Fifth Grade-- Why Was I Worried?

Well, I know I was worried because fifth graders are one year away from being dreaded middle schoolers, but I had a really good day today with those cheerful little "tweens".

I was running late because I stayed up too late at a friend's house playing with her adorable newborn baby girl and talking, and then it took me a while to wind back down to go to sleep. Anyway, so I rushed into the classroom during morning announcements. I hope they don't put me on some list for horrible subs who are never to be used again.

Anyway, I think I've mentioned before how kids just openly talk about you like they think you can't hear them, which is always funny. As though their voices register in the same spot on the sonic spectrum as cetacean echolocation pings or dog whistles.

But where was I? Oh right. I was so excited because they're doing a whole unit on buffalos (spell checker is wrong, both "buffalos" and "buffaloes" are correct according to the dictionary) and American Indian culture, WHICH I LOVE! In fact when I was looking for an AmeriCorps program I almost worked at a school on a reservation somewhere near Redlands, California, but decided on the San Francisco area instead. Luckily, while I lived in the SF Bay Area I met some really cool people who were of... a tribe whose name escapes me, but one of whom was a spiritual leader and let me participate in a ceremony. And around the same time (but separately) I discovered the annual Stanford Powwow in Palo Alto and loved it. Mmmmm, fry bread. And I still wear my moccasins to this day! It's held on sacred land which is fenced off in the middle of this park, and it's got such great vibes I used to go there alone on warm afternoons and sit at the base of an adjacent tree and marinate in them.

Anyhoo. Unfortunately, today I had to teach two hour-long sections of math, helping the kids prep for one of those ridiculous state-wide standardized tests. Gag me. It turned out to be fun, though, because I had long since forgotten how to do a number of the problems, so I let different kids come up to the front of the room and teach the class (and me) how to do it. At long last, I can identify a rhombus. I also got two new buddies out of it, each a talkative boy who kept disrupting the review. They got to bring their chairs and work up and sit right next to me. They both turned out to be lots of fun though, and kept making me laugh which was nice.

During silent reading time I read one of the books in the classroom, Buffalo Woman by Paul Goble. I hoped it would be about White Buffalo Calf Woman, but it wasn't. It turned out to be such a beautiful story anyway, with gorgeous artwork, that I think I might buy it for myself some day. Certainly if I ever have kids of my own. I looked at all the other buffalo-based books in the class and none of them talked about White Buffalo Calf Woman, much to my surprise. Maybe she is too much of a spiritual figure to be brought into public schools. Bit of a crying shame, isn't it?

Anyway, the day finished up with a science assembly where two girls did visually interesting sceience experiments for the kids. It was cool, they made polyurethane foam right there in front of us, out of two liquids in a small beaker. They also popped balloons filled with different gases that made loud noises which was also fun. But the best part was when they lit different chemicals on fire and they burned beautiful colors. I was fairly undignified next to the other teachers, ooh-ing, ah-ing, and that-was-awesome-ing along with the kids.

All in all, it was a good day.