Cute, Cute, Cute

No, I'm not talking about a boy.  Y'all have got to stop going there immediately!  Geez...

You know, I have a love-strong dislike relationship with my job.  We've all been exceedingly ready for spring break for about a month now (hurry, April 22nd!) as repeatedly evidenced by our short fuses with the kids.  It's becoming an everyday occurrence for one of us to say we're about to lose it, or we don't know where our kids' brains have gone, or we are dying to have just a load of chocolate and some pretzels (Have you ever had a pretzel with a Rolo and pecan pressed into it?  HOLY STINKIN' MOTHER.) (Thanks a lot, Lent, for keeping me from all things sweet and awesome for the next forty days.).  I think we've just reached our tolerance of them now, especially considering we used all our days off making up those snow days from the beginning of this year.  Dang it.  I love you, Snow, but that was poor form.  Poor form.

That being said, there are times that make me remember why I put up with all this mess.  There are so many kids who exude this "please tell me I'm good and valuable and fun and smart and loved" vibe, and though that kind of neediness and clinginess can be annoying, it's kind of rewarding when you have a twelve-year-old kid who hugs you and doesn't want to let go.  Every now and then.  It's also really sweet, probably sweeter than it ought to be, to get a strange drawing or homemade notebook-paper-and-smudged-pencil card saying how wonderful I am.  Then there are the kids who want to be just like me.  I don't know if it's because I'm that awesome or because playing teacher gives them pseudo-power over the other kids, but they LOVE it.  They love to pass out worksheets, to unlock doors, to turn on projectors and alphabetize papers and call kids to line up, to supervise locker time, to make media center lists and rewrite today's date on the board.  They SWARM me during class change, sometimes to ask questions, sometimes to comment on my fashion choice du jour, sometimes to toss around some friendly banter or try out a made-up joke.  And as much as I hate it, you know I love it.  Because they are just too darn CUTE.

Social studies is one of my favorite times if we get to talk about history and culture that day.  Most of the time, we're blogging (yes we have an adorable current events blog to which I will never give you the address in order to protect my sweet children) or researching for a project or doing worksheets that don't really help them out.  But the best times are when we get to go through the book, skimming the text and stopping for minutes at a time to talk about things directly or obscurely related to the day's topic.  Once we talked about the history and horrors of the Holocaust for over half the class when the day's topic was modern South American culture.  That's pretty standard.

Today we began talking about Ancient Greece and Rome, and we covered all manner of things related.  Including the historical accuracy of an episode of Spongebob Squarepants.  Apparently, there was an episode which featured an underwater Roman Coliseum, complete with gladiatorial competitions, wild beasts and chariot races.  Thank you, Nickelodeon, for teaching my kids more about the Roman Empire than their elementary teachers did.  Social studies isn't a tested subject, so...let's just say that it isn't given as much attention as other subjects in middle school, much less elementary.  Too bad.

-- I swear I'm almost done, for real --

These kids try so hard to be as grown up as possible, but they betray themselves every now and then.  Those are some of my favorite times.  After the car riders dismissed today, something got the rest of my class -- we're talking about twenty kids left -- singing songs from the television show Wonder Pets (clearly these are Nickelodeon children).  They started with the phone song, then moved on to the show's theme.  After that came Dora the Explorer, and I lost it when they chanted "Swiper don't swipe!  Oh no!" in unison.  Next was Barney's classic "I love you, you love me..." song, and they actually did the real words instead of one of the many butchered versions that have floated around middle schools since before I attended my own CMS.  The ending line is "Won't you say you love me too?" and I responded immediately with, "No I will not because that would be inappropriate."  They thought that was hilarious.

Next, one of my students busted out with the real Barney theme song, and if I thought I'd lost it before...this sent me into an absolute fit.  The other kids were pleased and shocked that she knew the much lesser-known theme, but they didn't follow along.  Instead, they moved right on to the Spongebob Squarepants song.  I stopped them with twenty-eight seconds left until the second bell rang and had them line up, halting the revue of children's television at its finest.

They were so happy with themselves.  It was cuter than cute.  And even though I told them that it would be inappropriate to say I love them, this is my blog, and they'll never get the address for this.  So yes, I love them.

This is a crazy, crazy job.