Two Years

Yesterday marked two years since my lovely mother passed away. I feel I spent it in a very appropriate manner. I was doing what she loved to do. It was what she received two degrees in. Teaching.
I always keep an old photo of her above my desk and yesterday I definitely looked at it more than usual.

Onto teaching stories.
(Aren't we adorable? Last year right before Christmas break, I made a Christmas photo booth and we had to get a picture of the 5th grade teachers.)

So here are some awesome quotes of students as of late.

Quote #1:

It's the end of the day. Student comes walking towards me, crouched over and hobbling.

"Oooooh. Mrs. Jaeger! I hit my private parts with my lunch box!"

Cut to me turning around because I started laughing! I wish I had told him that he probably should not say that to his female teacher in 5th grade.

Quote #2:

It's math. The kids are working quietly on a problem. One boy is rocking in his seat and raising his hand. This particular child has one of those voices that is not quiet. I don't think I've ever heard him whisper.

"Do you have a question or are you done with the problem?"
"I have a question." With this, he gets up out of his seat and walks halfway towards me, right smack dab in the middle of the class. "I really need to use the bathroom and when I have the feeling to use the bathroom this badly, I usually pee my pants."

Thankfully, I somehow kept a straight face on this one. Thank you for announcing to the class that you pee your pants.

Quote #3:

Yesterday I was trying to be extra happy so that I would not be depressed about what day it was. Apparently the kids noticed.

"Mrs. Jaeger, I love it when you're funny!"

"I'm not funny all the time?"
"Oh...uh...no...I mean...you're extra funny today."

This child's mother even emailed me and added this as her p.s.:

"He swears you are THE funniest teacher at school.  He loves your class!"

My heart is warmed when I read things like that.

Case #4:

I am probably the only one that finds this funny. Half the kids are great at pushing their seats in. Half of them are not. Some of the kids are great at pushing in other kids' chairs. We were playing a game during social studies. One of my students got up without pushing his chair in. Another student stood up to push the first student's chair in, failing to push in his own chair. Thus a third student got up to push in the second student's chair. It was a domino effect of chairs.

The kids found it amusing that I found it so amusing.

It's been a long day. We've had kids dropping their drawers in the hallway, and a biter which ended up being a kid biting herself to get another student in trouble. I just cross my fingers and pray that my kids won't do anything like that.