Sunday, December 16, 2007

Oh the joys of teaching

Sometimes I forget why I love to teach. OK, so a lot of times I forget. Especially when my students are running amok and not keeping their desks immaculate like my anal-ness needs. The other day I was sitting at my desk going through some papers while my students were working on their Christmas presents for their parents. I stopped and took a look around to see what they were doing. This is what I saw:

One student singing a crazy song. He was decorating his September page in his calendar and had substituted the words of a Veggie Tales song with "labor day." Then he started singing the real song (something about celery and broccoli). When he got to the last phrase, he turned to the student next to him and they both finished the song together, vibrato and all.

Three students speaking only in code about who knows what (and honestly, do I want to know what three seven-year-old boys are talking in code about? I think not...). If only I could describe their hilarious facial expressions accurately. You would have died laughing!

"Give me some of your tots, Napoleon!" One student started asking the other students if they had seen certain movies. Soon it turned into a quote fest. Hearing a seven year old quote Napoleon Dynamite is hilarious. Not just funny or amusing, but roll-on-the-floor-hilarious. I wish I would have written down the other movies they were quoting. The above quote is what stuck out most.

One group of girls proudly showing off their masterpieces. One girl shouted out: "What are you getting Elinor, Mrs. Rowberry?" It melts my heart when they ask about Elinor. They almost think of her as a sister. It's adorable.

I spent the rest of the day just watching my students. I didn't care if their desks were messy when they left (well, not too much anyway), or whether they had stacked the chairs or picked up the floor. I just smiled and realized that this is why I love teaching!

1 comment:

Mrs. Cropper said...

SOOOO true. I loved this! It made me miss them so much. And you will find the same thing to be true with Elinor. I too often worry that Blaine has made my house a disaster with all of his crayons and blocks and trucks instead of just watching with awe his joy and delight of playing with said items. I'm trying to be better at reveling in the moment! I miss the Saratoga Shores Sharks! I was trying to remember our school song the other day and couldn't remember it all--I was devastated!