Charpie's Travels

"Show to Elizabeth teacher!" Ann was whispering, but I still heard her as I entered the other end of the room.  "Oh! Where..." Peter dug through his backpack. Unfortunately, he found what he was looking for.  As we started our morning routine, Peter waited patiently, uncharacteristically calm and quiet. Once we reached a point where I was accepting questions, his hand shot into the air. I stalled, calling on a few others first. Eventually, I had to pick him. "Yes, Peter?" His face cracked into a ridiculous grin and his hand opened to show his prized possession. "RING!!" he shouted. And with that he was out of his chair, charging straight at me. He grabbed my hand and tried to pry apart my fingers.  "Just one time!" he insisted. Maybe I should have played along, but I didn't. Letting this infatuated 6-year old slip a ring on my finger could've haunted me for a long time.  It seems his mom let Peter borrow her sc...

"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.

Peter brought a wooden bead bracelet today. Sometimes he wore it on his wrist, sometimes he wore it like an anklet. It even briefly hung over his entire ear. But most often, he just played with it.  At some point when he should have been in his chair, Peter appeared in front of my face. "Teacher, go like this," he instructed and held out his index finger. I hesitated and then complied. When I did, he slipped his bracelet onto my finger. "Dum dum duh-dum..."  After singing the beginning of The Wedding March, he announced to the class, "Teacher is my bride!"