A Red-Letter Day in the Classroom

posted by jakevest on 11th, 2010

First off, let me remind you that there is no such thing as a secret among 10-year-olds. When they are trying to pull something, it is written all over them.

I knew something was up when, casually, during math practice, one little girl asked “by the way, speaking of perimeter and area, what is your shirt size?” Another brought up the same subject during social studies….the textile industry, I believe.

During reading, we were looking at an illustration. “That’s a nice shirt that woman is wearing,” one student said. “If you were going to get a shirt like that, what size would you get?”

Of course there were other oh-so subtle hints. Like when the three students came up to the door where I was standing and said “don’t ask us what is going to happen on Friday because we can’t tell you…IT’S A SECRET!” And then ran giggling off.

Girls began to ask permission to “go visit a teacher” or “go to the nurse” and also began to go to the restroom in groups of four. Then the boys began to go in groups.

When the boys start doing that together, SOMETHING is up.

Still, with all that warning, what happened on Wednesday still caught me a little bit by surprise. When the ringleaders came charging out of the restroom yelling “SURPRISE!” my first words were “you’ve all been saying the surprise was Friday!”

“Yeah, but we couldn’t wait.”

It was a Minneola Mustang T-Shirt that had been signed by all the kids in class. They were giving it to me as a Valentine’s Day gift and had declared Tuesday to be “Mr. Vest Day.” The shirt was purchased with “good behavior” tickets, a currency the kids can use to purchase toys and gifts for themselves as part of a Positive Behavior System. They had taken up a collection of their tickets and passed up their trinkets to get this shirt.

It is too late for me to get Rookie Teacher of the Year. There is about as much chance of me ever being Teacher of the Year as there is of me becoming Secretary of Agriculture. I won’t be around this profession long enough to ever be a principal or vice-principal and I may not be around this world long enough to see what is to become of the kids I try to teach.

I may not be going anywhere…but on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2010, I arrived.

By the way, the shirt didn’t fit.

But that doesn’t matter. This one won’t be worn for yard work or running…it’s going to be hanging on the wall.