No Normal Day is a Normal day in Teaching.

 I walked into school today thinking it would be just another day in teaching. Te thing I love about teaching, and yet sometimes forget about teaching is, there is never just "another day in teaching." Seriously. I love my job. In fact, I think that the chaos and randomness is part of what keeps me sane. I don't mean because the weirdness feel normal or even the fact that I am NEVER sure what to expect minute to minute.
I mean teaching is a career where you have to invest much of yourself. I also mean that when it comes to teaching teenagers, there is NO normal. Today in fact was a fie example of that:

a. I checked my teacher box to find a letter from a former parent. She sent me a thank you note telling me what an inspiration I am and a newspaper article. She said the article made her think of me, "World's Best Teacher." ( Tears ensue...and the article was great too.)

b. ONE of my hours 2 teenagers got into a serious discussion about the fact that Student A said Chester Cheetah was (matter of fact) Black. Student B was impressed.
A: Hey you know that Cheeto guy? Chester Cheetah?
B. Yeah.
A: He be black.
B. Wow. I didn't know that.

c. During the quietest classes, while testing,the room next door to my room broke out into song. They sang "Happy Birthday" to their teacher... my class, paused and then we all laughed in unison. Thankfully it was in fact my fact one of my more tactful classes who didn't miss a beat. They did ask if they were that loud when they were doing non-school type things. I informed them that freshman are always that loud.

d. Randomly I had a class try to argue about the election last night. Here's the real problem with that: a. they are 14-15 and do not research anything outside of twitter or instagram b. they are naive and ignorant to what is really happening in the world and actually had a panic attack yesterday when one of them told another that Romney was trying to outlaw weave.... yes, fake hair, c. I am a firm believer that my right to secret ballot is protected and that I have the right to vote as my morals lead me.

e. I asked my students (as a bonus) how old a person had to be to be able to be elected Prez. Answers varied from 18-200. LOL.

f. One student brought me leftovers for my lunch. :)

g. One student borrowed 50 cents to pay for his/her lunch.

h. the foreign language club hosted a "Talk with an Accent Day" where students paid money, got to wear fake mustaches and talk with an accent. : { D

g. I told my students I was breaking a large grammar test into two different tests, which would be taken 1/2 Wed and the other 1/2 Fri. There were/are review days before each test. A couple students thanked me for giving 2 tests in a week. The sound of children thanking me for testing them made me giggle.

h. I was hugged by approx. 30 different kids today, and I work in a high school.

There is no typical day for me. I will  live to be very very old if the rumor about laughter making you live longer is true though.