A day in the life

Every morning lately that I've walked into my classroom, it has been a toasty 64 degrees.  It warms up to 67 by the time I am going home.

Friends, that is cold.

I complained before school started that my classroom was 84 degrees.  The bottom line is, we have no control over any of it.  The HVAC does what the HVAC wants.

One of my students told me a dramatic tale of a car crash his family was involved in on Saturday.  He said it happened by Chick-fil-a and the nice people there gave them food.  His mom was injured.  I didn't like that one bit.  I worry about my students enough without adding possible car crashes to the list.

A student, whose brother just started 7th grade, dropped the bombshell that students in junior high do NOT have recess.  That was shocking and unbelievable.   They wanted to know how many years were in junior high and high school.  Just how long would they have to survive without recess anyway?

My students were working on their computers and I called a group of students back to my desk for extra practice on some math.  I was head down, focused on my small group and a girl across the room said, "Um...teacher?"  She pointed to a boy next to her who I had never seen before.  He was sitting at a student's desk (the owner of the desk was at my table) and merrily tapping on the computer. I walked over and realized the stowaway was a kindergartner.  I said, "Who is your teacher?"  He told me.  I said, "Do you know where your classroom is?"

He said, "Yep!" and he skedaddled out of the room.  I followed him down the hall and watched him go into his kindergarten class.

I told a few other teachers about it and everyone knew which student I was talking about.  I am guessing he is the Ramona Quimby of the school.

One of our vocabulary words was discovery, so we laughed about the discovery of a kindergartner we had made earlier.  Another vocabulary word was education.  We talked about learning and the difference between just going to school and getting educated.  I mentioned college because a lot of them don't have anyone in their lives talking to them about college.  One of the girls raised her hand and asked softly, "Did your kids go to college?"

I told her that Braeden and Mark are still in college, but Emma graduated.  She thought a moment and raised her hand again, "Who paid for college?  You or your children?"

An 8 year old worried about paying for college.  I explained about scholarships and grants and I told them that it might take some figuring out, but they could all pay for college somehow.

A girl spilled her water bottle.  As in water was spreading out all over the desk.  She raised her hand to tell me.  It doesn't occur to them to get up and get some paper towels and be quick about it when they spill some water or need to throw up.  When they just want to pop out of their seat for no good reason, they have zero qualms.

We got paper towels and mopped up the spill.  She said her pants were wet.  They were barely wet on one side.  I said, "Good news, we are in a desert and they will dry fast."

A few minutes later she raised her hand to tell me they hadn't dried yet.

Awhile later, I got the same report.

After still longer, she raised her hand to tell me her pants were dry.

It is an exciting time, I'll tell you.

When I opened up the door to let my class in from lunch recess, one of my very hardest students from last year ran up and threw his arms around my waist.  

When they go home in the afternoon, some of them want to hug me, they all want to say good-bye.

See you tomorrow Teacher!  Good-bye!

It's not a bad life.