I am not going to lie, teaching can be really difficult. But it is also rewarding. Beyond words, it is rewarding. The every day conversations with students, the new information they learn, and their perspectives are always interesting. Here is a compilation of recent interactions that made an otherwise difficult day rewarding:
*Your pupils do WHAT?!!
Lessons can sometimes go off the rails quickly (remember "Dr. Seuss was a serial killer"?) However, they can sometimes go off rails in a good way. During one of my small groups, we were reading a mystery that took place at night in a dark house. One student asked how they could see without a flashlight. So, we stopped and took a moment to Google how that is possible. They learned that your pupils dilate and constrict to let light in. The darker the room, the bigger your pupils. They were skeptical. But the rest of the class also became interested in our conversation. So, we decided to stop what we were doing and do an experiment. The lights were turned off, the blinds were closed, and the kids were allowed to get out their flashlights on their phones. Keeping masks on, desk shields up, and instructions on where to shine the flashlight, we conducted our experiment. Both students sat and stared at each other. One student brought the flashlight up to point at the person's nose, and they observed the other student's pupils. Each time someone did that, there were "OH MY GOSH!!! THAT IS SO COOL!!!!!!" The partners then switched. We didn't get the reading lesson done (it was finished the next day), but the kids were fascinated by what they'd learned.
*Mrs. Huffman? Are you okay?
We have a student who gets overwhelmed really quickly (I mean, who doesn't really?) Yesterday during recess, he sat down in the middle of the basketball court and put his jacket hood over his head. Several students went to check on him, but he wouldn't move. I went to make sure he was okay, and when I asked, he simply said, "No. No I'm not." I sat down next to him and asked what was on his mind (thinking someone had done or said something to him). He simply said, "I miss my Granny." His grandmother recently passed away, and he was just missing her. Boy, did I know how he felt. I was missing my mom recently, so I told him that. I told him that when my mom knew that I was missing my grandmother, we lay in the grass and look up at the sky and think about them. He asked if we could do that, so I agreed. We both laid down on the concrete and looked up at the sky. I asked him questions about his grandmother and he asked about my mom.
At one point, I heard, "Um, Mrs. Huffman? Is that you?" (I mean, who else would it have been, right?). I answered that yes, it was me. To which the young lady said, "Um. Are you okay? Did you fall?" The young man and I just giggled, and I told her I was fine. The young man I was with explained what we were doing and why. The girl said, "Can I join y'all? I miss my grandma too." After about a minute or so, we had several kids laying on the concrete telling funny stories about their grandmas.
Finally, we all got up to play the rest of recess. One girl told a boy that he should probably help me up. "You're getting older," was her answer. Boy that young man took his job seriously and helped me all the way up.
*Silver is precious.
I was meeting with my Literature Circle group yesterday and they were finishing up an assignment that I had asked about. One girl, out of the blue, says, "Oh cool! Mrs. Huffman! You have silver in your hair!" Now, this could've been taken several ways. However, I just said, "Yeah, well, I'm getting old." One young man in the group got kind of indignant about that statement. He said, "You're not old! In my family, we say that silver is a precious metal. So, if you're lucky enough to have silver in your hair, you are precious. So, Mrs. Huffman, you are precious, not old."
I like that explanation better.
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