Rolling out of bed this morning I felt certain that my phone was a liar. It simply could not be 5:30 am already. And yet, it was. My body protested mightily. While one might think it should already be adjusted to this evil thing we call Daylight Savings, one would be wrong. Yesterday I could sleep in. Today, I could not. And after a day traveling to and from Chicago on Sunday, along with returning home at 10pm, my body protested loudly as I rolled out of bed.
All too soon I had walked both dogs, showered, quickly threw on some clothes, did a cursory job drying my hair, and applied a bit of makeup and was out the door by 7:30am.
Entering my middle school just five minutes later, I was confronted with what would be the reality of my day, it would be a day of extremes. Some of the students I met in the hall were high on life, tons of energy, bopping and making noise. They exhausted me. Others I saw seemed to prescribe to my deep resentment of the time change, still somewhere between awake and dreamland, I wasn’t sure if they realized they were truly at school. It was going to be an interesting day.
I moved to my classroom to make sure I had my Google Slides ready for today’s lesson, that I had uploaded all needed material to classroom. Pulling up Kidblog, I graded the few blogs that were turned in over the weekend, then flipped over to the grading program we use. I noticed that I still had several blogs that hadn’t been turned in. The grading period ended Friday, but I wanted to see this last bit of writing from the kids for third quarter. Frustrated, I headed back to the hallway to see if the kids I needed to talk to were there.
I moved up and down the hall, talking to the children I needed to while they promised to get their post in by lunch. Then I remembered it was my week for hallway duty anyway, so I stayed out, talking to one student about the difficulties of grooming a Goldendoodle while a table of boys filled me in on the social gathering of the season, the middle school dance that had been held that past Friday night.
Some teachers from my team gathered and we caught up on the weekend, monitored the hallway, and quickly realized the bell was late due to not being set for the new time. We had the kids head to their lockers and to homeroom, and then after a few minutes, I followed them in.
Glancing at my homeroom I couldn’t help but smile. We’re entering our last quarter of the year together. At this point of the year they know to come in, enter their information for lunch count and their weekly Status of the Class. They’re welcome to visit until announcements are over and they do, hanging out at tables or standing around the room once they’re checked in. I moved in, greeting kids, hearing about the weekend, and headed to the front to look over attendance and see who we were missing.
After we rose for the pledge, sat back down, and passed out some cookies for a birthday, I moved to confer with a few kids. While some did have a lot of energy, I couldn’t help but smile when I moved to the back of my classroom. See, in these big seventh graders arms I found Piggie in one (corner of the couch), Elephant in the other.
Another kid had a turtle, two others had gorillas that we have to remind us of Ivan.
If you had told me years ago that one day I would move to teach middle school, love it, and that those big middle schoolers would love to curl up with stuffed animals to read, I never would have believed you. I am beyond grateful I did. These kids make me smile every single day. And that’s true, even on the Monday after Daylight Savings begins.
Happy Monday, my friends.
Katherine
