Get Joy

I stayed away from this blog for awhile. I don't exactly know why. But the other night I was out with a friend and I said something about having a tough academic year last year and she said, "Yeah, I could kinda tell from your blog." I had already been thinking about my need to revise the teaching plan this year. I'm moving away from some of the politics and moving back toward the fun and enjoyment of teaching.

I was thinking about my first year of teaching. It was a BEAST, for sure, but I had so much fun with the students. I remember that year fondly, already forgetting about the mounds of papers I would bring home to correct on the weekend, the lack of grade level support, and the "figure it out as you go along" predicament of many first year teachers. Anyway, I want to enjoy my job as much as possible again. Kids are so entertaining and many of them really have the desire to learn.

So, today in my 4th and 5th grade class we were starting to read about the presidential candidates and ended up talking for awhile about the upcoming election. I don't know if the kids were stalling so they wouldn't have to read, but we had a rich discussion. They had great questions about who gets to vote, how the government makes decisions, why non-citizens can't vote, etc. One boy asked if poor people could vote. Another student asked what happens if the election ends in a tie. We decided that the candidates should just do "rock, paper, scissors" (a.k.a. roshambo) to determine the winner. (I guess they could do best two out of three, if that seems more presidential.) Finally, a girl asked if her grandpa's 90 year old tortoise could vote. I'm pretty sure she was kidding, but, I thought to myself, hey, if we recently had a monkey for a president, why can't a tortoise vote?