Make a difference in education. It is ironic because the former colleague I am writing about today sent me a message earlier. It was like a message from above to go ahead and tell this story.
While teaching kindergarten. I met a new friend. She was and is an awesome teacher. Many of you probably remember in kindergarten learning about dinosaurs. Their were many, and some of them were nice dinosaurs, and some of them not as much. The one you probably remember is t-rex. The mean dinosaur that was fierce and had teeth for days. He would eat the nice dinosaurs. Of course, in todays climate I do not know if this is socially acceptable with millennials, but to a country boy who grew up hunting it was awesome.
As the story goes, my friend began to teach her lessons about dinosaurs. While teaching, one particular student would get up and run around. Creeping around as if he was going to pounce on a dinosaur. When redirected he would often seem confused as to why he was suppose to conform. Now, this is not unusual in kindergarten. Many students have not been to daycare, let alone preschool. So it is a learning experience for all students coming into kindergarten. It usually dissipates shortly after the students learn the rules and become acclimated to the environment. Best practices encourages modeling and redirecting as a tool to help students to understand what is acceptable. As luck would have it, this student was an exception.
The student would not only run around, but he would make noises and hold his hand to his chest as if he were a t-rex. His tenacity of her jungle themed room matched is personality well. My friend quickly nicknamed him, t-rex. Please, stop and imagine vines hanging from the ceiling and stuffed animals galore. Can you picture a human t-rex running around ready to devour his pray? As with any great teacher not many things surprise you or affect you. All walks of life enter the doors of a school, but to have a t-rex is rare. T-rex was not only equipped to make noises, and hold his hands up similar to a real t-rex ,but he also had a special quality that placed him in a new category. At nap time t-rex would throw poo! Yes, I said poo! One day he went running around holding his hand to his chest throwing poo, remember this is a true story. I am no genius, but I cannot recall my teacher describing a real t-rex as a poo thrower. Of course anyone would be mortified, but not her. She calmly got him to stop. This was her daily life, and as any good teacher does she continued working hard to help him progress.
After school it was quiet the story. I thought my body bowling, shaving cream eating, push pin poking students were a sight, but t-rex topped them all. I am sure she is not the only teacher in the world with a poo thrower, but their cannot be many. So when visiting a kindergarten classroom, beware, their could be a lurking t-rex who is ready to throw poo at you. Make a difference in education.
Please forgive any spelling and grammar mistakes. I was a title student :).
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