For the sake of my own brain when I turn around a few years from now and try to remember what on earth I was doing with my life in 2012:
I am currently working a few hours a week at the church, watching littles while their moms exercise, and then booking it out of there to spend a few hours a day at Ed*son Elementary.
My first sub job of the year was at Kennew*ck High with a special needs S omali girl. First time ever in an active high school classroom! Much time spent trying to look less lost than the freshmen. Sweet kids. Interesting experience. (Still not a fan of the current secondary education model. Surely, there is a better way to do it.)
Straight from there back to Ed*son, where I worked last year.
Being back at a school where I already know and am known is wonderfully refreshing, and, again, a brand new experience. In the past, a new year has meant a new school within the district. (And, I finally have a seniority date.)
Largely, I get paid to love on kids. Lots of hugs. Lots of watching tricks. Lots of listening to stories and looking at butterflies they have caught. Lots of sending kids in for ice and standing by while they "fix" their own problems. Lots of catching kids who come at me with a running leap, and lots of reminders that, "feet stay on the ground when we hug." Lots of classrooms, lots of teachers, and lots of different rules. Lots of little fingers examining each of my bracelets. Lots of promises that I'll teach them, later in the year, how to make their own. Lots of silly faces in the hallway. Lots of "games" that carried over from last year. Lots of hugs. Lots of smiles. Lots of goofy conversations. Lots of time with kids claiming my hands and arms as their own. Plenty of reminders to, "eat your food, so you're not hungry later." And, have I mentioned, lots of hugs?
Because, I walked out on the fourth and fifth grade playground for the first time this year - after being thoroughly reprimanded by a dozen fourth graders the week before for the fact that they, "never get to see [me] this year" - and was nearly bowled over by children. First a wave of all-at-once, all-but-shoving-each-other-out-of-the-way boys came
As soon as it was safe, they were followed by a pile of girls, who were instantly relaying any and every crime that the boys had committed over the last twenty-four hours - including offering an iPad to any girl willing to date them. Repeated conversation about never going out with a guy who buys you over with presents.
Similar conversation with fifth grade girls who have been offered $25 to go out with a guy from their class. (Very much hoping that it sticks, because, as innocent and joking as the offers are now, they're potentially less than a year away from facing the same conversation with older guys who fully intend to traffic them.)
Little boys in an out of the conversation, as if my hugs expire every four minutes or so and they have to come back to get them renewed. Reminders, as I see that I have their ears, that real men don't bribe girls to go out with them and that both parties have the right to say yes or no, without anyone else deciding for them. Teasing questions about how they're going to pick the girls up for a date, and they crumple to the grass dramatically. "Stop it. Stop it! You're ruining it!"
But, a few days later, they're back, draping my arms over their shoulders like a security blanket as they tell me that they got dumped.
Guys, you're nine and ten years old. Forget about it. Go play chicken on the parallel bars or catch butterflies like everyone else is doing. Girls will still be around in a few years when you suddenly realize that you really do care - and when their ideal of a man is no longer Justin Bieber or One Direction.
(It is, apparently, something of crime in tween girl-dom to like both. Only total devotion to one or the other is acceptable.)
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