1st Grade Nonsense

Now coming from East Lyme there is not a whole lot of diversity. I believe we had 5, maybe 6, students of African descent/darkened skin/you're still an American in our entire high school - and 2 of them were twins. The elementary school I am working at, on the other hand, is quite different. The minority is clearly those of lighter skin, such as myself. The first day I worked there they all went down the line introducing themselves to me. Now let me tell you there were a lot of names with q's and such. Some of the girls' names: Star, Giselle, LaQuanda... Some of the boys' names: Elahn, DeVON (said with emphasis on the -von), Jose, Dante, Elijah, Enrico, Shaquan, Alberto... annnnd I'm still working on mastering the other 40 kids' names. They're so innocent yet such devils at the same time always trying to get away with what they can the second you turn away.

I was placed in charge of the little runts known as 1st graders the past 2 days. Most of the time I am busy yelling "hey, why are you outta your chair" "Yes, I'll take you to the bathroom" "hey you, tie your shoe" "excuse me I was talking" "keep your hands to yourself" "why did you do that" "hey, where do you think you're going" "you wrote your 4 backwards" "NO" etc etc etc. But the kids really make me laugh thinking they can get away with things, but I, for one, feel fortunate enough to have large eyes that tend to dig into the person staring at them.

For example, without even realizing my eyes had become large (and the light that you shine can be seen, BABAYYYY...cue Seal) this little girl, Raven, says to me ever so slowly and without pronouncing any of her r's, "Miss Elaine, can you never open your eyes that big ever again...they're scary."

And she didn't act up the rest of the time. I win.