Young Love

Love must be in the air... or the cafeteria food? Either way, it's spreading fast.

1. "Can you BELIEVE IT?!" she said.
"What, SweetiePea?"
"MiniBieber and BlondeGirl just broke up... this is CRAZY!!"

... I looked around the room at the 30 silent kids working on their spelling worksheet... MiniBieber on one side, BlondeGirl on the other.

I couldn't help myself... "When?" I asked.
"Just NOW!" she squealed.

How do you break up with someone from across a room? With your eyes?? It was only an hour ago I had seen MiniBieber and BlondeGirl trying to hold hands on the carpet (is 2nd grade to early for a mini lesson on PDA?).

2. After Science today SweetiePea and her friend jump up off the carpet to tell MiniBieber "just so you know, BlondeGirl doesn't like you anymore."

3. TalkerPants walks up to CutieBoo during Language Arts, puts her arm around her, and says "Don't worry, BraveBoy definitely likes you."

4. The grand finale came this afternoon...

Speed walking from the copy machine to the music room, I mapped out the last details of my Science lesson in my head. We'll talk about metamorphosis and how the caterpillars are now in cocoons... blah blah blah...

I picked my kids up, and we walked around the side of the building to get inside. One of my boys (who I will call TallAndSensitive) came up to me and started chatting. TallAndSensitive has made tremendous academic progress, but what I am most proud of is his turnaround in behavior. This kid used to be a pain in my side... talking ALLLLLLL the time, cracking jokes at inopportune moments and talking back. Now... he's one of my best behaved kids. He participates, asks questions and works hard. Recently, I decided to put him next to two of my lowest students so that he could work with them... he has the patience of of a... teacher?!

Back to this afternoon... once we got to the classroom I asked everyone to go directly to the carpet so we could start our Science lesson. Instead of taking his place on a carpet square, TallAndSensitive decided to sit behind my A-frame whiteboard and sulk. While the other students were discussing caterpillars, I asked TallAndSensitve what was the matter, and if I could do anything to help him feel better.

"I'm just feeling sad," he said.
"Ok, that's totally fine bud, why don't you go over to the Keep Cool Corner and I'll come over to talk in just a second"

A few minutes later, I set my nuggets loose to write about the caterpillars in their Science notebooks. I looked around for TallAndSensitive, but didn't see him immediately. Once I got closer to the Keep Cool Corner I realized he was laying on his back with his head under a desk and his hands covering his face.

"What's the matter bud?!"
"I don't want to tell you," TallAndSensitive whined through his sobs.
"Ok well do you want to tell me when you started feeling sad?"
"...In music class."
"Ok, well do you want to tell me what happened in Music?"
"SassyPants!!"
"Ok bud... what's going on with SassyPants?"
"I can't tell YOU," he said
"Do you have a crush on her?"
"YES! And music class she went like THIS to me" - here he briefly removed his hands from his wet face to make a heart with both hands, then continued to cry.



Only 12 more days until "Friendship Day" - say a prayer.