Bonsai

Pin It I did announcements at my school today.

I do this on occasion, usually when my principal is out of the building.

I’ll be honest here, when it comes to announcements, I pull out all the stops.

I use my ‘Mr. Voice’ Voice—the one I reserve for ComedySportz. I combine this with some rockin’, kickin’, upbeat, get-your-blood-pulsating-in-your-veins-music through the intercom system as I belt out:

“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Amelllllliiiaaaa Eaarrrrhhhheaaarrrtttt Elemmmmmeeennnntttaaarrrrryyyyyyy!”

I’m pretty awesome…well, to kids under the age of twelve.

I usually try to keep things upbeat and pulsing until the end as I announce birthdays, upcoming events, kids who were caught being amazing around the school, and stuff like that…and then I bring it down.

I play some Kenny G.

Okay, maybe not that; however, I kill the tunes and then always try to share a poem or a thought of some type—sometimes something ‘ish’ I’ve written from my blog—but a kid version. This is the time when I encourage the kids to be kind to others and remember that they are teeming with awesomeness. I try to help them remember that they are in charge of the choices they make each day and help them to remember that they need to make good choices—but it is only they can make that choice as an individual.

The message I shared today was about appreciating their teachers. I decided to share this because we had seven or eight teachers out of the building—training up in Salt Lake—and I was thinking of the third to quarter classrooms in our school where substitutes were going to be instructing for the day.

I didn’t want the kids to eat those poor souls alive.

I talked about being appreciative. I told them about writing their teacher a note or having another way to let them know they cared because these people became teachers because they wanted to make a difference.

I told them that their teachers loved them. I let them know that this is why teachers do everything that they do.

I signed off, letting them know that the choice of how they would behave today was theirs, but Mr. Z had all confidence that they would make good choices—after all, each and every single one of them was teeming with awesomeness.

I hung up the intercom. I walked the empty hallways back to my classroom. I reached the door.

When I arrived I saw one of the boys standing just inside the door, looking out the small side window. When he saw me he cried out, “He’s here!” and then vanished back into the classroom.

Puzzled, I opened the door and was greeted with a scream of “Bonsai!” from 28 prepubescent children and found myself practically slammed against the wall from the blunt force impact of the group hug that followed.

How can I not love being a teacher?

Especially when I love them back so much?

* Bonsai is our class' awesomeness yell of the week...heck, it probably will be for the whole year. And, just if you were wondering where it came from, it was mentioned in our Treasures book basal reader and was subsequently a pop culture media reference as well.

Yeah, the kids love it, too...




BTW, Don't forget that this Saturday is Christmas in September...