"Each day provides its own gifts." ~Marcus Aurelius
Truer words have probably never been spoken. I assure you that in first grade the "gifts" that the day provides are of a very unique nature. As I am getting close to completing my first year of teaching first grade, there are a lot of things I have learned. They range from expectations that I have for any of my future children in how they will act at school, to realizing how much I have come to care for my students and their success and well-being in life. I have learned how to help daily with headaches, stomachaches, sore fingers, knees, elbows, shoulders, fingers (anything you can think of really)--by the way-- the magical cure to all of these is getting a drink of water. I must have healing water in my drinking fountain, because it works almost every time. :) I have also learned way more than I ever wanted to know about why someone was gone to the bathroom so long. I have learned that I have really good dance moves. I have learned that my relationship status is very important to many of my students, as well as my age, family, pets, breakfast, wardrobe, etc.
I have also learned that I have a very strong dislike for teeth. I hate teeth. I hate the way they look when they are really wiggly, and just hanging on with as much gumption as they can muster (haha, couldn't resist :p). I don't like when my students have their fingers in their mouth constantly trying to get those pearly whites out. I don't like when they come and show me just how loose their tooth is-- it makes me feel just how loose my stomach is becoming. But the absolute worse tooth situation for me is when the pesky little bugger actually comes out. My kiddos get so excited that they will call out in any lesson that their tooth just came out, which causes quite the distraction, or they come right up to me, tooth in hand to show me. My stomach usually does quite the gymnastic routine inside of me and I have to look away and send them to the office as quickly as possible. I hate seeing the little bit of blood on the top of the tooth and the white tooth that already looks less white since falling out. (I'm seriously getting queasy just writing about this)! Well, today must have been my lucky day, because within the first twenty minutes of A-track, I had not one, but two kids lose teeth. Good thing I hadn't had much to eat yet!! They both went to the office to get the little tooth necklaces to hold their teeth inside until they get home. Well the little boy who lost a tooth today also lost one last Friday, and had his necklace confiscated during library because he wouldn't stop playing with it. (The librarian confiscated it and graciously gave it to me to hold on to. Have I mentioned I hate teeth?? I definitely hand-sanitizered up after that). I reminded him to make good choices today with his necklace and he said he would. Less than an hour later as we were finishing up planners, he was literally on his hands and knees in my classroom looking for his tooth on the floor! Ewww! Probably one of my worst nightmares unfolding before my eyes. A tooth is lost in my classroom. That's just about more than I can handle. I called him over to me to explain what was going on. He said that he just opened his necklace to look at his tooth and it was gone. I'm still hoping he decided to open it at recess and just didn't notice that it fell out then. But he searched for a good 15-20 minutes for his tooth, which was never found. I will probably dream about teeth tonight, and about a tooth tree growing in my classroom!
So from this tooth tale, I have learned several things:
1- In my future family, the tooth fairy will have to be of the male variety (aka "dad").
2- Teeth will have to be very well disposed of by the tooth fairy.
3- I should write a children's book called, "The Tooth on the Lose." I'm sure it would be a best-seller. It would probably be a hit for my first graders at the very least.
4- I don't know if I will ever be able to look at teeth the same way again.
5- It is probably a good thing that I didn't go into dentistry. That would have been a rude awakening.
At least I was able to learn from this story, and it wasn't just a painful experience. Until the next tooth tale, goodbye.
