A total disservice...

I just read through my entire blog - from start to finish - and I have to admit there are some seriously funny stories here and some very, very serious ones as well. I have been doing a huge disservice by not blogging more about daily teaching life. This has to change! So here are some of my favorite things from the past two weeks.

Today:

Our class projector stopped working last week and I put in a help desk ticket to have it fixed. The update said it would be fixed by this Friday, so I informed my students that we would need to be patient. They have been very excited to watch a Martin Luther King, Jr. video and see his picture, so every day they ask if the projector is fixed. So - it just so happened that today a gentleman came while the students were at lunch to fix the projector (the lamp was blown out apparently). When my students returned from lunch, I had them sit down and I turned on the projector...they sat at their desks with their fingers, toes, feet, EVERYTHING crossed just willing the projector to work. As it turns on, the class starts clapping and jumping up and down and one of my students blurts out, "Mrs. Eklund - you fixed it! It's like teacher magic or something!" hahahahaha I then faced the very obvious dilemma of letting them believe in "teacher magic" or confessing the truth to them. Hmmm....what to do?? Don't worry - I told them the truth. As for "teacher magic" they still don't know how white out works, so I still have that going for me ;)

Tuesday:

"Ms. Eklund - I just can't go to second grade." (Why honey?) "Because you won't be my teacher anymore." (It's ok, sweety, I'll still see you every day. You'll be too smart to stay in first grade by the end of the year!) "That's it! I'm not learning ANYTHING else." Awwww... :) how cute is that!

Monday:

"Ms. Eklund - my dad can't come to see me anymore." (Why honey?) "Because he doesn't have any papers." Hmmm...try explaining immigration to a 6 year old. It's a tough, tough thing. He got extra hugs from me today.

From January 13th:

I had one of those "this is why I teach" moments today - you know, the kind that reaches into your chest and grabs your heart and shakes it. I was teaching about MLK, Jr. - I was absolutely "on fire" about him, downright "preaching" about his "dream" and what segregation was/is, about how and why he was killed, how he fought for peace using his words, and etc, when one of my students raises his hand and says, "Ms. Eklund...so, did his dream come true?" As my eyes filled with tears, I asked him to look around the classroom, then asked him, "Look around - what do you see? Do YOU think his dream came true?" He looked around at his room full of racially diverse classmates and said, "Yep - I think it did."

Wow. It was a powerful moment. My student teacher and I had tears in our eyes and were consoled by young sweet ones telling us, "it's ok...no need to cry" while they handed us Kleenex. :)

Yea - today was a good, good day. My love/teaching cup runneth over.