What Happened To Your Face?

Just as I suspected, when I arrived on campus last Thursday morning the questioning began, from students and faculty alike: "What happened?" "Oh no!" "How did you hurt your face?"

I figured elementary kids didn't want to hear about the ins and outs of middle age and dermatological procedures, so I tried out a couple of different replies. The one that got the best response was "Kids, let this be a lesson to you. Don't ever, EVER try to ride a skateboard in high heels." (Like I ever even walk around in heels, but still.)

By the time 10:00 rolled around and I went to my first grade class to teach writing, I'd scrapped the morning's lesson plans in favor of a prompt. I wrote on the board: "Ms. McQueen was at Cole Park yesterday ..." After having the students read and write that opener, I asked them to brainstorm. I told them to let their imaginations run wild. I told them I didn't want something boring like "and she tripped and fell down." I told them to think big. Think exciting. "So... what do you think happened?" I asked and turned them loose.

Here's a few of my favorite responses from First Grade. (Names have been changed. Slightly.)

Hillary wrote: "Ms. McQueen was at Cole Park on the monkey bars. And she wanted to do it with her eyes closed. Both of her hands didn't get on the monkey bars. Then she got a booboo. Then she got Band-Aids and felt all better."

Amanda wrote: "Ms. McQueen was at Cole Park swinging on the swings and she jumped and fell. She fell on her face. It hurt and she was crying."

Reynaldo wrote: "Ms. McQueen was at Cole Park riding a bike. She fell. It was not good. Her Dad took her bike away. She was sad. Then she got her bike back. And she was happy again."

And here's my favorite one of all, by Jordan. You have to understand, Jordan is the kind of boy who never finishes anything. He's got one of the most rampant cases of AD/HD I've seen yet. By the time most kids have filled up two sides of a paper, Jordan has maybe gotten his first name written down. Maybe. He's just so busy all the time keeping up with what everyone else is doing that he can't seem to ever turn his focus to his own page.

But last Thursday, Jordan was inspired. He kept trying to tell me the story, because he was so excited about it. I just kept saying, "Write it down, Jordan. Write it down."

And here's what he wrote - his longest story all year. "Ms. McQueen was at Cole Park and skating on her skateboard and she slip off her skateboard and she hit her nose and she hit her chin and it hurt it hurt it really really hurt and she was bleedin on her nose and she was bleedin on her chin."

He would have kept going, but we ran out of time.

(Way more interesting than dermatology, don't you think?)