Every Story has 2 Sides...

... and so did my day on Monday.

First, a Little Darling of mine pooped his pants. In my grade, this is NOT normal or really even acceptable. But, alas, it happened. It went down like this:

LD (waddling): Ms. S, we were just walking and I accidentally felt something. And I think it's poop.
Me: ....
LD (still waddling):....
Me: Go to the clinic!
LD: But...
Me (interrupting): I SAID GO TO THE CLINIC.

Yeah. My response probably could have been more empathetic. But, come ON! YOU POOPED YOUR PANTS!!!

Ugh.

So later, as the kiddos were packing up I said, "Once we're done, we'll do reading groups, and then it will be time to go home!"

I heard an "Aw, man!" from a little one who is not.... shall we say.... the most studious. Or well-behaved. I must have looked surprised, because he proceeded to say, "What? I want to stay here! School is fun!"

I'm not kidding. He (one of my most difficult to motivate students) actually said he wanted to stay at school!

I love it- even on days when think I hate it. :)

I love you

So I once had this Little Darling who was a pain. To be fair, it wasn't his fault, but the kid had more anger in him than we usually see in most adults. I'm talking like, he had no friends, he was rude, and he used to get so worked up that you could actually SEE the tension in his body.

However, inside that hard shell was a loving and smart little boy. I know we aren't supposed to have favorites, but come on. He will most likely be on my top 5 of all time! This is one of my favorite stories about him.

He came in angry- you could almost see the dark cloud hanging over him. As usual, I chirped "Good Morning! I'm so happy to see you today!" and gave him my most dazzling smile.

Nothing.

The rest of the morning was like pulling teeth. Finally I was able to get a moment to talk with him and get to the bottom of the issue. As he talked, it became obvious to me that he needed to talk to someone one-on-one right away, and I couldn't do that with him at the moment. So I sent him to our amazing guidance councilor, who we will call Mrs. Wonderful.

He stayed with her for over an hour, and met up with the rest of us at lunch. I asked him if he felt better, and he nodded and said, "Mrs. Wonderful said to tell you that I love you." Of course I melted a bit and assured him that I loved him too.

After school, I went by Mrs. Wonderful's office to thank her. We chatted about him for a few minutes, and I said, "Oh, and he told me about what you said. To tell me that he loves me, I mean." She stared, blinked, and said, "I told him how lucky he was to have you, but I didn't tell him to tell you he loved you. He must have come up with that one on his own."

Sigh. That's what makes this job worth it, no?

A WHOLE WEEK OFF!!!

Spring has sprung- time for a break! I was sent away with a love note from a Little Darling, a flower from a former student, and a kiss on the cheek from a student who will not be back after break (seriously... he had tears in his eyes and he kissed me on the cheek when I hugged him goodbye!!!).

And then, I stopped a student who was running in the hall and wrote a note in his planner (how dare I?!?!?) and he told me he hated me. Straight up, to my face, told me he hated me. Oh, and that all I do is try to get people in trouble.

Guess you can't please them all...

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!