Envy Me Away~

I want to share something that happened to me today. I appreciate your indulgence in reading it:

I have to tell you. I fell in love today.

And it's one of the reasons why I know that I am the luckiest man on the planet--love has a way of pointing that out to you.

As the year winds down at school, there are all manner of assessments that need to be completed in order to encapsulate 180 days or so of instruction. Between everything else I do, I help out with this ritual when and where I'm needed.

Presently, I am assisting a long-term substitute in one of our Kindergarten classes with the oral part of the fourth marking period math assessments. They are designed to be given one-on-one and can be a bit time consuming even for a seasoned teacher.

The children all know me, and still I try to make it fun for them. After all being summoned to my little office one at a time must feel somewhere between special and terrifying for a 5/6 year old.

So, today I walked each child through an assessment of their ability to count that involved starting at a random number and counting forward accurately to a set point greater than 1 but less than 100. I tell them that we are going to play a game and then explain the task calling the end number the "Magic Number." I tell them that when they make it to the magic number, I'll say, "stop!"

Well into the activity, Matilda's (not her real name) opportunity came. She was so shy at first, but she quickly caught on and did fine. By the third round she was sparkling with anticipation. And when I presented the final challenge, she burst into giggles and announced, "I hope the magic number is 100!"

I don't care who you are. I don't care what you do. I am the luckiest man. Of all the men in all the world, I am the luckiest.