Sick

It was really only a matter of time before they got me sick. I've got a sinus head cold thing happening, and it certainly didn't make teaching any easier today.

Kendal was out with the stomach flu the last two days, but she came back today. Riley, who sits next to her, said, "I think Kendal gave me her stomach thing." Kendal heard this, got very teary, and angrily exclaimed, "No I didn't!" I explained to her how germs spread, and how we say that somebody gave us germs even though we know they didn't do it on purpose. To which Kendal replied, "I don't want her copying my stomach flu!" Perfectly reasonable. 

Thankful

Every year my school puts on a special Veterans Day assembly, and I spend the whole time holding back tears. The fifth graders, all decked out in red, white, and blue, sing a multitude of patriotic songs to an audience that includes family members who have served in the armed forces. Kelsey's uncle, who served in the Navy, was there in his "outfit" as Kelsey put it. As I was walking my students out of the gym at the end of the assembly, I could hear them saying to Kelsey's uncle as they passed, "Thank you for serving!" It was enough to make one weep.

An actual miracle happened during writing time today. For over thirty minutes my whole class was sitting working silently on their writing. I played an "ambient" station on Pandora while they wrote, which I think helped. (Jake asked if I had any Taylor Swift.) They were all putting so much effort into writing what they were thankful for, using everything I spent the last two weeks teaching them, and I was beaming with pride and joy. Many of them were thankful for their families, a couple for our country and army, quite a few were thankful for me (too cute!), and Nathan was thankful for tornadoes. 

Good News

I was pretty thrilled at last night's election results for a variety of reasons, both locally, nationally, and in other states. But the one that hit closest to home and will actually impact my life is that the county I work in finally passed a bond/mill levy that will save our district from drowning financially. Not only will I see a little bit of extra money this year, but this actually gives me a chance at having a job next year! I am on a temporary one-year contract, so no matter what my job is up in the air, but now I actually stand a chance to get to stay where I am. As opposed to the guaranteed unemployment had it failed. Before school this morning, two of my old students came into my room and with wide open arms and cheered, "You get to keep your job!" Nothing could have made me happier. 

Election Day!

We talked briefly about the election this morning. I intended to try and do some election focused lessons, or a kid's vote, or something, but life got the best of me before I was able to make it happen. But we did talk about it during the morning meeting. Jake talked extensively about everything he knew about "Rock Obama and Mitt Ronany" and how one of the congressmen running would "take away a woman's right to choose." This is a serious topic, obviously, but I couldn't help but laugh hearing it come out of the mouth of a six year old who is years away from having a clue of what that means. At one point Everett and Johnny started chanting "Mitt Romney! Mitt Romney!" but I shut it down. In the spirit of bi-partisanship, I would have shut down any Obama chants too, but my Obama supporters are more reasonable and controlled than that. 

Boom. 

Poop

Today my room smelled like poop. Actual poop. I think it started sometime after recess. At first I couldn't tell if someone had an "accident" or if someone stepped in something foul. I spent most of the day trying to smell it out, to no avail. 

Where it came from, the world may never know...

Charlotte

Last night I had the privilege of getting to see Barack Obama in person. It was 100% worth the 4 hour hunger-crazed wait. As a teacher, I know that I'm not allowed to share any political beliefs with my students or even tell them who I'm voting for. I don't totally get why this matters when the people I'm "influencing" are six, but whatever. I follow the rules. But I also feel like seeing the President of the United States is a big deal, no matter what your politics, and worth sharing with my students. And it raised some hilarious questions and comments. For example, Anna said that she knows that if the president dies, then the woman takes over. I gleaned that she was referring to Sarah Palin as a VP candidate. And then Presley said, "A woman has been president before." "No, there has not been a woman president yet," I said. "Yes, there has!" "Not of the United States, no." "Yes, there was one!" I don't understand why they don't believe that I might know more than them.

Later in the day we had free choice time and I was sitting grading papers when a large shiny black plastic-looking spider, like no spider I had ever seen, came waltzing by my desk. I made some sort of loud reactive sound, and all of the kids rushed over to see what it was. I encouraged them to help me kill it, but really just stayed in my seat as they all started to stomp near it. One girl finally got it and I felt a wave of relief. Then I got two kleenexes and attempted to pick its dead body off the floor but flinched and hesitated because it was so disgusting. So Anna grabbed the kleenex out of my hand and calmly picked up the body and threw it in the trash. Sometimes I'm so terrible at being an adult.

After the spider-killing, I remembered that we are actually reading Charlotte's Web right now, and in the next chapter we meet Charlotte (who is a spider if you had no childhood). I hope I didn't traumatize my students too much, and I'm guessing that will be the last spider we kill this year. 

Post-Halloween Depression

I wasn't sure if the kids would be really tired or really wound up the day after Halloween. Turns out it was a weird combination of both that lead to some pretty crazy emotions.

Kendal slumped in first thing in the morning and sadly mumbled, "I want it to be Halloween again. It was so fun." And then she looked like she was about to cry. I totally understand how she feels - I always go through post-_____ depression. Be it a concert, a holiday, a book, a trip - I hate when things end. But then I just need to find a new thing to look forward to. So I read them a book about Thanksgiving to fix the post-Halloween blues. I'm not sure if it helped - Thanksgiving is not nearly as fun as Halloween when you're six. Or when you're an adult.