Mrs. Pearsons class revisited

  Yesterday I subbed in Mrs. Pearson's class in the morning.  I had subbed regularly for them last year and this is a looping class so only 2 students were no longer in her class.  When Andrew saw me he said,"Mr. Pratt my dream came true".  He has always liked me and was hoping I would sub for them this year but they had a student teacher so the chances would be rarer for me.  He gave me a big hug and told me not to tell Mrs. Pearson as he didn't hug her.  All the kids were glad to see me and Justin also gave me a hug.  The day before I was at Sheridan Road for gym class and had many students I had subbed for the year before.  I was introduced to crab soccer and the students did a good job on their warm ups and refereeing the game.  It is still very cold  and Monday I was at Reo and they went outside many in tennis shoes and without hats or gloves but as bad as most were they deserved it.  On Valentines day I was with 5th graders at Grand River and they spent the last hour not watching a movie and exchanging cards and candy.  Phillip sent Jane a dozen roses at work, he was proud of himself showing up his dad who is too cheap.  Histopher or Fluffy or Hister is now a regular at staying inside and he loves running around playing with mice, climbing the pole, and watching TV or just lying on the floor in your way.   Jon came home for the weekend and had no problem driving around the Lake Michigan snow drift corner. 

Old man

   Quite often when I sub for younger children I hear them say "We have a boy teacher today."  On 2/1/07 I had a job at Attwood school teaching kindergarteners. I was preparing for the day in a class that usually had an MSU student helping and the calendar was still set as January.  The students started to come in and I began to see how they moved their stick for lunch choice and I gave them their seat work.  I had about 5 students and one boy was saying the teacher was a grandpa and then asked me if I was.  I told him no and then he asked if I was old, to which I replied some days I feel it.  So as more students trickled in he told them the teacher told us he's old making, me feel this may be one of those days that would make me old.  Ten minutes after class time I had 11 students and tardies should have been in by now, so I found 6 students absent making a very manageable class.  We did the calendar for February and despite Ryan's and some other active students we had a good day even when a twelfth student showed up at 10:00.  The old man label thankfully was soon forgotten.  I also subbed for 2 former students, Kaylee at Windemere View and Taylor at Grand River.  Lukas had an operation for a deviated septum (cartilage in his nose) and except for a couple of bloody noses has been doing well.  The weather the past week has been either near zero or below with wind chills down to -18.  It is the first below 0 temperatures in 2 years and the longest cold spell since before 2000.  Lisa is now a Wickersham as she got married by the Potterville Justice of Peace Friday.  Well the old man shouldn't stay up too late so he can keep up the younger generation.