times like these

Before reading this post, you must know two things:
1.  Today is Friday.
2.  There are 5, count 'em 5, days of school left before summer vacation (and until my sweet, precious, loving fourth graders become too-big-for-their-britches fifth graders)

In addition, today we had a special program led by man who goes by the name of 'Scientist C.'  He brought in lots of hands-on activities for my friends to "explore space" with.
For those of you who haven't been in elementary school in a while here is a little math equation for ya...

                                                                          Friday 
                     summer so close you can taste it 
+ a change your routine for even 5 minutes
                                                     one tired teacher!

Needless to say, my students were (almost literally at one point) bouncing off the walls today.

Feeling a bit defeated after school, I mustered up all the strength I could to drag myself down the hall to the parking lot and into my car so that I could pick up a nutrient-rich, low-calorie, health conscious (**read-something flavorful and fried**) dinner on the way home.
During my drive I had one of those 'why didn't I choose a desk job?' conversations with myself and tried to calculate if I have enough 'sick/personal' days left to start summer vacation a week early.

Once home, I sat down to watch the local news (which never happens-but I was too tired to care, or change the channel), and began to feel even worse.

"local college student being deported for being an illegal immigrant...

crazy, ex-employee demanding job back wielding a machete...

corruption in the police department..."

and just when I was about to change the channel to something a little more, well, upbeat, a story came on about high school students. 

Today, hundreds of high school students across metro Atlanta held (mostly) peaceful protests because of the teacher RIF.

In social studies, my 10 year-old friends and I have been learning about reform.  We were just discussing how people/leaders from our past have helped to encourage people of today to 'fight' for what they believe in.

It was inspirational to see students standing up for their teachers--on a Friday afternoon no less!
Student after student was interviewed about why they were there.  Everyone of them talked about how much their teachers had influenced them and made learning fun.

Amazing.

Sometimes I'm reminded why I don't have 'one of those desk jobs.'