Recess Duty

This is the sole reason I wanted to teach, recess duty on a blustery, chilling, cloudless day, yummy fun BECAUSE when a child comes up with a problem you are happy to help just to give you a distraction from the crappy weather.

So here goes my first encounter on duty:

"Mrs. B you need to go and talk to Student B. He's out there on the kickball field and he's bossing people around, like saying 'Good try, loser' and then he's saying bad words."

Me: "What bad word is he saying?"

"I can't say it, but I can spell it, f - u -r - e"

So I turn to the teacher whom I am replacing and go "FURE?"

She says,"I think he said S U R E"

Me: "Did Student B say 'sure'?"

Student: "No! I just can't say the word, my parents won't let me say it and I can't spell it either. It starts with an S."

Other teacher: "Would this be a word that you say to someone if they are bad at something?"

He nods his head yes.

So we both now know, he meant SUCK.

So I head off to prevent Student B from sucking the life out of everyone playing kickball and realizing that I have a tad more work to do with this guy who evidently could hear the S and U in suck, but not the CK.(All good teachers do assessments on the fly like this; making the most of our time!)

Just as a little final note to this excursion to the ball field, I call out Student B, ask him if he is calling people losers, etc. (I didn't say or spell for him, I wasn't sure of his talent in this area either.) Surprise, surprise he denied it! Then here's the current trend in children today: pout, refuse to talk, look mean, speak in a rude voice, and almost stomp when you walk away.

I happen to have a talent for shaking things up.

Then I get back to my post and two of my girls come get me, very excited -

"Mrs. B, Mrs. B come look, come look, we've found deer tracks."

So I cinch my hood more attractively around my head and follow them to the field.

"See" as they point to the ground.

Me: "Where?"

"Right here, and here, and here. There have been a lot of deer here."

It's all I can do to not laugh out loud, they are pointing to the aeration of the ground holes, with the plugs all over, like every five inches. That's a helluvalot of deer. I hated to break their scientific discovery, but it did keep me entertained for three more minutes.

And then, thank you heaven above...the bell rang.