IF YOU TEACH, CHECK YOUR SELF ESTEEM AT THE DOOR

My morning started out much the same as any other work day--coffee cup dripping, bag of school papers threatening to knock me down, and purse and lunch bag balancing me out on the other side to keep me from falling over--and that was just on the way to my car. But still, I was awake, alive, and happy to be going to do a job that I love.
As I gathered up the students from line before school, one of the little girls in the class I'm subbing in (long term) remarked that she liked my hair (I wore it down for a change), to which I responded a proud thank you! She then asked me if I fixed it that way on purpose, because "her hair looks kind of like mine when she first gets up in the morning and has, you know, bed head".

Strike one for the teacher.

During math class, we were learning to convert length measurements--feet to yards, inches to feet...you get the picture. A conversation ensued about the number of feet/yards in a mile, etc., and that lead to a comment by one little boy about how far they ran in cross country. As we converted miles into feet, I shared with them that I, too, used to run cross country and track in high school--back in the day of the dinosaur. To which my same little friend from this morning commented, "So were you skinny back then?"

Strike two for the teacher.

I'm now sitting at home, hair up in a clip, fat and happy after eating dinner.

Score one for the teacher.