The Joys of Teaching

Long story short, today my students had an additional piece of paper to put in their books. Using glue with any elementary aged student is risky, that's why I chose to use tape. Keep in mind that this is my youngest class so I wanted to keep it safe. I handed each student a piece of tape with the paper and hovered over them to make sure they attached it correctly. Everyone did it perfectly, except for one student. His name is Joy (hence the title) and he's quite the fire cracker. I actually put the paper in his book for him, but he of course took it right off and put the tape over his mouth. At first I didn't mind because it kept him quiet for awhile, but then it was all downhill from there.

I turned my back for literally two seconds and heard, "teachaaa, teachaaa, Joy!" I turned around and saw a glue stick appear out of thin air straight into his hands. Surprisingly, he handled the glue very well. He spread it onto the back of his paper and placed the paper back into his book. Ok, that wasn't too bad. Until I saw him put the cap back on and noticed he didn't roll down the glue stick so it went all over the cap, desk, hands, etc. Staying calm, I handed him some tissue and directed him straight to the bathroom to wash up.

After a few minutes, he frolicked back into class, I double checked that his hands were clean, and I continued on with the lesson. The reason why I'm writing this post is because of the part coming up... Joy used his glue stick like chapstick! It's true. Before I could stop him he took the glue stick out of his bag and spread it all over his lips. That's not exactly what I would use to cure chapped lips and last I checked, glue isn't part of a nutritious diet.

Oh, Joy, it was quite a sticky situation.*

*I blame four years of forensics sales speeches on my cheesy puns. I know you love them.