Critters

It’s the mailman’s fault.  I blame him, anyway.  The boxes just keep coming.  We are all teaching life science right now in my building, so every few days there is another white box in the hallway marked “Live materials!  Open Immediately!”  I enjoy teaching science, but I have to admit that earth science and physical science are…well, a bit safer for me.

I don’t really like small crawling things.  Small wiggling things.  Small flying things.  Small jumping things.  Even small things that just…are.

I’m trying to be a good sport, really I am.  I am modeling appropriate small critter handling for my students and faithfully observing them daily.  We have science notebooks.  We are caring for the little creatures in our room.  I’ve even grown sort of accustomed to the mealworms (we can live in the same room peacefully as long as we each stay in our respective controlled spaces) and can get them out for the students to observe without cringing.  (And by “get them out”, I mean “take the plastic vials containing the mealworms out of the big bin”.)

My reputation for being a little more reluctant than others to be close and personal with the life science creatures is well known.  (And by ‘well known”, I mean “the other teachers laugh at me a little”.)

But when the door opens during Floor Time and the third grade teacher pops in with a giant bag bubbling with crayfish and tries to hand it to me while laughing hysterically…well then, I may have lost my mind just a little bit!

I’ll be fine.  Just give me a few more minutes, and I’ll be fine.  I may even go back to my classroom.  But for right now, I’m just going to sit in my car all by myself, with the windows up and the doors locked…

Safe.  For the moment.