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.

Is there a prayer for Teachers?

Cause I really really needed one today. I know all about separation of Church and State - and I'm okay with it, it makes my life less complicated.

But I need a silent little moment to myself sometimes. I have a few students who get on my nerves. I know I'm supposed to care for all of them equally, but as it has been written on the wall of the barn, All animals are equal - some are more equal than others. Thank you Animal Farm for teaching me these very important lessons in life.

Today I stopped no less than three times in one class. THREE - where I just needed something to get me through the moment. This is almost how it went down -

Me: So today we are going to begin learning MLA format - this will help you with your research paper we are currently writing.
D: What is MLA
Me: MLA stands for the Modern Language Association - a group of people who work to format citations and other formalities of writing.
D: Why do they do that
Me: So we have a consistent way to format papers and writing.
M: So Wait - do they have MLA in France
Me: I'm sure they have something to help them format papers - but we are not in France so it doesn't really matter.
M: oh...
Me: Moving on -

5 Minutes later

D: Wait - I don't get why we're doing this
Me: Well D we will be using this to help us format our papers
D: what papers?

At this point the whole class begins to roll their eyes.

Me: I'm not answering that question
D to his friend: I don't get it.

I have stopped - closed my eyes - and said a little prayer that I might be able to keep my sanity for another 20 minutes until class ended.

Now I am all for asking questions in a classroom - After all I was the kid who was told to Shut-up after asking what the Brazilians were feeling about Nazis moving to their country post WWII. But this situation today was just too much.

Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday - I don't know how much more of that I could take this week.