It's Great to be the Queen of Science

I was on recess duty today and I asked Samantha, "Did you draw the reading teacher a picture and leave it on her door?" Samantha was a little girl I have watched grow up since she was in first grade at our school. She has captured the hearts of every teacher in our school. Samantha has struggled to learn her letters, numbers, or how to read. Despite our best efforts we are puzzled why Samantha has had such a hard time learning. Even still, she perseveres and tries hard every day. I will be in the middle of teaching and Samantha will get up out of her chair for no apparent reason and give me a hug. When she was in first grade she looked up at her teacher and said, "You're the queen. I'm the princess. Princess Samantha," she would say. The reading teacher had come up to me earlier in the day and showed me a crayon-colored picture that was shoved in the cracks in her door. It was a picture of the teacher holding the hands of a student. Both of the figures had crowns on their heads. I said, "Aren't you Samantha's reading teacher?" She shook her head and I knew she had been deemed Queen for the Day.

"Samantha," I said, "was that a picture of the reading teacher being queen?" Samantha smiled and said, "Yes, she's the queen and I'm the princess." I said, "I thought I was the queen. I'm even wearing a shirt that says 'Her Highness' on it." Samantha's little mind started scrambling for what to do, because she didn't want to hurt my feelings. I let her off the hook quickly, "Am I the Queen of Science?" A huge smile spread across her face, "That's right! You're the Queen of Science and she's the Queen of Reading." I said, "And you ARE the princess!"

The Fifth

I do my best to remind children of the expectations, but sometimes despite my best efforts there has to be something done. Bert, a student I had taught previously in 4th grade, was a well-known frequent offender of the expectations. So far this year, he had done a great job of turning around his behavior with just a few reminders.

It had been an unusual week of interruptions, and Bert had been racking up the numbers in his daily MOOSE agenda book. On Thursday afternoon I had pulled him aside and said, "Little Dude, you've got 4 numbers in your MOOSE. If you get one more, you'll have to stay after school next week. Let's not have that happen, okay?" We talked for a few minutes about listening for the cues of "boys and girls...." or "okay guys, listen up."

I greeted Bert first thing in the morning and reminded him again of our conversation. During the afternoon silent reading time, Bert just couldn't help himself and his impuslivity took over. I reminded all the students to get quiet and start reading. Bert put one finger up signaling to me that he wasn't quite finished talking. I gave him a personal invitation/warning, "Bert, it's time for silent reading." He got quiet and I thought he was going to make it until he started up one more conversation.

Bert and Ernie, bring me your MOOSE. Bert quickly produced his MOOSE for me to fill out his final number earning an after school time with me for the next week. Ernie threw himself into the floor and began wailing. I thought I had missed something. I didn't remember Ernie having that many numbers, but I knew Bert earned a big consequence. "What on earth is the matter with you, Ernie?" I asked. Ernie tried to answer me, but by that time snot was coming out of his nose and he was talking like someone that had a bumblebee in his mouth. "Well, just hand over the MOOSE then." I looked in his MOOSE and he was receiving his first MOOSE number for the week. "What's the deal Ernie?" My mom said she's sending me to military school. "Really? One mistake and she's shipping you off?"

I turned to Bert and asked him what he was talking about that was so urgent. "I was wondering what military school was like."

At the end of the day Bert's little brother came to my room to hook up with him to walk home. Bert greeted him with a high five. I said, "You sure are a great big brother." He smiled. His brother said, "He certainly is."

This kid might be a little mess at times, but he and his little brother just warmed my heart. It reminded me of having a big brother and sister walk me home in the afternoon from school. I know I was the mess at Ridgecrest Elementary, but I wonder if I was a "cute little mess."

Elephant Toothpaste

The day started out with our school hosting Strong Dads. I vaguely remembered it being on the schedule, but I had completely forgotten. Nevertheless, I had arrived early to school to set up some lab experiments. It was a rainy, muggy, drizzly morning and I struggled to get all of the experiment items out of my car and not spill my Starbucks coffee. I remembered about the Strong Dads program about the time two dads walked in my room. "Oh my goodness," I thought to myself, "are they in for a shock!"

After attendance, lunch count, announcements, etc. I was off and running ready to 'wow' my kiddos. My students really didn't seem to grasp why line charts are so cool with documenting science. They also didn't seem to understand chemical changes and properties. What better way to explain both at the same time than to just explode something! I passed out safety goggles and established a safety zone. The dads seemed to be concerned when I put on the goggles myself and the figured out they weren't just for "SHOW".

The first experiment was for a slow reaction of warm yeast blowing up a balloon on a water bottle. The next experiment was to demonstrate a moderate reaction of vinegar and baking soda blowing up a balloon. The final experiment was the "Big Bang" theory of a rapid chemical reaction. We made green "Elephant Toothpaste" and green bubbles were flying all over the desks. I know I was a kid on Christmas morning, and the dads were impressed.

I love teaching science! I'm so glad the Dads came to school today. We don't get to explode stuff everyday, but today was well worth the trip to school!

Not Me

Note: The names have been changed to my favorite TV characters from my youth to protect the innocent (or guilty) children.

It was my turn for recess duty and Barney Fife came running up to me. "Look! I've got a gecko." He was holding it in one hand and the poor thing was peering his head out of the clenched hands. I think Barney was trying to scare me, but instead I reached my hand out and said, "Poor thing. He looks scared and hungry." Barney unclenched his hands for me to take the lizard. Unfortunately, the lizard didn't trust me and went running toward Barney's pants pocket. He grabbed it in the knick of time right before the lizard darted down his pants and I said, "Let's put him in the grass, so he can find shelter." About that time the lizard flew out of his hand and was headed toward the grass on his own. Everything would have been fine, but Curious George just had to take a closer look at him and went to grab him. George squeezed a little too tightly and the lizard's eyeball squished out. About that time the rest of the herd of sixth graders came running up to see what treasure had been encircled. Let's just say we had to have a playground burial of our first victim of recess.

All went well for the rest of recess until the whistle blew. Rambo came running up to me hollaring, "Barney and I just got pelted with rocks." I looked toward the direction from whence the commotion had happened and lo and behold, there was Fred and Ricky acting innocent. Ricky had the audacity to thrust his shoulders forward and gesture with his hands, "What! It wasn't me." I motioned for them to come to me, however, natural consequences were beginning to happen because by that time the rest of the line of sixth graders were headed inside for lunch. I finally determined with a lot of effort of interrogating the group that Fred, Ricky, and another boy were throwing rocks. They were trying to see if they could get the rocks to land on the roof on top of our tall gymnasium. It seems that Fred and Ricky didn't have much of an arm on them because their rocks ricocheted off the side of the building and hit Barney and Rambo in the back of the head. OR, did it really happen that way afterall? God loves teachers. Barney and Rambo had terrorized the art teacher the day before. Isn't it interesting that two pebbles ended up hitting the back of two heads that just maybe needed some sense knocked into them?

Disclaimer: No one was seriously injured in the telling of this story. Neither boy wanted ice or complained of a knot on their head. However, we did lose a lizard...may he rest in peace.