My Day in the 4th Grade

[kleenexwoman]

Mom woke up me up at 5 AM to take me to her classroom yesterday. She teaches 4th grade. I've been there a few times, mostly to help out in the library, and apparently I'm a favorite there; the librarian loves me, and the principal was actually psyched to see me.

So were the kids. I told them about what college was like (Me: "You can go to class in your pajamas every day if you want!" Kids: "Oooooooooh.") I helped them proofread their essays about their "favrid wenter atitivites" and do word analogy exercises, and then I walked around and helped them with their ecosystem dioramas. (They're doing ecosystems in science, and I guess this semester is Antarctica. Mom wanted to do the tropics because she had a bunch of flamingos she could use for the big display in the lobby, but she was outvoted by the other science teacher, who had a large stuffed penguin and seniority. This is how things get done in schools.)

The kids were adorable. There was one child who spent a lot of his time telling me about all the bugs he had in jars in his room and how he'd climbed into a yard with a real mean dog and tamed it with a "bisect" (his essay topic, despite the theme), one girl who told me she was the "best drawer in the room" and then drew me a star and a teddy bear (and later sculpted me a small starfish), and one girl who got upset that her diorama partner was telling her what to do and later went around the room with a feather duster going "HIYAAAAH!" at anything that had dust on it (unfortunately Mom's school doesn't seem to endorse feather duster ninja-ism as an appropriate form of conflict resolution). The kids hugged me and wanted to hang out with me and kept coming up to me to ask if they could go to the bathroom.

I was particularly glad I'd gone that day, because they had a special assembly in the art room. Nelson, the Animal Guy came by to show us:

--Griffin, a Great Horned Owl with an enormous wingspan, who turned his head around 270 degrees to stare at the assorted children;
--Three emperor scorpions who were very nice and did not sting us;
--One sugar glider, who GLIDED! and was very furry (he told us a story about how for a long time he was afraid to work with sugar gliders because one bit his face);
--One chinchilla, who was SO ADORABLE and who prompted a discussion on how if you're going to be crass and wear fur you should at least know what the fur is coming from (and prompted most of the girls in the class to declare that they wanted chinchillas for Christmas);
--A small American alligator, who Nelson held by his tail and who kept staring at the fattest girl in the class;
--A WALLABY. It hop hop hopped all over the room and inspected all the art supplies, and then Nelson got it to hop into a backpack and brought it around so that we could pet it.

I think I was actually more excited about the animals than the little kids were. Anyway, the kids were good, and it was surprisingly easy helping them and hanging out with them, mostly because I didn't have to deal with their homework or their parents or discipline problems. TBH, just being around small children for more than an hour without getting exhausted and confused by their energy and modes of interaction is kind of a triumph for me.


And then I came home and discovered that Mom had gotten a Wii, and I kicked everyone's butt in Wii Bowling. So in general it was a pretty good day.

Comments

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

Oooh. I will listen to it when I can turn the speakers up :)

[sir-dave.livejournal.com]

I've got some things to ask when you've heard it, I am getting ideas :D