Farewell

My last day began with flowers from the art teacher, who has been my neighbor across the hall all year.







The faculty gave me a real school bell of my very own. I'll still miss hearing the school bells ring.

And this says it all:

They steal your heart, these kids!

The halls were dark when I carried out my bags and sacks of accumulated stuff . I looked back at the quiet, orderly library, all the books tucked back onto shelves, the carts all empty, the walls and windows blank, and thought: This is where I came in.

I turned off the lights.

Anticipation

Some wishful thinking for the last week of school...

It worked!

He shouts something to me as I hold up the stop sign on crossing duty this morning. He's riding on the back of his grandmother's scooter and I just wave as they go put-putting past. I can't actually tell who he is because his head is completely obscured by the giant motorcycle helmet he wears.
The scooter comes back up the hill after letting him off and grandmother pulls over by the crosswalk. "He tells me you stuck pins in your thumb yesterday" she says.
I feel worried. "I was showing them how they could find fun things to do in books" I begin to bleat, "It was a trick."
She brushes my stammerings aside. "I want you to know" she says, "that we always go rock climbing after school on Wednesdays, and yesterday he demanded that we go to the library instead. He had to have magic books. I just wanted you to know you had an effect."
And off she buzzed.

Why we have indoor recess

from the kindergarten weather reports:

Who's boss?

This has been a day for bossy girls. Girls demanding of each other -"Come over here!" "Stand by me" "Who's in your literature circle?" Girls keeping track of others- "Mrs. Richey, there are 7 kids here from my class and there are only supposed to be 5". And girls ready to step in and do my job, like the kindergartener this morning who came in with a friend. Both girls blurted out requests at almost the same time, but the one with dark hair and a deep voice said first "I want..." so I started with her question. Immediately the little blonde one interrupted and said imperiously: "I know where the princess books are! I'll show her and you find my cursive books!"

Carnival time

At crossing duty this morning the cars snarled into motionless lines. One after another stopped while the driver ran in to the school with cakes for the cakewalk, giant bottles of pop for the pop toss, and various mysterious packages. Walkers came to school hauling bags with cookies and doughnuts tumbling out of the careful order they'd been sent off with. Parents sat inside the door selling raffle tickets. They'll be setting up in the library after the first grades leave this afternoon.
Such excitement!

There are things we'll never know

I have come down to the computer lab on my lunch hour to check on a computer glitch. The window is open to the sounds of lunch recess. I hear a chant "We are the idiots! Jump! Jump!". I wonder what sort of game this is and look out the window. A couple of boys and one girl are marching around a picnic table. As they chant they pump their arms in the air with "Jump! Jump!" At the picnice table sits a solitary girl, her long blonde hair hiding her face as she draws or writes. She does not look up. More and more kids run to join the marchers. The chant gets louder "We are the idiots! Jump! jump!" There are now so many kids that the line's end runs into its beginning. The leader breaks away, and trailed by about 25 kids starts across the playground. They march through the basketball game and head across the creek and as I leave the chant is fading away but arms are still pumping up in the air in rhythm. "We are the idiots! Jump! Jump!"

I know this kid

I hear the first graders starting down the hall for lunch. Above the general roar I hear a familiar little boy voice say "It was a hug!" Then the teacher's voice - "Not when you lift him up and smack his face."

A Two-fer

I'm trying to change the display case fairly often, so that the kids will keep looking at it. This month I used the same background and some of the same characters for two displays. "The Spring Calls of the Book Frogs" was inspired by Book! Book! Book! and you can see that one of my frogs is singing the "read-it! read-it" line from that book.

Then several of the frogs hopped away and the background became a writer's spring garden, with seed packages of "verbs" and "nouns" and "adjectives" - and stakes to mark where books, stories and poems will grow.

This is such fun.

The Bully

His identity as the class bully has been firmly established. I know this from several incidents in our library time. Other kids come to the library in twos and threes -he's come all by himself. He comes in whistling, and stops before I say anything. He leans over the library desk and chats as his mind skips from topic to topic - baseball season has started, and he's playing soccer too but everything has been rained out so far. He tells me about his older brother's activities and how his cat and dogs get along. He carried his neighbor's cat home when it came to his house, and he demonstrates how he held it so that it wouldn't scratch him. This story is vivid, complete with the dogs jumping up on the other side of the fence and barking.
Finally, reluctantly, he leaves to return to his class.
I hear his clear boy-soprano voice singing "oh uh oh uh oh" all the way down the stairs.

Computer Woe

The student teacher is lively and enthusiastic. She has worked hard for hours and hours on her resume, sitting at one of the computer stations in the classroom. Today she sits down and the whole file is gone. She panics.
By the time I get there, she is in tears, mascara running down her cheeks. I try the two tricks I know to locate missing files. Neither one works. All that work, gone, vanished. She sobs "I HATE computers".
The class is unsure what to do. They gather at a distance, curious, questioning. "What is it?" they mutter to each other. What terrible adult tragedy are they witnessing? Should they be concerned? Two boys begin to fight. The rest just stare. Finally one finds the classroom tissue box and pulls out a huge handful to offer her.

The Testing Season

Today we began three weeks of computerized testing for all the 2 through 6 grades. I'm the proctor for our school. I left extra early this morning to allow time for fumbling through the two sets of log-ins that each computer must have before I can load the test and assign it to a student.
When the computers were all set, 45 minutes into my day, I dashed back up to the library for the ordinary Monday morning tasks, then back to the computer lab to check on the first class of the day - an active, chatty, squirmy second grade.
As I walked down the hall, I heard nothing . "Oh dear" I thought, "the teacher has forgotten and they haven't come." Then I walked into the lab. In absolute silence the second graders stared at their screens. No one looked up, no one gave any indication of noticing that I'd come in. The eerie hush was only broken by the faint click of a mouse button here and there.
Oh, this testing! It's serious stuff!

Maple Syrup

This past week I showed all my classes how maple syrup is made. After the story and the book share, I gave each a tiny taste of maple syrup from a tiny little plastic cup.

I had the syrup already poured into the cups when they came in, and had set up a table so that the tray wouldn't be too tempting as they sat and listened first.

The second graders came in quietly (I had lights down and a cd of bird song playing). One little girl peeked at the table and saw the trays with the little cups with a dark mysterious liquid in them. She looked at me with shining eyes and whispered " I know where the God's blood is!"

Aging

It was a wild morning, moving tables and chairs and setting up massive book displays. The library seemed smaller than ever with the fifth graders filling it up. I handed out the booklist I'd frantically finished at the last minute, then talked about books for 45 minutes. They all checked out their fantasy books, and then I reopened the library for the last half hour before lunch.

A second grader came to the desk. Did I have his books? I looked at him and couldn't remember what books. He impatiently reminded me that I'd set books aside for him yesterday. I appologized, saying "It's been a tough morning". He looked at me seriously. "Yeah," he said. " You do look kinda tired. Maybe they should get someone younger for this job."

Feeling Inept

Breathless, two third graders rush to the circulation desk. "You have to come right away! The DVD won't play!"
Together we scurry down to their classroom. I find the teacher and several helpful little boys crowded around the av cart. With what I hope is a professional looking air, I examine the wires, the buttons, the remotes. I change the "input" and "output" lines. I turn it off and on. Meanwhile, the student teacher begins to read the book to the disappointed class. "I really wanted to see that movie" someone sighs.
The helpful boys stay with me. I am reading the manual when suddenly the DVD begins to play. The class cheers.
One of the boys has changed the input wires to the first set rather than the fourth. He stands proudly by the now-working machine while the class chants his name over and over: " Ry -an! Ry- an!"

Lunchtime

I have been outside during lunch - just to smell the fresh air (the library is decidedly musty). I come back in, walking by the lunch room. One of my familiar readers is leaning over the water fountain. He spies me, and with a huge grin, shouts: "Mrs. Richey! I punched my apple until it exploded!"

Spring Break aftermath

Books came in from Spring Break by the armloads and basketfulls. They piled on the carts until they threatened to topple onto someone, and then they settled in stacks that grew around the desk. They were accompanied by students who lined up in front of the desk and around the computers.
It was afternoon when I finally looked up - only because someone said something - and realized that the reading teacher who had been coming in and out all morning using the reference nook to meet students, the teacher I'd spoken to and smiled at, even checked out books for - that teacher had an arm wrapped and bound up. She'd had a true spring break. "I wish I had a good story" she said, "but I just slipped in the bathroom and tried to catch myself".

Spring Break

Far away from the noisy halls of school, I'm on a true Spring break. Here the red-wing blackbird, the robin, and the flicker call from budding trees. I note the shapes of shadows and the slow change of the sun. No bells ring, no computers ding. I'll return to school renewed and ready.

Fame

This morning an intern from the local newspaper came to the library to talk about the second grade reading program. She remembered the program from her own second grade days. Could she interview some kids? Around the table in the back of the library a little group of second graders were busily assembling astronomy facts. They were shy when asked but one little girl volunteered to talk about her reading. Suddenly it dawned on the others that this was an opportunity to have their names in the paper. The entire group surrounded the intern squealing, giggling, hugging each other as they hopped up and down: "We're going to be FAMOUS!"

Dr. Seuss Day

All over school people are reading Dr. Seuss books. I read "The Cat in the Hat" with all the first grades. They are a little confused because the book isn't just like the movie. Not enough action from Thing One and Thing Two.
Several classes have "pajama day" in honor of Dr. Seuss. I see kindergarteners flitting past the library door in sweet little nightgowns and power pjs. It is hard to keep focused while chatting with little people in dinosaur pajamas and big puffy soccer ball slippers.
I go down to a third grade classroom. All the Dr. Seuss stories are jumbled on a table, and all around the room kids are holding books and reading books. They have spread out sleeping bags and pillows. It's a reading slumber party at school! Two girls have draped coats around a table. "Don't ask!" they tell me as they giggle and crawl underneath.