Does a Piano Need to be Plugged In?

This kid seems to think so. I have this third grader we'll call Tweedle Dee. Not only is this kid not the brightest crayon in the box, he's the broken one. Everytime I ask him a question he either stares blankly at me or says something so off the wall, I'm just baffled and can't respond with anything other than, "You know that is not the answer!!" Well today takes the cake. My piano is off limits to all students. He walks by the piano and hits a few keys. I say "Tweedle Dee (don't worry I called him by his real name) why did you just play the piano?" He stares blankly at me for a few seconds and says, "I don't know, I wanted to see if it was on."

Where Seldom is Heard, an Encouraging Word

So I have this awesome first grader, let's call him Sam. Sam is a smart kid. He's one of the most interesting 1st graders I know. He always has some deep insight to share. Well, earlier this week, this man did a special presentation in chapel. He's a motivational speaker/yo-yo expert. One of his big messages was that we need to encourage others. Well, yesterday I had two 1st grade classes in my room at the same time. It was pretty crowded and we had just enough chairs. Sam was sitting down next to Jack. All of the sudden, Sam stands up, puts his music down and walks to the front of the room and sits on the floor. So I say, "Sam are you okay?" And he says, "NED (that's the yo-yo guy) said we need to encourage each other and Jack did not give me any encouraging words." I look over and Jack is totally off in space not knowing at all that Sam is upset with him. So I say, "well did he say something mean?" Sam says, "No." Poor Jack had no clue, all he was doing was sitting quietly like he was supposed to! So Sam sat on the floor the rest of the class. He wasn't mad, he just thought that Jack needed to speak some encouraging words. Ha! I thought that was pretty cute!

An Ice Skating Reunion

Pretty much anyone who knows me knows this Colorado girl hates winter/cold sports. I detest skiing, I've done too much sledding, and I fall down way too much when I ice skate. So this next story is going to come as a surprise to you. After an eight year absence I returned to the ice skating rink. My friend Adam somehow convinced me that we needed to go ice skating. I suspected he wanted to go in order to have a good laugh at my expense. I still suspect that today. Within the first 15 minutes I fell three times. Two of these were painless, the third...not so much painless. I think this is what happened (it all happened so fast so I can't be sure)...I was trying to avoid a small child when I leaned back on my skates causing my legs to fall from under me. It is at this point my entire body is lifted into the air. Of course the first part of my body to hit the ice after being airborn was, you guessed it, April's tailbone. Now this is why I don't ice skate! Who made up this crazy sport? It's two days later and I'm still feeling the aftermath of the accident. And to make it worse, I ran into three of my sixth grade students who were also ice skating. I'm sure I'll never hear the end of it. And to make it just a little more humiliating, Adam is, of course, an excellent ice skater! I think it is safe to say that I will probably hang up my skates for good this time.

"But Miss Stephens I Didn't Do It!"

I cannot tell you how many times I've heard that phrase come out of my students' mouth. Today was one of the classic cases. I was in the middle of teaching first grade when a girl raises her hand and says "Miss Stephens, Sarah just stuck her tongue out at me!" Sarah immediately replies, "No I didn't!" (and just so you know, Sarah only has two volumes - yelling and really yelling) I say, "Sarah did you stick your tongue out at Alexis?" This goes on for about 30 seconds and Sarah continues to deny she did it even after about five eyewitnesses state they did indeed see her stick out her tongue. Finally, I said "Sarah are you telling me the truth?" And she says, "Miss Stephens I truly believe that I didn't stick my tongue out to Alexis!" Well as long as she TRULY believes it!