First Graders provide an infinite amount of entertainment. Sometimes it makes me laugh and other times, well... I'll laugh later. I can plan lessons all I want to, but the truth is, I never know what might happen in my classroom.
Here's an example that I think captures perfectly the adventurous job of teaching:
On Tuesday this week, I called my students to our meeting area to start the day. I noticed a little girl fiddling with something in her lap that clearly she didn't want me to see. I gave my usual warning. "(Student), I see that you have a toy in your lap, if you don't want me to take it up, you should go put it in your backpack. If I see it out again, it goes in my 'June drawer'(where you won't get it back until June)."
I held my hand out to her. "I'm happy to take it up now, if you think it's going to distract you from learning today."
"Noooo, Mrs. Shepherd, I'll put it away." And off she ran to put whatever she had safe in her backpack.
On Wednesday, while the kids were at lunch, I received an email from a mom, which included a 'PS' telling me that her daughter had informed her that the Tuesday student had brought her gerbil to school yesterday and planned to do the same today. She wasn't sure if she meant a stuffed animal or not.
I chuckled to myself, thinking "Yeah, right." But a quick flash back to the day before, and how urgent she was to put her toy away without me seeing it, plus hearing scurrying in the cubbies and thinking that I should talk to the custodian and I decided to check her backpack.
Nervously, I unzipped her backpack, only to find a ton of junk - old work, multiple silly hats, crayons, gloves and a zippered pencil pouch. I thought of breathing a sigh of relief but looked again at the zipper pouch. "Please, no." , but yes. I unzipped it just enough for a terrified gerbil (who looked much more like a rat with a 5 inch tail!) to shove his head through and try to escape. The next moments are a blur of me shoving him back in, zipping it up, jumping up and down and running to my friend's classroom next door.
After finding a better container for the pet, I tried to compassionately yet sternly explain to the little girl the hideousness of her decisions. From an 'animal rights perspective(two days in a zipper pouch with no food, water, or air)' to a 'school is for learning perspective'. She sobbingly explained that her friend wanted to see her gerbil, to which I replied, "If my friend wants to see my horse, does that make it okay to zip him up in my backpack and sneak him to school? A picture of your gerbil would have been a much better choice.
Therefore, despite my lesson plans, animal ethics replaced subtraction that day. Like I said, an infinite amount of entertainment.
