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When you're a teacher, especially of Kindergarten students, your adult interactions are pretty limited during the day. Sometimes, that drives you crazy, but other times it's a relief.
Today it was a relief.
We're doing a wonderful Wizard of Oz unit as our end of torture...I mean testing...celebration. We've read two different versions of the story and watched the original movie.
This morning the students walked into a building that had yellow paper rolled down the hallway so they could follow the yellow brick road to their class.
There were laughs and looks of surprise from the kids as I crossed arms with two other teachers and skipped down the hall singing,"We're off to see the Wizard." One of my students even declared, "Ms. Brown has gone crazy!"
We spent the morning discussing the traits of fairy tales ~ magic, royalty, mean characters, the mistreated underdog, the rewards for goodness and living happily ever after. We talked about what we would wish for if we could click our heels together ~ going to California, going to a Chili's restaurant, having a million dollars, having a lot of candy, being on Splash Mountain, eating ice cream everyday.
OK, the ice cream wish was mine, but you've got to admit it's a pretty good one!
It wasn't until school ended that I heard about Boston and what happened there.
It's been eight years since I was last in Boston. It's a beautiful city with amazingly wonderful people. We were there in early June and it was obvious that we were tourist. The locals were enjoying what was warm weather to them ~ We were wearing sweat shirts and missing the Miami sunshine. There was more than one occasion where we stood on the sidewalk trying to decide which direction we needed to walk in order to reach our destination. We didn't stand there for long, because each time someone stopped and asked if we were lost or if we needed directions and each time they smiled and told us to enjoy our visit.
I love Miami, but I don't think our tourist always receive that kind of welcome.
So, today, I was grateful that I was cut off from adult interaction and news reports. I am glad that I was able to spend a few extra hours in my fairy tale world before the real world came crashing through.
I hope my students have been spared from the news so that they fall to sleep with thoughts of fairy tales and living happily ever after.
My friend Carla shared this picture/prayer on Facebook earlier today. I'm not sure who created it, but it expresses my hopes for Boston wonderfully...
