Yesterday I noticed a pattern emerging towards the end of the school day. One particular 4th grader — who is quickly becoming an all-time favorite — will call for my attention in his usual way: “Loeffler! Excuse me, Loeffler!” I look up and he gives me a compliment of some kind — yesterday he liked my hairstyle, Monday it was my shirt. I thank him, and then he says, “Are you looking forward to going home and resting?”
One side of me recognizes that the challenges of September and this larger-than-average class are clearly showing on my face, and I need to find a way to stop that mask from slipping toward day’s end. The other side of me is overwhelmed and touched by the empathy of this child.
Also, he’s not wrong. I enter the school with lightness in my step every morning, and by the time we get to 2pm… I won’t say I’m beaten down, because it isn’t negative like that. It’s more like I am disembarking from a roller coaster and I’m unsure what is up and what is down!
On Monday I assigned a paragraph about What character trait is most important in a helper? Please understand, by the time we actually got to the assignment part, we had:
Read a story about a boy who helps his community
Discussed what character traits are (and what they aren’t)
Listed 6-8 character traits of helpers on the board and in their notebooks
Discussed the topic paragraph: “The most important character trait for a helper is ____________________.”
Reviewed the parts of a paragraph, including supporting sentences that use evidence about the character trait
Wrote an example paragraph on the topic as a whole class, available to them on the board as they wrote their own
Dear Readers, when I tell you that 60% of the paragraphs I received were missing the topic sentence, didn’t mention character traits, and just told me a story… well, I’m not exaggerating. Add to that the two students with blank pages — “I’m still thinking!” — and that’s why my lovely student told me he liked my shirt that afternoon.
Tuesday started auspiciously: Billy found himself unable to hear coaches or referees during the JV football game the night before, but we figured out that he could actually take himself to the Rapid Clinic and I didn’t have to have my first guest teacher without warning my class first. Whew! I told him to text or call with any questions, and got on with my day.
Well, I missed his call because my reading lesson was ACTUALLY GOING WELL, but Dan answered. Yay! Then Billy texted to say he had a double ear infection and was heading to the pharmacy. We tried to get Dan to meet him there but signals crossed and, long story short, Billy got the meds on his own. He then talked to Dan and told Dan that the pharmacist said it was amoxicillin but that there was a low percentage of chance it would affect him.
Which is an important detail because Billy is allergic to amoxicillin.
So I get THAT text from Dan as I am supposed to be starting the math lesson, and I freak out and put on a video introducing decimal place value and step into the hall to call Rapid Clinic to find out why they would prescribe a med that is listed in his chart as an allergy and luckily the heavenly Ms. Branca (my Special Ed teacher neighbor and all around rock start) happened to walk by and was able to chat with my class about decimals when the video ended.
Eventually it was revealed that Rapid Clinic did NOT prescribe amoxicillin — because it says in Billy’s chart that he is allergic — and my ADHD son was probably told that the med was a SUBSTITUTE for amoxicillin because, in case you didn’t hear, he is ALLERGIC TO IT. Ahem. Back to teaching decimal place value.
Today might best be summarized by the following text conversation with my mother:
Me: One of my kids brought a toad in from recess and hid it in her locker.
Mom: Poor toad! How did you find it?
Me: Oh there was complete chaos with all 20+ of them trying to tattle at once.
Me: And then more chaos when I asked her to take it out and it got away in the hallway.
Me: So I sent her to the office and they haven’t quite recovered from the baby snapping turtle in the 5th grader’s pocket from last week.
Mom: Video!
Me: You must think I’m far more on top of my game than I am if you thought I could get a video.
**TWO HOURS LATER**
Me: Welp somebody just tooted so I might as well go home.
Now, there does happen to be video footage of school staff running around and screaming when a bat was discovered in the gym. No sound on the video, but I heard from a reliable first grader that it was blood-curdling.
I’m going home to rest.
Thanks for reading.
Love, Susie
p.s. My mom brought a squirrel to school when she was around this age, but she says she kept it in her desk.
All sorts of animals, humans included.
You should probably slip your favorite brand of whisky into the comments section: 🥃