RachelsAdventure.com

Working at a small school is a lot of fun.  I think one of the things that I appreciate most is the overall sense of “family” that we have.  We all work together to help the students learn and grow into awesome adults.

As an elementary school teacher I spend most of my time with other elementary school teachers and kids...they are so much fun.  I have decided that I really like kids of all ages.  I mean, I couldn’t teach all the grades (I am NOT a kindergarten teacher) but I really love playing/hanging out with all the kids.  Because we spend so much time together, when a new student comes to the school, it doesn’t really matter who’s class they are in…it kinda changes things for all of us. 

Recently Miss Julie (1st and 2nd grade) got two new monkeys.  The new little ones: O. and her brother R. are a lot of fun and I think that little R. has the very best imagination ever.  We’ve been playing variations of the same games at recess for the past 3 months…but little R. comes on the scene and we all get to see the field in a whole new light…through the eyes of a very imaginative little guy.  The other day I was sitting talking with the other teachers (ahem, watching the kids) and R. came running up to us in a state of amazed excitement…he’d found dinosaur bones in the field.  Of course I had to go see these bones for myself.  We’d run passed and skipped over those "bones" a million times and only seen them for what they appear to be...plain old rocks…but little R. still spends most of his time at recess excavating those dinosaur remains.

His creativity and excitement inspired me the other day and I had my kids do a creative writing project about a treasure hidden in the field.  In teams they wrote creative stories about pirates, aliens and even crazy monkeys who came to our school and left secret treasures in our field.  Then each team drew a map of the field that with directions to the secret treasure.  I made treasure boxes and filled them with little goodies from home (thank you everyone who sent little toys and things down…they are already being put to good use!).  Tomorrow my 5th and 6th graders will get to read their stories to the younger kids and then lead them on a treasure hunt during recess. 

I’m so excited because I know the kids are going to have so much fun…and my 5th and 6th graders learned how to write creatively and edit papers without even knowing they were doing it!!!

Little R. and his amazing imagination has challenged me to stop, look around, and see my surroundings with new eyes.  It’s amazing what 3 months in a place will do to you…there are times that I get so caught up in the daily “chores” of life that I miss all the interesting things around me.  Living in Mexico had already dramatically slowed my frantic life, but little R. has challenged me to stop, smell the roses and look for the dinosaur bones.