A Day in the Life of a Teacher, #1

I have decided that once a week I am going to post my favorite quote/experience from teaching for the week. We teachers have no shortage of entertainment, but it's a shame to keep it all to ourselves. Kids truly do say the darndest things, and here's just sneak peak into "a day in the life of an elementary school teacher."


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“Ms. Davis, I could tell you were having a bad hair day when you came in this morning.” (Only I wasn’t aware that I was having a bad hair day myself….gotta love that honesty!)
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Me: “Sometimes people are good at some things, but not as good at other things. We all have something we’re not the best at.”
Student: “Yeah, like you and talking.”
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“Ms. Davis, you look like you’re ten.” (from one of my 8 year old 2nd graders…even they think I look too young to teach.)
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A more touching moment…
My parents visited my classroom and I told my class to tell them what they should know about how I really am as a teacher. I thought they’d say funny stuff like “she gives us too much homework,” or the like. But my most “rough around the edges,” lower achieving student said with tears in his eyes (trying to hide them back) “she REALLY listens to you when you need to talk.” Warmed my heart for the rest of the year!
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(While looking at a book about planets) “Mrs. Guillo, I’m reading this book about states, but where is Arkansas?”
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I had a student with down syndrome. He is so precious to me, and I love him dearly. One day I asked him to get his library books from his backpack. He did as told, paused for a second, then proceeded to sprint out of the classroom, down the hall, out the outside doors, across the playground, across the blacktop and finally into another teacher’s room where he decided to sit at her reading table and start talking to her (you can’t understand his speech-so she was shocked and confused about what was happening, as was I). I was pregnant and in slip-on shoes and had to chase this kid the whole time. One of the funniest moments I’ve had so far. (I’m just thankful he didn’t decide to run down the street or something crazy like that!)
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After spending a week talking about the story elements: characters, setting, problem, and solution…
Me: “So, what was the setting of this story?”
Student: “Um, fiction?”
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During a reading mini-lesson we discussed comparing and contrasting using a venn diagram. I talked for at least 5 minutes about how we were going to read “Little Red Cowboy Hat” and then we would say how this book was similar and different from “Little Red Riding Hood” which we read the week before. We made predictions about what would be similar/different, and I told them to be thinking about how they were similar and different as I read the story. Then I began reading.
I must have been at least half way into “Little Red Cowboy Hat” when a girl said excitedly, “HEY! This is like Little Red Riding Hood!”…. you think!? Better late than never, I suppose!
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I read a rhyming book about Halloween. On the 2nd to last page (I kid you not) the same observant girl as above says, “this is a rhyming book!”
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When I was pregnant with Camden, we took a field trip and one of my sweet boys gave me an impromptu hug. Of course he was the height where he hugs me right around the middle. Then he says, “WHOA! You are getting PREGNANT!”….thanks.
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While doing a “say no to drugs” activity given to us by the counselor, they were supposed to write in a speech bubble what they would say if someone offered them drugs. One of my students wrote, “YES.” Thinking he must have misunderstood the assignment, I explained it further and he said, “well, my mom and stepdad sometimes smoke a cigarette and sometimes drink beer.”
I said, “right, but they are adults and that is legal if they choose to do that. But this is talking about you now or as a teenager when it’s not legal. Or about the really harmful drugs that can make you really sick or even kill you. If someone offered you that, you’d say yes?”
And his answer, verbatim, was, “Eh, I’d take the risk.”
…WOW. I talked with the counselor and she dealt with the situation. I had never been so shocked in my life.
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At a recent field trip, we went to Little Rock and played at a playground after our picnic lunch. One of my precious children came up to me while I was talking with another teacher and said, "Mrs. Guillo, I poo-pooed my pants." "I'm sorry, what!?" I said. "I poo pooed my pants." ...and the rest is history. I got to deal with that for what seemed like the rest of the afternoon...not at school, but in a random public restroom in Little Rock. They don't teach you how to deal with that in college!

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I had a student who is deathly afraid of bees and spiders. One morning I dismissed him to go to the restroom which is down the hall. I was walking around monitoring my class as they were silent reading, when I hear these blood-curdling screams. Thinking I must be mistaken, I open the door. Sure enough, the loudest, most horrifying screams were echoing down the hall. Thinking some poor child was being physically abused by another child, I start racing down the hall, but 2 other teachers beat me to it. It turns out there was a small spider on the floor in the stall next to his. No physical bullying, just a spider. He came back with the biggest, saddest tears still on his cheeks. I tried my hardest to keep from laughing. That poor kid was so traumatized for the rest of the morning, and I learned quickly to confiscate any small bug before he lays his eyes on it... just in case.

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"Mrs. Guillo, do rabbits lay eggs or do they squirt their babies out?"

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**How can you not love coming to work every day when you have students that brighten it with the funny comments they make or strange things they do?
**How can you not feel compelled to come into work every day and be a roll model when they make scary comments like saying yes to drugs?
**How can you not feel like coming to work every day is worth it when you once in-a-blue –moon find out the impact you are having on a child that you least expected to?

-I may forget this after a long, hard day, but it’s worth it. It’s all worth it! (except for maybe the poopy pants) ;)

AND NOW I INVITE MY FELLOW TEACHERS TO POST YOUR FAVORITE TEACHING MOMENTS, FUNNY OR SWEET! READY, GO!