Life in an Elementary School

*This morning, after getting a headache from all the blabbing, I decided we needed to play a game. It was called "The Whisper Game." Everyone had to talk in a whisper from recess until lunch. If you spoke aloud, you were out. If the whole class did it, then they earned a treat. They did it the ENTIRE time (about an hour). The sad thing is, it took me 5 years to figure it out.

*I have a student going in for surgery next month to have his leg ripped apart and rebuilt, when it will probably have to be replaced as an adult anyway. Last year, a former student of mine lived in the children's hospital for an entire year while battling cancer. Today, I put them together for lunch. Sweetest thing I have ever seen was this COMPLETELY RECOVERED 6th grader talking to this scared first grader about the video games and moveable beds at the hospital. He also said he would talk to the nurses for the little guy, and make sure they treated him right. Too much!

*Today I danced with a student to the song "Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World." Best dance I ever had.

*We celebrated a birthday today. The birthday girl brought in fruit roll up things that come in long rolls. The boys promptly peeled the fruit guk off the paper backing, and then tied the backing around their head, kung fu head band style. I narrowly escaped a few karate chops to the head.

*The principal called me just before school was out to say she needed to see me in her office in ten minutes. Strange. I told my students I had just been called to the principal's office, and they asked what I had done. I said I wasn't sure, but that if I wasn't here tomorrow they should remember I loved them all. Later, on my way back from the office, one of my student's saw me. Right in front of her mother - a big group of mothers - she shouted out, "Hey Miss C. - Did you get FIRED??"