Among my parking lot notes today at school was the following; “Do you want a banana club shirt?”.  The girl had drawn a little box on the bottom of the note with an arrow pointing to it and the words “shirt size” next to it.  This is the same group of girls who formed the “Unicorn Club” earlier this year. They had club meetings, t-shirts they made themselves (I was told I could have one made for $5) and they even created their own theme song and dance routine.  It was quite the thing.  They demonstrated their creation during class.  So now, for whatever reason, it’s now the Banana Club.  Although I was asked by a girl in another class today how I felt about unicorns, so it must still be a thing.

I get asked a lot of interesting questions by my students, with the most asked question being how old I am, to which I answer “158”.  Some believe, some don’t.  Not my problem.  I am also asked about my favorite color, animal, pet, cupcake, and special holiday questions like, what are you doing for Christmas and who’s your fav reindeer?  To which I would answer Blitzen, of course.  Anyway, no question is off limits as evidenced by the young lady who asked when I was having my baby and another who asked if I was a grandma yet.  I think these two should get together and discuss.  The best question I received this week however was, “if you were going to invent a color, what would it be?  It can’t be a color that exists”.  I’m still pondering that one, much more than the question “do you like bananas?”, signed “class clown”.

I wish I had an easy button for the questions I get asked multiple times.  Can I get a drink?  May I go to the bathroom?  They have to “may”.  If they ask “can I” I respond with “I hope so” and send them back to their seat until they figure it out or until they begin to do the bathroom dance, whichever comes first.  (Thanks Dad). Can you open_________? (fill in the blank at lunch time).  Can you tell him/her to leave me alone? Can you tie my shoes?

Then there are the questions about what I know.  “How do you know that?”  How do you sing/play piano so good?”  I don’t do either “good” – these are Kindergartners.  They’re easily fooled.  “Where did you learn all that stuff about the dead guy?”.  It’s called reading and researching and YOU can do it too!  Then I refer them to the media center.

I have fun, or at least pretend to, with all of their questions.  But the payoff is when they ask you something serious because they trust you to answer or help them take care of it.  We’re back to that trusting an adult thing.  And when they can trust you to help them and answer their questions, they know they can trust you to just talk.  Today I had a little one who came in angry and refused to do anything for the entire class.  A lot of times if I don’t “let” them participate they’ll watch the other kids and change their minds about participating.  Not this one – she was hacked off.  Not loud, just quietly smoldering.  When class was over and the others had gone, I sat down with her and told her I noticed she was angry but that we needed to learn to do our jobs even when we’re angry sometimes.  She still wouldn’t look at me, so then I did the teacher thing. “If it happens again it will be not following my directions and I’ll have to send you to another teachers classroom.  I don’t want to do that but you would give me no choice.  I would rather have you in class with me”.

She looked at me and said, I think I want to talk now and proceeded to tell me what had happened right before she came to me.  Not only was she mad but also confused and hurt, her lip quivering while she shared her story.  It was an opportunity for me to help her deal with the problem in a healthier way.  But kids only share the really important things if they trust you, so taking the time to answer the silly questions sometimes pays off.

So I’m pretty sure I will politely decline the invitation to the banana club and the t-shirt.  At the rate they’re going they’ll have many clubs this year and as a poor teacher, I can’t afford both unicorn AND banana t-shirts.  Besides, there will be girl scout cookies later this year and some sweet little thing will bounce in my room with that highly anticipated question, “will you buy some girl scout cookies from me?”  Now, those are the kind of questions I love (and budget for!).