Change

During the first week of school I discovered one little detail had been forgotten when planning for our new students--bathroom breaks! The team of 6th grade teachers decided I would take every science rotation to the bathroom as a group. The only problem was that I had forgotten to do this. During the second week of school I wrote bathroom breaks into my lesson plans to try to avoid the urgency of dancing up and down tail waggers.

During third period my standard first three boys and first three girls went into the bathroom and the others lined up outside to await their turn. I noticed one of my boys allowing others to go in front of him. I checked my watch and discovered we were late for changing classes. I hollared in the bathrooms and said, "We're leaving!" I joke with colleagues that some teachers' classes are all in quiet, perfect straight lines in the hall, but not my class--especially when we are running late. We go through the hall with wild eyes, hands waving, and one big mob. I had no choice but to "walk with a purpose" leaving a few little lambs in the bathroom. Quickly apologizing to the math teacher, I did my best to hurry up the children and do a quick head count telling her who we were still missing.

One little boy appeared at the top of the steps at the door to the school building on his way out to my portable in slow motion. I hollared, "Hurry up, Little Dude!" My next rotation of students had already taken their seats and were copying down the MOOSE assignment. I noticed the little boy had his hand in his pocket. "Come on, Little Dude, run, run, run!" He kept coming with his hand in his pocket. When he went by me he jingled all the way to his desk and back out of my room. "Little Dude," I said, "What do you have in your pocket?" He said, "Just a bit of change." I had to laugh because I noticed every pocket of his cargo pants was bulging with coins. I think if he would have run, he would have spilled.

My last rotation of the day was filled with my "try-harders." Many of them don't bring back their MOOSE signed. I really feel many of them don't have the luxury of a parent watching over them to guide them. By the time they reach science class, their little brains are about to explode. Many of them come to school without supplies, homework, signatures, or clean clothes. There are many times I offer a few extra shirts and they are scooped up like treasures. This little class has the strugglers and many of them already feel like they just don't count. To me, they count even more. When they don't have a pencil, I try to not just give them the standard yellow #2 pencil, but rather a cool, fuzzy one. It's amazing how willing they are to write for me when they have a cool pencil. My little guy from the third rotation had lots of pockets with lots of change, but my 4th rotation had pockets with holes. When kids repeatedly come with ripped shirt, I tuck a couple of shirts into their backpacks. It's amazing how much grades improve when students that "have none" can look like the students that "have alot". These little guys are only 11 or 12 years old. I don't want them to have the message "I'm not good enough." For years I have taken donations from a local clothing store to our district PTA clothes closet. However, even despite the encouragement of our nurse, many families won't take advantage of this resource. If the horse won't go to the water, then I'll just bring the water to the horse. They might not be the brightest crayons in the box, but they are still in the box and contribute to the rainbow. I didn't sign on to be a teacher to just teach the smart kids or the ones that could afford supplies and nice clothes. I signed on to be the best teacher I could be to ALL kids.