P is for precious.......

          

Pumpkins

Playing with a Puppy

Or just simply Playing

Presents for Mother's Day

Pots for Mommy to put plants in

Pretty Princess

and

Prayer

May today be all you need it to be. May the Peace of God and the freshness of the Holy Spirit rest in your thoughts, rule in your dreams tonight, and conquer all your fears. May God manifest himself today in ways you have never experienced before. May your joys be fulfilled, your dreams be closer, and your prayers be answered. I pray for peace, healing, health, happiness, prosperity, joy, true and undying love for God.

 This is my Prayer for each and every one of you who reads this on Alphabet Thursday and P day!!!

My class shares a bathroom with the kindergarten class next door which means the doors on both sides need to be locked....and then unlocked. In the event that someone forgets to unlock one side, the next nearest bathroom is down the hall. For a kindergartner or ahem.. teacher, who suddenly realizes that they waited just a tad too long to go to the bathroom, the distance can be excruciating!!! 

Today, while I was talking to my assistant, I opened the bathroom door on our side only to find that it was already occupied. I don't know who was more surprised...me or the little boy from next door! "Hey" he yelled as he desperately attempted to hide himself "somebody is in here!!!" I quickly closed the door and told him that I hadn't realized he was in there since the door on our side was unlocked.  Bless his heart, I remember once when I had the same thing happen to me........

 

In one  elementary school I worked in about twelve years ago, we had a single restroom in each kindergarten classroom. I don't have to explain  to anyone who has been a kindergarten teacher why this arrangement works better. Kindergartners get so wrapped up in what they are doing that they have been known to take flight in the middle of an activity when they realize that nature calls. There were no locks on the doors so that a child wouldn't accidentally lock themselves in.

One afternoon, right after my assistant had taken our  students out for recess, I decided to slip into the restroom since I had a few minutes to myself. I had been in there all of ten seconds when someone began pushing the door open. They pushed hard!!!!  I yelled "Hey! Wait a minute! Someone is in here!" and pushed back with all my might. A child in my classroom, who I will refer to as D, yelled back "Well, move over! I gotta go bad!"  Evidently he had waited until he couldn't wait any longer before running back into the classroom. We continued to have a shoving match with the door. Can you picture a teacher desperately trying to put herself back together while trying to keep a five year old out who just as desperately wants to get in? It wasn't a pretty picture.  After that, I always managed to wait until I got to the faculty lounge before I used the facilities.

  When I accidentally walked in on the poor little guy today, I know just how he felt!



On a side note, my blogging buddy Shell at Things I Can't Say has a precious little boy named Mason who is in a baby contest. If you are so inclined, she would love it if you would go and vote for him. It is really easy...you just click where she shows you to or click on his name .....and voila! He is Mason Samuel and he is on the fifth row.

Back in the seventies, our local paper developed a program that encouraged the use of newspapers in the schools. Like many of my colleagues, I was anxious to give it a try when I heard about it and began incorporating it into my instruction. I really liked all of the different reading strategies it gave me and I could really tell that my students benefited from the program.  One day our Principal proudly announced in a faculty meeting that the Editor in Chief of the paper would be coming to observe the program in our school. He would be bringing  along a photographer and a  reporter. I was honored  to learn that I was one of the teachers my Principal selected for our  visitors to see.

The day was set for the visitors to come along with our school superintendent and a school board member. We were all really excited to have all of these visitors of distinction coming to our school.  On the day they were scheduled to come, I was beginning to think that perhaps they had changed their minds. Then, about an hour before the last bell  for dismissal rang, in came the visitors escorted by my proud Principal.

As he was talking to the editor, the secretary made an announcement over the intercom. She announced to the Principal "Mr. L...., your strippers are here!" I had to chew on the insides of my mouth to keep from laughing out loud.  I watched the poor man squirm red-faced as he faced the shocked expressions of our guests. He hurriedly excused  himself and made his way to the office. I continued teaching the lesson while the photographer snapped away. The superintendent introduced me to the editor and we talked for a few minutes before they left. I looked around for my assistant and found her literally crying from laughter in the back of the room.

Later, we found out that the men who had come from the Central Office to strip the wax off the lobby floor had arrived and the Principal had told the secretary to be sure to page him as soon as they got there. Well, you have to give her credit for following directions! She had been a school secretary for forty years so I am certain it never dawned on her how her announcement might have sounded.

I have attached a picture from a newspaper clipping taken that very day by the photographer! I bet you never dreamed life in an elementary school could be so exciting! Can you remember a time when you experienced an innocent innuendo?