I love teaching

I LOVE teaching. Really, I do. I feel so lucky to have found something in life that I am passionate about, and even though this internship is a lot of work, I am (so far) loving every day of it. If I could get a job next year similar to where I am working now, I would be in complete heaven. Anyway, I come home every day with an abundance of stories for Rex, but I figure I should share some of my favorites on my blog. (I changed the names for anonymity).

1. Benny raised his hand and asked if he could go to the bathroom. Acting on a hunch, I said, "No, you cannot go to the bathroom, because you don't really have to go. You just want to go to your locker and get a snack." He looked shocked, and when I turned away I heard him whisper to the person next to him in a simultaneously awed and scared voice, "She KNOWS me!!" Ha ha ha ha ha!! I was the creepy witch mind reader of a teacher.

2. In the same day, I had two firsts: A student said, "I love you," and another one said "You are an evil woman." Quite a day.

3. My class 100% is consumed with Bieber Fever. The girls love him and swoon at the mention of his name. I literally used that to get the class's attention once. They were being chatty, and I just said "Bieber" at the front of the room. Heads whipped in my direction faster than their necks probably appreciated. Even the boys love it, because they love to hate him. They can engage in the flirtatious banter of "Justin Bieber Sucks," which is rebuttled with "No! I LOVE HIM!!!" Obviously, their flirting needs some refining. Carly, I'm bringing you in to do a workshop.

4. They are also obsessed with silly bands. One student has over three hundred, and she can't fit them all on her arms so she carries the rest around in a box. Why? I will never understand. Now THERE is a trend that I wish I would have invented. Luckily, I thought of an idea that is going to make me millions: A Justin Bieber silly band. There - you heard it here first. It's how I'm going to make my fortune.

5. As a last note on trends, here is another one hot off the presses: Squinkies. Never heard of them? Neither had I. There are hundreds of them marching across the desks of my students, though, so I have become quickly acquainted. Boys and girls are both enthralled with them. They are these totally creepy pencil toppers. Here's the website if you want to brush up on how to be cool in sixth grade: http://www.squinkies.com/.

6. Yesterday I was watching over the students who were not allowed to go outside because they did not finish their homework ("Recess Jail," as I affectionately call it). I noticed that all of the boys in the room except for one were football players. I commented on it, saying "What is up with you football players? You're supposed to be good examples - why are none of you doing your homework??" They tried to tell me that they had no time after practice. I said, "Oh, come on. You totally have time. You go to practice, go home and eat dinner, and then maybe if you could turn off Dora the Explorer, you would have time to get your homework done." Tim (the one boy in Recess Jail who was not on the football team) called out "HA HA -BURN!!!!!!" and happily jumped up to "pound it" for my dis on the athletes. He he he.

7. Rex and I already know that we don't want to have children, but now we have one more reason not to. Our child already exists in the world, and he is in my class. All of the students had to give presentations on themselves, and this one boy gave this presentation: "Hi, my name is Danny. I really like rats, and I have two of them. We also have one cat. I really like baseball, and I like to shoot bows and arrows. I also drew a picture of bongos because I like to play drums." I'm not making any of that up - that was the student's presentation. Um, hello Rex's son.

There is a sampling for you. Can you BELIEVE people get paid to observe these hilarious anecdotes on a daily basis? I can't. But someday, I will have my OWN classroom, and then that will be me! YAY!