Recently I was reminded of what I already knew: I AM NOT A KINDERGARTEN TEACHER. I AM NOT A KINDERGARTEN TEACHER. I AM NOT A KINDERGARTEN TEACHER. I AM NOT A KINDERGARTEN TEACHER. I AM NOT A KINDERGARTEN TEACHER. I AM NOT A KINDERGARTEN TEACHER. I AM NOT A KINDERGARTEN TEACHER. I AM NOT A KINDERGARTEN TEACHER. I AM NOT A KINDERGARTEN TEACHER. I AM NOT A KINDERGARTEN TEACHER. I AM NOT A KINDERGARTEN TEACHER. I AM NOT A KINDERGARTEN TEACHER.
The teacher was out sick unexpectedly so there were no lesson plans. The other teachers came to try to help throw some things together, but we didn't get very far. Should have been easy, right? Just read a story, go out and play, count to ten and call it a day. Um, NO. Kids at that age canNOT be taken out of their routine under any circumstances. I couldn't even get through a story. I had to stop after every page to tell them to be quiet so everyone could hear the story. We couldn't stay quiet to listen to directions for a project. And I had run out of ways to say be quiet. They were so cute at recess when they came to me to put on their jackets for them and tie their shoes, but ultimately, it was a verrrrrrrry long 3 1/2 hours.
Today, however, I was much more in my element. I got to do high school English for sophomores and theyyyyy wereeeeee awesome. We were reading an O. Henry short story and poem that dealt with themes of compassion, so they had a quick write to discuss an event where they felt compassion or saw someone else use compassion, the definition of which is "to feel sorry for the suffering of others". One asked me if he could write about Harry Potter, and I had to admit that while I understood the compassion evoked, we should write about real people. When he insisted Harry Potter was real, I had to remind him that as Muggles, we hadn't seen the Wizarding community to our knowledge, and these should be first-hand accounts.
Another class was having problems settling in, so I told them they all needed to be thinking or writing, so it should be quiet, and if anyone couldn't think of an example, they could easily write about feeling sorry for me, suffering through this class as a substitute, at which point, one girl yelled out "She doesn't even go here!" and another retorted "she just has a lot of feelings" and I. Almost. Died. It's a Mean Girls quote and it was so appropriately used, I couldn't even maintain a poker face and just started laughing everywhere, which they loved, and then immediately went to work.
They ended up being one of the best classes I ever had, ever. They listened when I explained the literary devices used in the O. Henry story, they wrote answers diligently, popcorn read (at their request) perfectly, and asked such deep, involved questions that we got to get some good discussions going. Why can't more of them quote Mean Girls in the middle of class?
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