Although I wouldn't call it the highlight of the year it was still pretty special as we had a guest reader come to our classroom. Who might be this guest reader be you ask, it was my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse. When the day arrived to read to the scholars I sensed she was a bit nervous because she is familiar with the potential eruptions that can happen in our classroom. To put her at ease I said if anything goes wrong don't get involved and just stay behind me. I'm not sure if that helped any but she did show up with books in her hand. When she walked into the classroom I had the scholars introduce themselves, which they did, and it surprised me a little as to how well they did it. The scholar that I watched closely for a reaction was The Collector as he was the most familiar with my wife as he has seen pictures of her and talks about her occasionally. When he introduced himself my wife said "well hello The Collector, I've heard so much about you." That caught him off guard and embarrassed him a little. During the reading, which took place at my desk, all the scholars stayed on their best behavior and they enjoyed the stories. Grrr! was standing right next to my wife so he had the best view of the stories and would comment on them. At one point my wife said to me how impressed she was with Grrr! and his familiarity with the stories. I said to her that he was pretty smart for a scholar who can't read a lick and she gave me that look that said, what? After my wife finished reading and it was time to go I asked her if she'd like a tour of the school and she said yes. When the tour was finished and we were heading to her car she told me how impressed she was with the school. Impressed is one of a few select words that I was hoping to hear as this was her first time inside the school. Now, all I have to do is get a couple hundred thousand others to visit our school corporation so they can see it is nothing like what is portrayed in the media. Opps! I almost forgot the best part. As we were touring the school I asked my wife what she thought about the scholars. She said, "they're just so cute."
A couple blog posts ago I mentioned how much I enjoyed working with Oreo and IvyL. As further proof of how wonderful these two individuals are let me tell you this story. Morning announcements just ended when Oreo walked into the classroom and asked Gnu if she could take the scholars with her for a few minutes. Gnu agreed and off they went. They gathered with IvyL in Oreo's office to put their plan in place as they wanted to do something nice for Gnu as she has successfully completed her first year of teaching. I knew what the plan was so I wandered up to Gnu's table at the front of the room and removed a couple objects. She looked at me wondering what I was doing so I said I needed to clear out a space on her desk. Just as I got back to my desk Oreo arrived and walked up to Gnu's desk and sat an empty flower vase on it. Then IvyL opened the classroom door and in walked the first scholar, MiniJ. As he walked up to the front of the room he was carrying a flower and a brightly colored piece of construction paper that was laminated. He handed the flower to Gnu and then read what he wrote on the construction paper. When he was finished he handed his paper to Gnu and sat at his desk. Then, one at a time, the rest of the scholars repeated the process with their flower and construction paper. On the construction paper was a hand written note with drawings that each scholar made. They wrote one thing that they enjoyed about being in her classroom and then said thank you to her for being their teacher. It was a joy to watch especially when a few of the scholars actually walked around Gnu's desk to give her a big hug. I've heard many times from people who question why I continue to work in such a tough environment. When you can tell a story just like the one I just told, you can see first hand why I do what I do and that I'm going to do it for another school year.
It's the one hundred and eightieth (and last) day of the school year and there will be no academics today. Today is cleaning and throwing out day as we prepare the room for the custodians to come in and strip and wax the floors over the summer. After lunch it's movie time. Today's selection is The Goonies. My daughter always enjoyed watching this movie and by it's rating I'm thinking it's safe to bring into school. The scholars are excited as they like this movie and start moving desks and chairs around so they can sit together on the floor with an unobstructed view of the movie. Gnu is at her desk moving papers around and half paying attention to the movie as she has seen it a few times. I'm at the back of the room watching the scholars because they are too many scholars sitting way to close together and that often is not a good thing. About five minutes into the movie, right about when the Fratelli brothers break out of jail and are escaping with their Mamma driving the car, I hear one of the characters say as clear as a bell "shit!" I look at Gnu and she's looking back at me. Now what do we do? We decide to let the movie continue but we are paying much closer attention now. A few minutes later Chunk makes his appearance as he excitedly runs into the house and promptly knocks over a Greek statue. If you were paying attention during our Greek Mythology lesson you'll recall that often times Greek gods are naked when posing for their statue. As this statue of a male Greek god hits the floor the Goonies quickly run over and pick it up. They immediately recognize that the penis was broken off the statue so they are trying to put it back on. Our scholars are in an uproar laughing and pointing at the screen. Gnu's is up, I'm up and the movie ends. It's now time for the scholars to entertain themselves for the remainder of the day. It was right at 2:15pm what I walked up to Gnu and quietly said, "in seventy five minutes you will complete your first year of teaching." She looked at me, smiled, and said "I know."
It's 3:30pm, the Big B reads the final announcements for the school year, the scholars are packed up and they are heading out of the building. Grr! only goes to school for part of the day and he left in the morning. EM was absent the last two schools days so his "stuff" is set aside for next year. Wide heads out the door to the car rider pick up point where his Nanna is waiting. Leftside departs and he is headed to the area where the walkers gather. Gnu is leading The Collector, MiniJ, and Uh-Uh-Uh to the busses and I'm in the room putting it back together for one last time. When Gnu returns she tells me that she has to work tonight and needs to get going. I say ok and tell her not to worry about closing the room up as I'll take care of it. Within two minutes she has gathered her stuff and is out the door. At 3:55pm I turn out the lights and close the classroom door.
Since the school year ended the weather has not been very cooperative. We've had cool weather, rain, more rain, and very heavy rain to the point that I have a pond with ducks in it in my back yard. In fact, as I'm again sitting on my screened in porch it's starting to rain. Time to move inside.
By the way, I received a text message from Gnu a few days ago. When I saw that it was from her I got real nervous. The previous school year, when I worked with BaseG, I got a text message from him in the middle of the summer telling me he found another job and was leaving. With this in mind I opened up Gnu's text message. To paraphrase, "I've been working on the next school year and I found some material that I think will help EM with his dyslexia problem." "My significant other (sorry no names) is building us a much sturdier bookcase for our library and he is going to attach a cushion to the top of it so the scholars can sit on it and read." "I'm so excited that I can't wait for the school year to start." Start? Oh my God, it just ended I think to myself. Sensing her excitement I sent a return text message and ask if she would like to meet for lunch. She said yes. We'll be meeting at one of my favorite locations, Vino Villa, at high noon. A text invite was also sent to Oreo and IvyL so maybe they'll show up.
Rain, rain, rain! Maybe I'll move as far west as Utah as I hear it is the second driest state in the country. I'm out. Thanks for reading the blog.
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