What the experts say about the teacher’s energy affecting the classroom is so true, as evidenced today.
It all began when I walked down the hall to the computer, passing the admin(she’s amazing by the way). She said “hello, how are you?” I said “I’m good, how are you? She said “perfect” and I said “I’m so glad to hear that” and kept walking. She yelled after me: “I’m lying” and I just looked back and said “I know” (she’s somewhat disgruntled.)
On my way back to the classroom I ran into J, one of the 7th grade teachers. I stopped and said “oh, are we going to do the joint Chanukah party this year?” He was all for it. I mentioned the 18th as the day for the party. He told me that there was no class. I didn’t believe him. He went back to check. We met in the hall again. And said that it was true.
Super co-teacher and I were flabbergasted! We spent over an hour at a hipster cafe in Logan Square (seriously full of artists and students and the artists were actually painting. How strange (just kidding)) planning our lessons for the end of December and January. We were going to do this great lesson about Jewish humor and the convergence between eastern religions and Judaism which would be all wrapped up in the denomination called “secular Judaism”. Sadly, we have to skip right to Reconstructionism (which is an activity that we all love) and then the Chanukah party. So we were in hysterics, laughing at ourselves when our very late students walked in.
Usually, we have about 15, but we had 9. And the kids were very disturbed by our small class, which was a large small class, but they were upset with the absent kids. We were still weirded out, so we explained why we were laughing.
We began class with a “what do you know, what don’t you know about Reform Judaism activity”. When I turned around to get the paper I noticed that our oversized bag of starbursts and skittles had disappeared. Instead, there were about 9 pieces of candy sitting in our cell phone tub. We had been robbed! I was so weirded out by the odd gloomy day and the loss of a lesson that I wanted to run right over to the admin’s office and announce the theft. Thankfully, Super co-teacher advised me to wait. He looked surprised at my eagerness to disrupt class. I left it until the end.
And then the kids started to be crazy. We had more paper arts, including paper airplanes and hopping frogs, than we’ve had this year. We had some crazy names during our debate between the “traditional Jews” the “reformers” and the “modern-day reform” that included Rabbi Halakha Kashrut. (um what?). One guy wouldn’t let up on the football private joke that nobody understood except for him and one other student. One incredibly smart well-behaved student had his own version of misbehavior that lasted the 2 hours, surprisingly (and also quite benign).
And it was our fault for beginning the class in hysterics. And because I decided wrongs needed to be righted immediately (although I was stopped). It was a day full of quotable quotes and hysterical moments. Maybe it was a perfect December day?
