And so, there just has to be a part two for if you read part one, you knew that there were many more things I heard from my students over those many long years. Again, these were from second graders. Enjoy!
*My students and I were making a long long list of things that Columbus' crew would have taken with them on that first voyage. I had to explain that this happened way over six hundred years ago and they didn't have access to fast food or many things we have today. As I went on to explain this, I told the kids that during Columbus' time, people either drank water or wine. I could tell that they had their thinking hats on for they were all quiet. One boy said, "Well, they would have to take barrels of water and more barrels of wine with them." And so I wrote that down and asked how many? A lot was the answer. The boy who had spoken before said, "I'm not sure but I'm glad I didn't go on that ship with a bunch of drunks!"
Oh dear
*If you knew me, you would know that I never wore the same thing to school for a couple of weeks. I just had to coordinate! One morning I had overslept, grabbed the first thing I could find and made it to school on time. As I was taking attendance, a girl in my class shouted out: "You wore that same outfit yesterday!"
Guilty.
*We were on a field trip to the airport in Charleston. At that time, we could also see the C130 huge aircrafts and the kids got to go on one and check out all the gear with a supervised serviceman. All of were amazed but one boy more than others. I couldn't get him to come out of the carrier. Urging him to come out, for all were waiting, I told him that we had to go. "Where are we going? My mom's not here and I don't have my stuff!" I had to tell him that the only place we were going was back to school. He was heartbroken. "I'll just stay here and the guy can fly me back; I'll get there faster than you will!"
Hmm
*I had taken my class on a trip the Valley Bell: The Valley Bell used to encourage teachers to bring their students to take a tour and always afterwards, each child received a real bell. [I still have several of mine!]
We went upstairs and watched milk being moved from one huge container to another. Then we watched men making ice cream and the kids went wild. But when we got to the place where they were making cottage cheese [Does any kid like that?,] one girl said, " That is the grossest stuff I've ever seen. Never ate it and now I know I won't in my whole life! It looks like it's alive--all shaky!" And her statement made all the rest of the kids gag right there. We couldn't get out of there fast enough!
Sick
*The worst times at school were the times when a kid threw up. All the kids would get gaggy and it never failed that someone else threw up too! Then we'd have to leave the room while the janitor came into our classroom with that bag of shaky reddish-stuff: He would pour it all over the stuff. That smell permeated out into the hall where we were sitting on the floor and gasping for air. It made me sick as well. One boy who was holding his face blurted out, " I am never going to be a janitor and have to do that!" [I prayed that the janitor never got sick because I couldn't handle doing that either!]
*One day there was a substitute janitor and guess what? Another kid in my classroom threw up all over the place. It was more than awful! I had a kid go and get the janitor [TOOK A LOT OF EXPLAINING WHERE HE MIGHT BE,] and in came this man with that familiar bag of shaky reddish-stuff. But before he threw it on the floor, he looked at me and the kids and screamed, "See what I have to do! This is what you have to do when you don't have an education. You have to clean up other people's messes!" They sat there like they had been frozen in place. I looked at this man with a discerning look and said, "You didn't need to say that did you?" He was never seen back at the school again.
Hmm
*The school had a contest called "Pennies for Pasta:" It was sponsored by the Olive Garden [LOVE THAT PLACE] and the way the contest went was that the class with the most pennies won a free lunch at the Olive Garden. Guess what? My class won! Buses came to pick us up, we got to the restaurant, got seated and the waitress greeted us. And she started bringing breadsticks and the kids ate them. Then she brought more and more and more. The kids had been looking forward to a dinner of spaghetti [which would arrive late on] and were starved; now they were full of bread. I saw one girl get up and go to the back of the room in which we were in; I went to her and asked her what was wrong and she replied, "That sure was a crappy lunch!" She never ate her spaghetti!
*One day a man walked into my room: He had on a two-piece turquoise silk outfit. Just seeing him was strange. He explained to me that he was the boyfriend of a boy's mother and yes, that boy was in my room.
The kids couldn't keep their eyes off of him and neither could I. And the man knew it too: He thought he was way swank! They kept staring and staring at him till finally a boy blurted out, "My mom has pajamas just like you have on!" Where could I hide?
*I always encouraged kids' parents to come to the classroom and share if they wanted to. One night I got a phone call from a girl's mother, whom I knew--but I didn't know enough! She said she'd like to come the next day and could we all meet in the library upstairs? Sure I told her and I invited my co-teacher and her class as well when she arrived the next day: The kids were sitting very quietly on the carpeted floor and my co-teacher and I were standing behind a big bookcase--but we could well see over it. The mother proceeded to pull up a huge burlap bag and set it on top of the very bookcase where we were standing. I looked at the bag and things were moving around in it! All of a sudden, she pulled out two huge snakes!
Said they were their family's pets and I ran out of the library. Meanwhile, the brave kids were interested and I could see them touching them and some even let them crawl all over them! [I HATE SNAKES!]
Always ask what a parent is bringing to school...
Sherry Hill
End of Part II
No comments:
Post a Comment