I awoke to the sound of rain falling on my roof and on the windows. My Mom was not even here yet and I knew it was going to be another long, hard day! Getting me out of my bed was difficult but of course my Mom managed! Sean was making eggs for all of us as I washed my hands and drank my morning Kiefer. Sean makes excellent eggs! Every time I eat his eggs, I tell him how my Dad was so good at making omelettes! Sean makes the best scrambled eggs! As my Mom and Sean sat at the table eating their eggs and I sat close to the table because my wheelchair is too high to allow me to sit at the table and with my feet are extended outward but I sat close to them.
I had a really good view out my kitchen window of my backyard. It was gloomy and raining! I knew I was NOT going to feel well today! As I ate my delicious eggs, I thought back to a picture that my friend and former colleague shared on her story on Facebook. She took her class to the Detroit Zoo! I commented with three hearts! As I looked out the window, I thought of the time that I took my kids (students) to the Detroit Zoo!
It was cold and gloomy and rainy on the day I took them. It was so unfortunate because the day before and the day after were beautiful but NOT the day my kids were at the zoo! I taught a novel to my class (It was my second or third year teaching and I still taught English back then) and somehow I was able to tie in a cross curricular, “Butterfly Project” and the zoo trip with my kids based on the novel. I only taught that novel one year but it was quite a memorable one with lots of fond memories!
I will have to re-read that book, it was, Surviving the Applewhites because I can no longer clearly remember the storyline or the characters. I know I showed the movie, The Sound of Music as well. I remember having so much fun with that entire unit! I’m pretty sure my kids had fun too! When I started the unit off, my cousinT, Shannon came to my classroom and painted butterflies on the three windows of my classroom.
I thought about that zoo trip all day today trying to remember what I had done probably about 11 or 12 years ago. I appreciated that rather than focusing on how badly my body hurt, I was trying to remember fondness from that trip! I remember that I had a scavenger hunt for the kids to complete and a big part of that trip was indoors at the butterfly house (more tie-in to the novel). I remembered that I had pizza ordered and delivered right to the zoo. I also remember being so obtuse that I forgot to bring paper plates with us!
My kids were so great though! I remember telling them in the pavilion where we are eating that they looked so cute with their pink faces because it was pretty cold and how the pizza they held in their hands (no plates remember) was going to warm them up. A number of kids made sure to tell me of an indoor museum part that had a cicada shell in a little glass box on the wall with gales of laughter! I had told them about how I was scarred from my childhood when my brothers would constantly throw cicada shells at me And on my head!
I have constantly been thinking about seeing a student in a hood walking to the bus completely soaking wet from the rain. I apologized to him and he just simply said to me, “Beats being in school.“ I remember apologizing to all my kids and they still liked the zoo trip!
I have so many fond memories from teaching, English, as the Reading Specialist, and with my colleagues. Some of them I taught with for my full 12 years there! Somehow, those fond memories of teaching are keeping me warm during this horrific weather! Those kids have to be 24 or 25 years old by now and I wonder if they still remember that rainy zoo trip?! I know I do! Those memories helped me get through today!