Body Parts, Living Partners and Red Things of Death!

I'm not quite sure how to describe today. I'm in a better mood than normal, but I don't feel like the kids were really any more well-behaved or that I was any more effective as a teacher. I guess I just had a better outlook.

Here were some of the highlights:

1) At floortime this morning, we were discussing words that rhyme. I would give the students a word and they would think of as many words as they could that rhymed with that word. The last word I gave was "blue." The kids thought and thought and came up with shoe and drew (this one came with much prompting...) While they continued thinking, a girl right at my feet asked, "Mrs. Gentle, do boobies rhyme with blue?" Shocked, I ask, "What did you say?" This was a bad question (you knew that, didn't you) because she repeated herself and so did the little boy next to her. To top it off, when she said the b-word, she made grabbing gestures with two fists. Where the heck did that come from??

2) My kids had art today. Their art teacher also happens to be their PE teacher. He is really nice, young and brand-new (remind you of anyone??) Whenever I pick the kids up, they are always out-of-control... (click here to read about picking them up from P.E.) Today, the kids were yelling and laughing and throwing crayons (aka cleaning up...) I was trying to quiet, calm and arrange them into a line. As I am doing this one of my dear boys who needs extra special help asked, "Mrs. Gentle, do you live with him?" "Do I live with who?" I responded. "Him," he said, pointing to their art/PE teacher. I don't know where that one came from either.

3) I don't know quite how to preface this story. While it was happening I wanted to laugh and cry. Kids just do crazy things... I had bus duty today, which isn't terribly fun, but is much better than parent pick-up (I'll save that debate for another day) I was in the front of the line, leading dozens of 1st graders through the school, across the playground and out to the street. Just steps away from the buses, I see one of my little girls holding her mouth with her hand--completely covered in blood.

I quickly ask her what happened. She's crying and can't respond. "Did you fall?" She shakes her head no. "Did someone hurt you?" Another no. "What happened?" A girl behind her in line says, "She ran into that thing!" "What thing?" "That red thing!" Now I'm turning myself in circles trying to find the "red thing" that could possible cause this much damage and I don't see anything. Another teacher sees my struggle, gets the same information out of everybody and says I need to escort her to the nurse's office.

As we walk, we trace our steps and I tell her to point at the "thing" that hurt her. We walk across the whole playground, back through the hallways, when she finally points at a fire extinguisher cabinet that juts out of the wall. We have them along all of our hallways and I can not tell you how many times my kids have almost ran into them. I also can not tell you how frustrated I get when I see kids walking with their heads turned back.

So, being the uncompassionate teacher that I am : ) I lecture, "Were you walking forward with your head turned back?" She nods yes. "Haven't I told you not to do that?" She aggresively nods yes. "Now do you understand why?" The nods just become more and more purposed...

I take her to the nurse, who examines her. Turns out that this little girl also had a sunflower seed in her mouth. So when she hit her head on the metal cabinet, she forced the seed into her lower lip, cutting it deeply. Why does she have a sunflower seed- you ask. I, too, would like to know...

See, I'm telling you, my job is the most unpredictable one out there. I was told this morning we might have a lockdown drill today. We didn't. Will we have one tomorrow? Don't know.

I do know that I have 3 tests scheduled and a trip to the computer lab. Please pray profusely between 12:15 and 1:00 tomorrow : ) Mom is coming in to help during test time and computers and to make copies for me. (Isn't she great?) Still, though, you never know what might happen or what "thing" you might run into : )