Through an unexpected series of mostly-positive events, I will be leaving the classroom at the end of May.  I am posting memories I want to keep about my time spent in education.  This is one of them.I teach young children who are at that place in their life where their eyes are opening and they are at the very beginning of comprehending the awesomeness that is our world.  I have clocked many hours sitting with children, reading non-fiction texts.  I know when their OMG moment is going to happen.  Their finger starts darting around on the page or they reread a sentence or interrupt me mid-sentence.  Their eyes are huge and their body is tensed up… I hear something like “WHOA, MRS. H, DID YOU KNOW THAT?!?”  Then, they repeat the fact and are rendered speechless for a few seconds.  Key- a few seconds.  Quickly, they are on to the next Most Amazing Thing Ever.  I always say I would love to see the Grand Canyon for the first time as an adult or fly in an airplane for the first time again just to see what that awe feels like.  I’ll settle for having lived it vicariously through my students on a weekly basis.

I want to list some of my favorite facts I have watched my students learn over the years.  The caps reflect the OMG-ness of my students’ voices as they reported out the facts to me.

*A SUN JELLYFISH CAN BE 100 FEET LONG!

*A BIRD SPIDER IS BIG ENOUGH TO EAT BIRDS!

*THERE ARE 20,000 TYPES OF BUTTERFLIES!

*IT IS 238,900 MILES FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON!

*THERE IS A FROG THAT IS BLUE AND IT CAN KILL YOU IF YOU EAT IT! (Because that is a possibility- accidentally eating a blue frog.)

*WHEN KRAKATOA ERUPTED, IT MADE THE LOUDEST SOUND EVER.  PEOPLE COULD HEAR IT FROM 3,000 MILES AWAY!

*DECAGON, NUFF SAID.

*YOU HAVE HAIR IN YOUR EAR THAT HELPS YOU HEAR!

I should add that I have made a career working mainly with children who have not been afforded the opportunities that many of us have had.  So,  just through the course of teaching a reading lesson, I’ve introduced them to a lot.  I know I still get to show my own children all these amazing facts but I will miss seeing how astonishing the world can be through my students’ eyes.  I want to remember their exuberance.