Teacher's Pet

This morning, as I started my school day, I had the added bonus of having a little helper with me. See, Jason is off to an exciting conference on labor negotiations (woo woo!) and so that means I'm in charge of getting Abby off to school. Since I have to be at school about forty-five minutes before the bus gets to our house I came up with the solution to just bring her with me. Now, she wouldn't spend the whole day at my school, but I could pop out and drop her at her school on my planning period. Since my planning period is right after our first class, this only gets Abby to school a couple of minutes late. It really worked out perfectly.

So, I had one excited little lady with me this morning. She couldn't wait to go and see all of "Mommy's kids" and help out. As soon as we got to school she made herself right at home. She came to devotions with me and while we teachers got some daily encouragement, she found a book about Tarzan. She liked the book so much that she made sure everyone got a good look at it - by nearly planting the book in each of the teacher's faces. Luckily they all know, and love, Abby, so it wasn't a problem.

From there we went back to my classroom to greet the kids. As each student walked into the room she would shout out, "Good morning! Welcome to Mommy's room!" The kids love having Abby around, they think she's a hoot, and so they were pretty excited to see her as well. As kids kept coming in she found a seat for herself, pointed to me, and told me to be the "pretend" teacher. The kids that heard that really got a kick out of that one.

Teacher Abby

Soon enough some of the kids she recognized came in and she really got excited. Friends such as Jane and Rachel made sure to say, "Hi!" and Carter got an extra big hug. By this time it was nearing the start of our day, so I began rallying the kids, while Abby plopped herself down on the stool right in front of my podium and declared that she would be teaching today. My students really liked that idea! Before long she was giving directions like the little dictator she is. I swear those kids don't listen half as well to me as they did to her. In no time flat she had them playing "Simon Says". She had them clapping their hands and running in their seats, and when she insisted they all put their heads down - down they all went. It was a sight to see!

I decided that it was time to take control, and so we said our morning prayer and went right into the Pledge of Allegiance, as we do every day. Abby joined right in. I was so proudly pleased when the kids noticed that Abby knew The Pledge - she did a super job.

I could take a few pointers on classroom management from her.

We then went into grading our math papers and as we did so Abby sat quietly at "her" desk and "took notes". It was pretty cute when we were done and her hand shot into the air along with a few others. I wondered what she would do, so I called on her. She requested that we sing, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" - not quite "math" related, but at least she raised her hand.

Before long it was time for "specials" and so Abby joined our line and walked nicely down to the gym with all of the fifth graders. It was at that point that she started to get stubborn - she didn't want to leave. I finally convinced her that if she wanted to come back tomorrow she would have to cooperate, and with the help of Mrs. E (our Lunch Lady Extraordinare) we made it smoothly out to the car.

I have to admit that it was quite fun to have her there. She certainly is a handful, but just thinking about how my morning started brought a smile to my face throughout the day. Abby has a way of doing that.

"Okay Everybody, Simon says, 'Clap your hands!'"

Ahh, the dream of every teacher/parent, the day when their child can help with grading....