Charpie's Travels

"Teacher, I have a queez!" Peter announced. " You have a quiz or a question?" I asked. " A queeez. What is one plus one plus one...hundred plus two hundred plus three hundred. Plus fifty-four." So I wrote it all out on the board. It looked more impressive and masked the fact that my brain couldn't handle it otherwise. I wrote the answer, and my kids oohed and aahed.  "Everyone clap!" Peter directed between giggles. The class erupted in applause, and I bowed. Then, Peter "remembered" something. "Oh... where is the rose?" "Or where is a tomato?" one of my loving students suggested. "You need a ring, Peter!" I think this brilliant idea came from Ann. She loves that Peter likes me. Those two spent too much time during the remainder of the day discussing how they'd get a ring for Peter to give me tomorrow.

"Teacher, you wanna hear a news?" Justin asks. "What's your news?" I reply. He doesn't say another word, though. Instead, he springs from his chair, stands straight and stiff, and holds his pencil sideways in front of his chest. Then, he remains motionless except to move the hand that holds the pencil. It slowly "ticks" backward from 3:00 to 12:00.  "BZZZZ!!!"  Justin makes an impressively annoying alarm sound. Peter leaps from his chair and bops Justin on the head. The the noise stops, and Peter sits back down. Justin stands statue-like and pleased, waiting for me to react or tell him to sit down.