Friday, February 12, 2010

Little moments....

Being a teacher can be hard, frustrating, exhausting work. You are trying to give so much to these children that some days it takes all you have to give. Being a teacher can also be fun, rewarding and inspiring. Every time that light goes on...you just love seeing a child have that moment of success.
Another one of my favorite things about teaching is the small, innocent, adorable moments that come from being around children. Today at school was our Valentine's Day party. Any class party is an ordeal in and of itself. The kids come in buzzing and don't stop until they go home. For some reason the Valentine's party is like every other party times 10. Never mind just the cupcakes, cookies and juice boxes. There is also the cards and candy that needs to be passed out by each child and the little construction paper mailboxes that the students make. In the past, I've just been glad to get the Valentine's party over and done with. However, this year there were several little moments that just made me enjoy being there with the students.

#1 - Yesterday we were doing writing and I was having my kindergartners write 'I love my________' and then they were to fill in the blank with someone/something that they love. A little boy came up to me and very sweetly said, "Mrs. Ebert...I'm just not in a loving mood right now." I just smiled and asked, "Well don't you love your family. What about your mom and dad?" He looks up and very practically says, "I do love them. I'm just not feeling it right now. Maybe I will in a minute." I reassured him that that was fine and he could take a minute to think about it. It made me laugh. Kids are never afraid to be honest.

#2 - The boxes of chocolates given to me by my students
#3 - The sweet card given to be my a parent. It's nice to be appreciated.
#4 - I let the students come up individually and disperse the cards they had bought into the other students "mailboxes". I looked over and saw one of my little kindergartners putting card after card into the same box. I stopped her and asked why she was putting all the cards into the same box. She said, "It's my box. All these cards have my name on them." I suppressed a laugh and told her that those were the cards that were from her. The other kids names were on the other side. She turned the card over, looked and it and said very matter-of-factly, "Yeah, but I can't read this side."

#5 - It was almost the end of the day. All had survived expect for maybe one cupcake. The kids were cleaning up the trash and one of my 1st graders runs up to me and says, "Mrs. Ebert...I forgot to give you your present." He takes his hands from behind is back and hands me a can of Dr. Pepper. I said, "Oh thank you. Where did you get this from?" He said, "I got it from my house because I saw you drink it once and you like it." I just wanted to cry at the pure thoughtfulness of this little boy.
So bring on the chaos. Bring on the sugar comas.
Bring on the red dyed frosting smooshed into the carpet of my classroom.
If it results in these little moments...bring it on.

1 comment:

Brittany said...

How sweet. I especially love the Dr. Pepper story.