When the Kids Make You Laugh

After a crazed week in which report card grades were due and 7 IEPs had to be completed, I have found that laughter has become incredibly important for maintaining my sanity. So, some highlights:

1) A very serious youngster chose a fun-sized 3 Musketeers as a reward. He studied it for several moments, then turned to his friend. "Why don't they have 3 Stooges?"

2) In a campaign speech for President of the Student Government, one boy stated, "I promise to do something about that smell in the boys' bathroom, because it's just -- I mean -- you know -- it's just disgusting. I'll get air fresheners, maybe a ceiling fan, but I promise you, I'll do something! (Followed by wild cheers.)

3) Two girls who have been best friends since first grade are together so constantly that I call them the twins. Today, they came into class and said to me, "Yesterday afternoon we got in this huge fight. We were yelling at each other and everything. We thought we would never be friends again, but this morning we're talking again and we're not mad at all. We wanted to know if you know why?"

4) I am accidentally paged over the intercom as Mister instead of Miss. For the rest of the day, students continue to come up to me and tell me they didn't know my husband worked there. One student went so far as to apologize: "I'm sorry I wasn't calling you Mrs."

5) In adaptive physical education with students who have developmental disabilities, one student points and laughs when he sees I forgot my socks at home that morning. I asked, "Are you laughing at me because I left my socks." He starts laughing harder then goes to one of the male coaches, "Do you have some socks she can borrow?"

6) During a lesson on using the five senses to improve your writing, the entire class is completely swept up in our creation. The sentence I provided for the group activity was, "Susan immediately regretted accepting the dare to compete in the pie-eating contest." Each of my students contributed details about the sights, sounds, tastes, etc. By the end, I felt like I lived through the contest as my quietest student roared like the crowd, a boisterous student belched like the main character after eating the fifth pie (which was burnt,) and a student who has never participated in literacy discussion enacted the final barf scene. A great end to a wonderful story, and great end to a rough week.