School Walks Lead To Memories!
I live in the vicinity of 3 schools, and this time of year with the weather being nice and school winding down, I see many "walking" field trips to the nearest ice cream place or restaurant. Today I saw two groups of kids, one in the morning, and then one again this afternoon. The kids are well behaved, for what I could tell, and they looked like they were just enjoying the stroll!
The second group of kids belonged to my former 4th grade teacher, Mrs. P. I can't believe she is still teaching, although she is by no means ancient. Actually, I feel like the ancient one! I went to a Catholic grade school, where I still go to church today, and it was only 2 blocks away from where I used to live and live now. Mrs. P. was the first in a series of new teachers I had from 4th grade to 7th. Mrs. P. was a great teacher, but there was soooo much work to do for her class that I started heart palpitations that year. I had to wear a holter monitor for a week, and I was supposed to press the button every time I felt my heart skip a beat. Of course, the button was so darn hard to push, that the test went no where. The results were inconclusive. After school was over for the year, my palpitations started disappearing. It was then that we learned just how much stress can play on your physical well-being!
But, back to Mrs. P. We used to do such fun projects for her class. We were required to do 4 book reports throughout the year. But not just read the book, and write a report. Well, that was the requirement for the first book. The other books, we had to focus on a character, and make a replica of that character. I remember doing Mowgli from The Jungle Book out of cardboard. My mom traced me, and then I drew his face and hair, but we put real shorts on him. For another report, we had to focus on the setting. I did the Emerald City, from The Wizard of Oz. I painted milk cartons green, and used aluminum foil for shiny additions. I know I had 2 other book reports, but I can't remember what I did them on. I'm surprised I even remember what I did for the two I just wrote about!
One of the funniest memories about Mrs. P. (maybe not funny to her!) was the time she pile-drived the statue of Mary in our classroom to the floor. It was an accident, but she was so upset about it! Poor Mary's head broke off. Somehow she was fixed (a little glue, perhaps?), but I guess it was funny because we had never seen a teacher have such a mishap like that before! I think it showed us that teachers were human, too!
So anyway, the walks of school students around this time of year make me smile, but are also a bit nostalgic. I used to try going for walks with my preschool kids when I taught. The building I taught is also a block away from me, so we'd wander my neighborhood. There were times, though, that I am surprised I even made the walk. I was so tired, my heart pounding, no matter how slow I was going. I don't miss those days, in that respect! But I do miss walking with the preschool children and pointing out everything they saw. That was rather cute!
Well now I feel like I'm rambling, so that's enough on school memories and walking!
The second group of kids belonged to my former 4th grade teacher, Mrs. P. I can't believe she is still teaching, although she is by no means ancient. Actually, I feel like the ancient one! I went to a Catholic grade school, where I still go to church today, and it was only 2 blocks away from where I used to live and live now. Mrs. P. was the first in a series of new teachers I had from 4th grade to 7th. Mrs. P. was a great teacher, but there was soooo much work to do for her class that I started heart palpitations that year. I had to wear a holter monitor for a week, and I was supposed to press the button every time I felt my heart skip a beat. Of course, the button was so darn hard to push, that the test went no where. The results were inconclusive. After school was over for the year, my palpitations started disappearing. It was then that we learned just how much stress can play on your physical well-being!
But, back to Mrs. P. We used to do such fun projects for her class. We were required to do 4 book reports throughout the year. But not just read the book, and write a report. Well, that was the requirement for the first book. The other books, we had to focus on a character, and make a replica of that character. I remember doing Mowgli from The Jungle Book out of cardboard. My mom traced me, and then I drew his face and hair, but we put real shorts on him. For another report, we had to focus on the setting. I did the Emerald City, from The Wizard of Oz. I painted milk cartons green, and used aluminum foil for shiny additions. I know I had 2 other book reports, but I can't remember what I did them on. I'm surprised I even remember what I did for the two I just wrote about!
One of the funniest memories about Mrs. P. (maybe not funny to her!) was the time she pile-drived the statue of Mary in our classroom to the floor. It was an accident, but she was so upset about it! Poor Mary's head broke off. Somehow she was fixed (a little glue, perhaps?), but I guess it was funny because we had never seen a teacher have such a mishap like that before! I think it showed us that teachers were human, too!
So anyway, the walks of school students around this time of year make me smile, but are also a bit nostalgic. I used to try going for walks with my preschool kids when I taught. The building I taught is also a block away from me, so we'd wander my neighborhood. There were times, though, that I am surprised I even made the walk. I was so tired, my heart pounding, no matter how slow I was going. I don't miss those days, in that respect! But I do miss walking with the preschool children and pointing out everything they saw. That was rather cute!
Well now I feel like I'm rambling, so that's enough on school memories and walking!
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