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| I guess I am the designated face painter |
We went to Marymount U., an ironically Catholic University close by that hosts a huge Halloween event, filled with scary dorm hallways, game booths, trick or treating, pizza, and a lot of crying girls in costume(dorms too scary). I was permanently attached to, and therefore forced to protect, three brave young souls- a "Pajama Girl", Mouse, and ...Princess, was it? They underestimated the amount of terror young Catholic (male) college students could pack into a strobe lit but otherwise completely pitch black hallway. We made it three steps before they retreated in tears. It was actually a very successful field trip and I enjoyed it throughly.
I haven't talked a lot about this part of my job, but I'm in the schools twice a week- Tues and Thurs mornings at Campbell Elementary. Here are two very interesting conversations I had with two different fourth grade boys today:
Me: What do you want to be when you grow up?
4th Grade Boy: I dunno, like a bad guy or something.
Me: What do you mean?
Boy: Like a bank robber.
Me: !! But you'll go to jail and won't have any family!
Boy: Yeah but I'll be rich!
4th Grade Boy: I dunno, like a bad guy or something.
Me: What do you mean?
Boy: Like a bank robber.
Me: !! But you'll go to jail and won't have any family!
Boy: Yeah but I'll be rich!
4th Grade Boy: Your name is Erin. Not Mrs. Erin...
because you're not married, right?
Me: Right.
Boy: Why aren't you married?
Me: I feel too young.
Boy: How old are you?
Me: 24.
Boy: (with a SHOCKED expression!) WHHAAAAT! That's so old to get married. My mom got married when she was 19!
Me: Too young for me. When do you want to be married?
Boy: 19!!!
I like going into the school because of the structure that is nearly impossible to match in the after-school realm, which is always a circus. And it completely and drastically reinforces my belief that being a classroom teacher is one of the most challenging careers out there... speaking of which, our organization went on a field trip to see this:
It was really powerful & really depressing. I cried a lot. I would recommend it.
We also went on a team-building retreat at 7 in the morning to Front Royal, VA. It was BEAUTIFUL to see fall that way. We climbed through spiderwebs and bonded and you know I was in such heaven in the whole mushy experience of getting to know my coworkers and uppers.
What else?
Work is challenging. The ratio is not perfect, as it never seems to be in any environment working with children. We have several challenging behaviors that I wish I could tackle one-on-one all the time, Camp Starfish style, but the truth is, I really don't have the time for that. Or much of anything. I don't know. Maybe I do-- but it seems overwhelming at times.
Truly, though, I love my job and the experience here is more than I could have asked for. Sometimes it's just hard waking up and knowing what I need to "get through" on a daily basis. The kids are really special though. I'm in the process of making a CD for one 5th grade boy who is particularly close to my heart (He requested to hear some songs he said he heard weeks ago on YouTube and hasn't been able to hear since). Yesterday we sang Bulls on Parade together!
OH, and another thing. In order to get my team to read for the whole 20 minutes today, efficiently, I told them that if they could do it, we could listen to "Dynamite" (an appropriate mainstream rap song) and have a dance break. We did! It was glorious.
Erin
