Kids Say the Darnedest Things...

Just a few tidbits from today... it was a funny one:

Ms. S: Does anyone know where the first Olympics took place? I'll give you a hint- it happened a long LOOOOOOOOONG time ago....
Darling #1: China? No wait, Canada?
Ms. S: No....
Darling #2: Australia?
Ms. S: No, guys. Remember it happened a LONG TIME AGO.
Darling #3: 1986?

Um..... wow.

Here's a few from writing time. We read a book called "Never Take a Shark to the Dentist." It's very cute, and it shows pictures of animals in funny situations (dentists trying to fix a shark's teeth, a giraffe's neck blocking a movie screen, etc.). I had the kids brainstorming their own "Never Take A...." scenarios. It was quite interesting...

Ms. S: Well, why wouldn't you want to sit next to a porcupine on the subway?
Darling #1: BECAUSE IT WILL PORK YOU!!!

Yeah... porked by a porcupine. Sounds painful. Here's another...

Darling #1: Never take a hobo to...
Ms. S: I said ANIMALS! That's not an animal!
Darling #1: (mumbling) Well it looks like one....

Nice. This was the best one by far, though...

Darling #1: Never take a kangaroo to the beach.
Ms. S: Why not?
Darling #1: It can lay babies all over the beach. (Sidenote: LAY babies? And why would this take place on the beach???)
Darling #2: I think you're going to need TWO kangaroos for that one.


And that, dear friends, is where we ended writing time. Sometimes all you can do is laugh. Oy vey.

:)

Somedays at school can be L-O-N-G. Like today. It was rainy, everyone was tired from the weekend, and no one felt the need to LISTEN OR THINK!!!

So, I decided to give my students what we teachers refer to as "indoor recess." (READ: Letting the kids take out your board games to give yourself 15-20 minutes of sanity.) One of my little darlings pulled out the LEGOs and built himself a castle. Nothing extraordinary, but good enough to be recognizable as a castle. Since we are studying the Middle Ages, I decided to display it on the TV cart for everyone to see. Together we placed it on the cart, and the little darling ran back to the floor. I heard him excitedly tell the others, "Guys! Ms. S put my castle on the TV cart because she thought it was special!"

Cue: Ms. S melting into a puddle while simultaneously feeling like a complete b*tch for snapping at them all morning. I think the Teaching Gods send us these moments so we can remember that we're dealing with children here- not little adults.

Miraculously, the rest of the day seemed to go by much more smoothly...

Welcome to My World

So. As I was driving home from school today, overanalyzing every moment as I tend to do, I decided to start this blog. I am a teacher. And for those of you who don't know any teachers personally, let me be the first to tell you that we have a strange job. We find ourselves uttering weird sentences, dealing with weird people (big people AND little people!) and doing weird things that NO ONE else would be forced to do at work. But we do it because we love our jobs, and nearly every day I have a story to tell.

I want to remember these things, and I've been meaning to write them down for years. So I'm going to start today, and you're welcome to listen in (read in? whatever.) as you see fit. Welcome!