It's so so so hard to believe that it's already mid October which means we are coming upon halfway through this Fall semester. (Sidenote: I'm still in "college term mode" so half the time when I say "semester," I don't think my students even understand what I'm saying..maybe that should be a new vocabulary word for next week? hmm.) It still feels like school started just a couple weeks ago and I'm convinced that even the long-feeling weeks fly by in the blink of an eye! But I'm not exactly complainin' 'bout dat.
Highlights of the past couple weeks:
1. I wear pants (straight leg/skinny type so they're cute, I promise!!) every day to work simply because half the time I spend bending down to pick up trash/broken pencils/torn up pieces of paper in between classes to make it a clean environment for my following classes (I hate trash/clutter okay?!). Therefore, I don't choose to wear dresses because A. I don't find them very comfortable to wear around all day when I'm go-go-go and B. I don't have a plethora of choices of dresses soooo therefore it just doesn't happen. Well, my students, well..the girl students, picked up on my no-dress-wearing-style after about the 5th week and then asked me if I owned any dresses. I replied with a "yes" to which they replied with "then why don't you wear them?" to which I replied with "because I like pants better........but maybe I'll dig one out of my closet to wear tomorrow...just for y'all." So, in order to make my students happy as clams, I wore a dress the next day and I also happened to wear my hair up for the first time that day (main reason being I was too lazy to straighten my hair) so Ms. Crabtree was lookin all sorts of different that day at school! Let's just say my day was filled with "Ms. Crabtree! Your hair looks so good up!" "YOU'RE WEARING A DRESS!!!!" "Ms. Crabtree!! So-and-so (a 10 year old boy) thinks you look pretty with your hair up hehehehe" and so on and so on. I half felt like a person who had just participated in Extreme Makeover: Fashion/Hair Edition and half like a celeb. It was strange yet humorous.
2. The YouTube video/song of "What Does The Fox Say?" (click on the link...you know you want to) has been all the craze lately among my elementary school posse and lucky for them, I had seen the YouTube video already so I was already aware of this ridiculous song before it swept into the brains of all my 5th graders. Let me tell you, it's something that when you hear it once, you'll never forget the tune, unfortunately. Therefore, I about made the life of a couple of my students when they came up to me and simply said "Ms. Crabtree! Ms. Crabtree! What does the fox say?" to which I replied with the tune that comes right after it. They stared at me wide eyed and then busted out laughing. They either think I'm cool or that I need to get a life? I'll go with cool?
3. At the beginning of last week, we had just come in from recess and one of my fifth graders approached me in class shortly after and asked, "Ms. Crabtree? What do butterflies eat?" to which I replied, "um, leaves?" and then told her that's a question for the Science teacher (I teach Language Arts okay?!) She then proceeded to ask me this questions again about every 30 seconds until I finally said, "*Sarah, why do you keep asking me this?" and she stared at me for about 5 seconds and then said, "Okay...I keep asking because I caught a butterfly at recess and it's currently in my locker..." I honestly had to hold back a small chuckle and then had to persuade her that the butterfly needs to be placed back outside because it needs sunlight to survive and a bush is much more appealing to a butterfly than a musty old locker. She was pretty bummed that I asked her to do this but I told her I'd give her 5 minutes to place the butterfly back outside and to say her goodbyes. Bless her little heart.
4. Mid last week, one of my homeroom students came up to me at the end of the day and presented me with a Prezi presentation (kind of like a PowerPoint but much cooler and done online) titled "Why We Love Ms. Crabtree." She then proceeded to show me how she had asked all of my homeroom class and a handful of other students what they thought about me (I'm guessing she threw in the word "positive" because there weren't any hurtful comments lolz) and then she assembled them into the cutest/sweetest Prezi presentation simply because she felt like doing it. It was honestly one of the kindest gestures I've ever received and it made my heart melt into a big ole glob of goo on the floor. One of my students said "I love Ms. Crabtree because she helps bring out the inner me." I love my students.
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| This was a letter I randomly received last week. Heart melted again. |
5. This past Friday, my twin seestur, Holly, came in town from Austin so I told her she had to come up to my school at the end of the day to meet some of my students. Well, she got there a couple minutes earlier than I expected and as I am slightly shouting at a student to return to his desk for the 5th time that period, Holly walks in to which all my students went CRAY-ZAY. Some of them forgot I had a twin and I didn't tell this certain class that my sister was coming to visit so once they saw the Ms. Crabtree look-a-like waltz in, they morphed into students I didn't even recognize anymore. Their eyes were wide, they were looking at me and then looking back at Holly, and then they began rushing towards her. Because of their barbaric-ness, I had Holly leave my room to which my students got real pizzed. Once Holly left, I told them that she would not be entering this class again until everyone was in their seats with their mouths zipped shut. Once they proved they were normal human beings again, I had Holly come back inside and it was like all my students had straight jackets on and were tied to their seats against their will based on the amount of wiggling that was occuring among each of my students. It was like they have never seen a twin before. ISSUES PEOPLE. ISSUES.
These past couple weeks have kind of been a whirlwind but remembering these little moments reminds me again that despite the difficult/stressful moments I experience each day, that Jesus reminds me of his goodness when my students really know what to do/act like to make me smile.
Teacher out,
Ms. Crabtree
*Names have been changed
