Like Halloween, but prettier

Valentine's Day.

Oh,Valentine's Day.  You make me tired.

So much energy and so much candy.  I don't know at what point valentines shifted to just bring a bag of candy and pass it out.  Maybe just at my school?  I don't know.

Everyone brought their candy and some kids made boxes for their valentines.  I had everyone put their stuff on a table.

It was a constant battle to keep them away from it.  One girl kept wanting to do inventory on hers:  count the candy and make sure no one had stolen any.

No.

I caught her hiding under the table, waiting for the chance to count her candy.

I thought why me several times.

Two days ago, my classroom started out at 58 degrees and reached 63 and hovered there.  On both Monday and Tuesday I sent notes to the office telling them the heat wasn't working.

Yesterday it was 80 degrees in my classroom.  I sent another note.  I signed it: The Squeaky Wheel.

But it got the heat shut off.  It is either off and we're freezing or it's warm like a thousand burning suns and the only thing controlling it is my sticky note going to the office.  From there, Riley climbs up in the attic and does something.  There are more efficient thermostats in the world, but we're making it work.

Almost immediately in the morning, minutes after these two walked in the door, this happened:

They were DEEPLY asleep.  I took this picture when everyone else was at recess.  We'd had little chocolate bars that they had partitioned into 1/4 pieces during math because we started fractions.  We had Red Vines they'd partitioned into halves.  Through all that excitement, these two didn't budge.  

I let them sleep.  Self preservation.

(I also texted their moms after school.  Maybe get your kids to bed earlier?)

Math was its own adventure.  "I don't like chocolate." 

Then throw it away.

"I don't eat red dye.  I can't eat this licorice."

Then throw it away.

Eating the candy isn't the point.  Partitioning it is the point.

Also, introducing fractions in a different language is not for the faint of heart.  Children whose language I share have a hard time understanding the concept.  I explain it several different ways and ask questions to gauge understanding.  With my new student, I had google translate (which isn't always 100% accurate) and pictures I'd drawn and hand gestures.  My ML students weren't much help because they 1) don't know the Spanish words to explain fractions and 2) don't understand fractions themselves.

A few hours into their naps, my boys finally woke up when Matt, at a full sprint, was chasing another teacher who was screaming her head off down the hall.

I should explain.

One of Matt's goal's in life is to increase morale at our school.  Last year it was positively funereal sometimes in those halls and especially in the work room.  

This year, not so much.

We were playing a game of Clue.  Every teacher got a piece of paper that said another teacher's name, a "weapon" and where we had to kill them.  I got a sixth grade teacher named Scarlett (which was pretty perfect), a ball and the vice principal's office.  I could not conceive of a way I could pull that off. "Hey, want to join me in Noemi's office for some dodgeball?"

Other teachers were being more successful.  (There were shrieking and shenanigans all day long.)

During library I heard an eruption of noise in the work room.  I slipped out of the library and into the next door work room and said, in my best teacher/mom voice, "Settle down."

They all froze and looked at me, the teacher old enough to be their mother, and one of them apologized.  Then they realized I was joking so they told me all the things that had transpired: who had killed who and who was still safe and who better be on the lookout.

At lunch time, Jamie stopped by my room.  She wondered how I was faring in Clue and I told her I couldn't imagine me making my scenario work.  I said, "I don't even have a ball."

She said, "I'll figure it out."

Later she came and told me that during sixth grade recess, she would take over my class and I could go to the office and have the secretary call Scarlett down to the office.  She handed me a Nerf ball.

She came at the appointed time.  I went to the office and had them call Scarlett.  I hid in Noemi's office.  Noemi stood in the outer office and when Scarlett got there, I heard Noemi say, "Will you come in my office for a minute?"

Scarlett said, "O-kay?"

I was there with the ball.  I said, "I got you!" and Matt came out of his office and had a smile on his face like it was Christmas morning.

Later, another 6th grade teacher said to me, "Wow, Thelma.  You play dirty!"

I said, "It was all Jamie's idea!

Since I had "killed" Scarlett, my next job was to kill the person she was supposed to kill.  It was my friend Nicole.  She and I had chatted earlier about the game and how it felt impossible.  

The task was to kill her in the gym with a plastic fork.  She is directing a school play and they rehearse after school in the gym.  I had my plan.

We had our Valentine's Day party.  Two moms came up with games and the one I was running was a memory matching game that was cute animals holding hearts and my already amped up girls who had talked all morning nonstop about crushes and candy just about lost their minds.  The new non English speaker can swoon like the rest of them.  Squealing over cuteness crosses language barriers.

I gave my students little mini Lego sets of insects.  There was a card attached that said, "We were BUILT to be friends."

One of the girls came up to me later and said, "I get it Teacher!  Instead of we were MADE to be friends, we were BUILT." 

They passed out all their candy and my little one who is such a struggle presented me with a gift.  He had been telling me all day that it was going to make my "head explode."

I hoped he meant figuratively.

It was an enormous box of chocolates.  He was so pleased with himself!  It melted my heart.  Such a sweet boy!

After school, I went down to the gym with my plastic fork in hand.  I had to unlock the gym door and interrupt rehearsal and as a drama mama, I know how inappropriate that is!

I walked up to Nicole and said I had a question about Battle of the Books (that was pressing enough to interrupt rehearsal?!?) and then when I got close enough, I got out my fork and told her I had killed her.

She said, "Well I was supposed to kill you, so you are safe."

There was more running and yelling and chasing going on and I complacently made copies and felt safe in the knowledge that my killer was out.

At 4:00, they made an announcement that everyone still alive could go to the office for a prize.  

Jamie and Holly met us with cheers.  The prize was heart shaped scented soap.  They said it was so we could wash the carnage of the day off our hands.

Later I saw this email from a teacher:

Tyler, a 6th grade teacher, responded:  I did that.

No one ever said you can't have fun while you are at work, especially at an elementary school.