zzzzz

The class stops and turns. There are a few students who start to giggle. They turn to look back at me and I am staring at the child who has fallen asleep - his head is down the paper that was supposed to have notes all over it was blank, and I continue to look in hopes that he will feel my eyes sending lasers* into his brain to wake him up.

So he wakes up but when I ask if he had a good little nap he says "I wasn't sleeping - I just dropped my highlighter."

Oh pumpkin. That's a cute little lie and I'm sure you are embarrassed that you fell asleep in class but let's be real for a moment. You were asleep - It's not the first time you fell asleep this week (he continued to catch some zzzzs three different times before the class was over). I feel bad for a split second - but then I think about the fact that I too would love to catch a moment of sleep - Hi who doesn't love a nap. EVERYONE loves a nap. But I can't sleep during class.
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It makes me remember my first year teaching and the kid who slept every day of class. I think that kid ended my class having a 12%. I don't even begin to understand how that happens. He came to class everyday - he was always at school - but did nothing while he was there.

He sat in the back of the room, and slept. He the first thing he would do is comb out his hair. He had big hair. One day I got mad. I was so amazed that someone would not want the amazing education that I was handing out. So I yelled to the back of the room - Hey WAKE UP - he raised his head and said that he didn't have a pencil so he couldn't do his work. So I got a pencil and tossed it towards the back row. By the time my helpful little pencil had gotten to the back row the child's head was back on the desk and so the pencil lodged itself in his huge hair. He didn't know it - but the rest of the class was laughing so hard that he had to figure out why. That and I freaked out that I might have possibly hurt the kid. No worries - the kid was not harmed.

I know that kids will continue to fall asleep in class and I will continue to try and keep them awake with my amazing teaching skills. Or maybe just my loud voice.

*I don't really have lasers in my eyes - I don't know that I would really want them because I never want to hurt a kid. But maybe if I could move without making a sound so I could just stand there and wait for them to wake up. That would be great.