in first grade, one super intriguing moment is lunchtime. they don't get lunchtime at school in kindergarten. stepping into the multi-purpose room and walking down the hot lunch line is close to a disneyland experience for these little ones. who knew rubber hot dogs could be that exciting?
so naturally, the first day, we talked about the lunch routine. i walked them through the lunch routine. we practiced walking down the hall to the lunchroom, where to sit, where to put their empty lunch bucket, and how to walk outside when they were done eating. all is well. right? right.
we make it to the lunch room. everything is going smoothly, with many reminders about where to go and where to sit. it takes 15 minutes to get them all through the lunch line and type in their lunch pin numbers, but we make it ok. then suddenly the lunch bell is ringing and i'm outside to pick them up. if the routine stuck, they should be standing in a line waiting patiently, right? wrong.
i'm missing 6 children. not one or 2. 6 CHILDREN.
honestly i usually don't notice when i'm missing one or 2 because they end up trickling in, and it usually because they've been up on the upper field and needed more time to run down. (does that make me a bad teacher?) but 6 children?! so we stand there and wait a while, but no one is coming.
quick decisions aren't my strong point, i like time to process and weigh all my options, but obviously don't have time for that right now. so i start asking around. has anyone seen _____? where is ______? no one knew. so i left my class (with high hopes that they wouldn't kill each other while i was away) to go looking for my kids. upper field empty. playground no one there. suddenly i see dark curly hair racing past me with a "hie hie" mimicking laugh. ooooh no he didn't. i ran. i ran to chase that little guy and firmly drug him back to the line. "i didn't want to come in when the bell rang, so i didn't" he replies. oh boy, it's going to be one of these years. one down 5 to go. no, 4 to go. someone showed up from behind the bushes. yes, the bushes.
"maybe we should check the lunchroom?" one kid suggests. so i send him in. he finds one girl in there looking lost. the other 2 we never found, but by now 20 minutes have passed and the second grade bell has rung. so we went inside, me just hoping somehow someone made it back to the classroom without me. sure enough, there he was, waiting patiently in his seat. the last little guy though was no where to be found. we backtracked, talked about everywhere we think he might be. luckily the office called during our dilemma to tell us that he was found wandering the halls, hysterical that he didn't know where to go. poor little guy. an elementary school is pretty large when you're 6.
we practiced lunch routine 5 more times that day. you can go to recess after you eat, kids. PLEASE go to recess after you eat. but please eat your lunch. your parents keep sending me concerned e-mails about you coming home with empty lunch boxes. argh.
i wish i could say these were the least of my concerns, but sadly, this will be a year to remember in many other ways. you name it, i've got it in my class this year. i could write a novel after just 17 days of school, but i'll spare ya.
the truth is, i love teaching. no matter how hard and impossible it may seem, i really do love it. no teacher has perfect classes every year. it's my turn to take the load, and hey, bring it on. (did i say that out loud? :-/)
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