Ode to Teaching

Here are some stories from the first few weeks of school. My life is a comedy.

Teacher's Pet: I had a student affectionally stroke my cheek with his hand and say, "Your eyes shine like a beautiful star. I will stare into them all day". I gently removed his hand and said I would rather have him do his work all day. "Then that, I shall do" was his response. 

Knife Happy: We were at an assembly with Polynesian dancers and one of my students was in awe the entire assembly.  One of the dances was with swords and before they performed, a dancer announced to the audience that they were real swords and the whole placed "ooohhhed and awwweed". I look over at this student to see his reaction and he is smiling so huge and talking to himself as he says in the most joyous/evil voice "They're gonna kill us all".

Stranger Danger: We were having a mini-lesson on talking to strangers. I read the students a really cute book about not talking to strangers that made this serious topic lighter and fun. I then asked them why this was important. 

First three answers: 

1. They will kill us. 

2. They will stick a bag over our head and throw us in a van. 

3. They will eat us. 

Clearly they are scared--none of them will be talking to strangers anytime soon. Lesson a success? I think so. 

Inspirational Story: I have a student who has trouble focusing and wasn't able to get any work done for the first couple of weeks without 5 second reminders. I did an experiment the other day where I put headphones on this student and had them listen to classical music while they worked on a class project. This student worked for 35 MINUTES STRAIGHT. It was amazing! I seriously teared up as I watched this student working independently and successful complete a project. 

Teaching makes me really happy. The end.