Every teacher in secondary world knows that there is one day out of the year when you are guaranteed to see more PDA from children than you would every care to think about. It’s the day I fear the most out of the year because of the giant stuffed animals, chocolates and thorny roses that will inevitably be thrown across the halls, in my room or even make its way to hit me in the face. It’s the day that makes all teachers ready for a nap by lunch and about to scream by the time they leave.
Valentines Day
Only this year, it felt more like the apocalypse. It was on a Friday, during a full moon and a district fun food day all rolled into one satanic PDA covered obstacle course. For those who are blissfuly unaware, a full moon makes children insane. The great ones turn into gremlins, the silly ones give up on all education needs, and the struggling ones who typically work their butts off suddenly feel frisky and dangerous. Yes, I said frisky. They all go insane in the membrane. It’s like the gravitational pull of the moon takes their brains into space and doesn’t give them back until I need therapy.
Then there is Fun Food Day. In the lovely state of Texas, no club or group can sell non-nutritional or district approved food for fundraisers during school hours. The only day they can is on an approved Fun Food Day. This usually falls on an early dismissal day. On those days, they love to get as much candy and junk food (which makes them fart) as they could possibly need. Right when it all starts to hit them, it’s time to go home… because it’s early dismissal.
However, either by fate or punishment, this year it fell on the one and only Valentines Day. All of this rolled together brought on a day that I hope would never happen again. Once they had their Fun Food Friday junk food and candy from all the Valentines Day “love,” they ran like a bunch of hyper kindergarteners to all their classes. It was sort of like…
All I can say is, “Thank the Lord for computer labs.” They had the one thing that kept them distracted for at least 80% of our class together… The internet. I love Edmodo and all of the glory that it has to offer teachers. I made a quiz, a poll and a writing assignment in which they had to research the Red Cross and their efforts towards natural disasters. This kept them working for a while, until they realized again what day it was, then it was all about keeping their hands off each other, their faces out of chocolate and their text messages rated G.
Don’t get me wrong I love Valentines Day when I’m at home. It’s romantic, cute and we always watch the episode of The Office when Jim and Pam get married. I cry every time. 🙂
Here’s to hoping this Valentines Day never repeats itself!
For the Love of ELA 