Believe it or not, this is me trying to keep my desk clean.
It gets away from me every single day.
We did more testing in the morning. One boy was pretty out of it and refused to work and I could tell he was sick. He also refused to admit he was sick. Sometimes it is clear that parents are at work and they are not allowed to call home. It breaks my heart a little.
By 10:00, he was sitting there, quietly crying. I took him to the nurse's room where he could lie down. The lady in the office that speaks Spanish called his mom and she was indeed at work, but far away and couldn't be there for a while. The sweet boy just sat there and wept. I asked him if I could do anything for him. He didn't want anything. It got to be lunchtime and I tried to get him lunch, but he didn't want any. I asked the office ladies to call his 5th grade brother down. I thought he could maybe cheer up his brother. This student is the third one in the family and I love them all completely. I wish that I could follow their mother around and have her teach me her ways, because I have never met such sweet boys. They have a kindergarten or maybe first grade little brother and I hope I get him in a few years because I want the entire set!
The 5th grader was the picture of sympathy like I knew he would be. He spoke to his brother softly in Spanish. I asked him to ask the brother if he wanted to come to my classroom and watch something on Disney+ on my computer while everyone else was at lunch. He didn't. Finally, he just bent over his brother and wrapped him in his arms and told him he loved him.
It was the sweetest thing I've seen in a very long time.
His mom eventually was able to make it and I hope the dear boy feels better soon!
A girl had sauntered in right when we were finishing testing. I asked her why she was late. (They know we're testing!)
She said, "Oh, my parents went to the temple and then we all went to McDonald's."
O-kaaaaaaaay.
A girl dropped her completely full water bottle on the carpet and I handed her a paper towel from the classroom roll which is the least absorbent material probably on earth. Happily we live in a desert and while the wet spot was still there when I left for the day, it will dry eventually.
A girl brought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers for Teacher Appreciation Week. She included a card that thanked me for teaching her the metric system.
A few students looked closely at the flowers and wondered if there was pollen in there. (The day before we'd had a science lesson about pollinators.)
At lunch recess, the aide on duty confiscated a glass bottle of liquid some my students were taking swigs of and sharing around.
It was hot sauce.
Valentina's hot sauce. One of them had brought it from home.
I had recess duty in the afternoon. One of my boys, who mostly sits morosely by himself in the middle of the grass every recess, was invited by a girl in Miriam's class to play four square.
It kind of made my day.
On the heels of that, a girl in my class came outside with her fingers pinched on the least amount of fabric possible on her sweatshirt. She said, "It got toilet water on it."
I didn't really understand. "It dropped in the toilet?"
She said, "Yes, I put it on the toilet paper holder and it fell in."
These are the kinds of problems one doesn't get taught about when you are getting a degree in elementary education. I have a healthy stash of plastic grocery bags and I put it inside and hung it up and reminded her to take it home when the bell rang, because she was merrily leaving without it.
Just another day of highs and lows; chaos and sweetness; you won't believe this and I can't make this stuff up.
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