2nd Grade Memories

                                                        My 2nd Grade Class Picture (This Time I Didn't Blink)

   Someone had once told me that once your child starts kindergarten, the time really flies.  I think they’re right.  Because, last week, my son started second grade.

   So in the spirit of last year’s blog where I wrote about my first grade memories (http://wendykennar.blogspot.com/2014/08/first-grade-memories.html), I thought I’d share some of my second grade memories.

   My teacher was Mrs. Jones.  Her classroom was located upstairs in the main building.  I had never been upstairs before and suddenly felt very grown-up.  After all, upstairs is where the big kids had their classes!

   I remember that Mrs. Jones made me a book with a yellow construction paper cover, and she filled it with the “good” paper -- the white paper with the blue lines.  She told me to use the book for the stories I would write.  That’s my first memory of me wanting to be a writer.

   On Valentine’s Day, I watched Mrs. Jones randomly drop small cards into each student’s decorated brown paper bag.  She hadn’t filled in the “To” part on the cards.  I remember not liking the way she gave out the cards, that not having my name on it meant it didn’t show as much love.  Consequently, in all my years of teaching, I always wrote out my students’ names on their Valentine cards.  

   And, apparently I blinked on picture day.  Because on a random day, I was called to the auditorium to take a make-up picture.  I had come to school that day in pigtails and hadn’t specially picked out an outfit like I had for the original picture day.  I remember needlessly being worried that my yellow shirt wasn’t special enough. 

   And thirty years later, that’s about all I remember.  I don’t remember details about field trips or class parties or special projects; you know the kinds of things that usually stick out in a chid’s memory.  And it’ll be interesting to see what will stay in Ryan’s memory from his second grade year.