About First Days...

Many of my dear teacher friends started back to school in the past couple of weeks, and by now, the students have arrived!  I was thinking about how a teacher must always being ready for anything at a moment's notice, especially during those first few days of school! I was reminded of a particularly “interesting” first day in my career…

It was a few years ago, while I was living and teaching in the Phoenix area.  One of the characteristics of summer (we start school in early August, when it is still WELL over 100 degrees most days) is the large number of interesting creepy crawlies that may appear anywhere at any time.

On this particular first day, all the precious little Third Graders had their eyes on me as I told them about the great things we were going to learn and do during the school year.  But I had my eyes on a HUGE cockroach that was inching its way up the back wall, and then across the ceiling.  I knew it could decide to let go and drop onto a student's desk below at any time.  I had to decide whether to ignore it and hope for the best, which could surely result in screaming, running, crying, and general mayhem and unsafe practices, or act like a hero and somehow capture the critter.  Smashing it was out of the question, since we study about those guys in Third Grade science...  So, I told the students to get out their colored pencils, knowing the activity would keep them busy for a brief time...long enough for me to grab a jar from under the sink.  Then, I stood on a child's desk (after saying Excuse Me) and pressed the jar to the ceiling, trapping Mr. Cockroach.  Since I failed to grab something to act as a lid for the jar when I lowered it down, and knowing the unlovely Mr. C could easily get out of there, I was forced to calmly put my hand over the jar.  I smiled as I told the wide-eyed students that this was one of the great science topics we would study, and that I was going to release him out in the bushes near the parking lot, and they were to stay seated.  I accomplished this feat without delay, and then used GOBS of hand sanitizer to get the gross feeling off my hand!  Mission accomplished, we were right back to work without delay -- but my heart was pounding as I considered how the whole thing could have turned out, had I given in to procrastination or not wanting to deal with Mr. C.  Teachers don't get paid nearly enough.  :D

Speaking of always being ready for anything, we are commanded to be ready for our most important task:

2 Timothy 4:1-5 (ESV)

 ¹ “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: ²preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. ³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound^[a] teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. ⁵As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

 Blessings,

Annie