Friday Sparks Day... B-ball with the boys!

ok... so today was my first friday back at work which meant... perry panther purple t-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes. just my style (omit the perry purple). another great thing about friday besides the fact that it well... friday.... is that the upper grade (4/5) have a thing called sparks field day. its basically the last 30 minutes of school.... a time where 5 classes come out on the yard and the teachers set up various stations to play games. the kids get to chose the game they want to play and have fun with all the kids.... non-discriminating opportunity. the "naughty" kids who don't complete their homework, class work, or who are simply "naughty by nature" get to go to detention. In teacher terms, friday field day is to "kill time" because its friday and we are ready for the weekend and have no more energy to teach and detention room is "teacher time off" to clean the room, grade papers.... simply relax and enjoy peace and quiet.

well, today i had the chance to play basketball with some of the 4/5 boys. one thought he was way too good. so, i had to put him in his place. i'm not ashame of that. another boy, this "chubby asian kid with glasses and his pants to his boobs" (yes he really does have them and he is a male... yes, he's 10.... picture that one!). well, he wanted to play so badly, but he didn't know how. me, being the nice, loving, kind, generous teacher encouraged him to play... big mistake. the kid couldn't catch the ball, his glasses kept falling off, he was playing defense when he was suppose to be on offense.... poor kid... how to you help a social outkast like this one? therapy? i thought for sure he had to be hating life, hating basketball, and hated his parents for even thinking of letting him wear those pants.... but, he kept playing. after about 20 minutes of b-ball in the beaming sun (my extent of exercise lately) the bell was about to ring and school was about to be over. this kid walked over to me, shook my hand (which you know i hate ..... germs), and said that was a great game! can you believe it? WOW.... this kid is so easy to please.... the "social loner" had a blast. Thus, to make this long story short.... i just justified why friday sparks day should be a part of state testing for kids. the category should be... interaction... how to get kids to like others even when they don't like them at recess!