My Boys

I teach third grade, and in my class I have eleven boys and eight girls. Some teachers can't stand boys - they're wild, gross, silly and inattentive. I have always loved working with little boys because they're wild, silly, gross, and excited about whatever they're doing. When I was younger, my favorite families to babysit for each had two boys.

I have mostly boys in my class, and while I won't say that they are not a handful, I love them. I have bossy boys, talkative boys, athletic boys, musical boys, silly boys, brash boys and wimpy boys. My boys don't always get along, but when they do, they make me proud. We've all worked hard to create harmony among my boys and that peace is a fragile thing.

I have one boy, David* who tends to be a bit of a bully. He is incredibly smart and sometimes uses that against others. He can be very funny and does have a promising desire to succeed. He is sometimes very mean to his fellow classmates, but he and I have bonded through a common love for animals. I get daily updates on how his dog is doing.

A few months go, we got an aquarium for our classroom. Our first two fish (Navvy and Gator) were named after out school mascot, the Navigator. David was thrilled. One week when he had had great behavior, he got to be our class ichthyologist. He loved feeding and caring for our fishy friends.

Last week I noticed that one of our fish's tail was faded and pale. I told our ichthyologist for the week to go observe him to see how he was doing. After hearing that one of the fish might be sick, David immediately dropped his backpack and ran to the back counter where our aquarium resides. On his way there, he said "What? I gotta check on them. Man, Navvy and Gator - they my boys!"

No, I can't say I'm proud of his brand of English there, but it was hilarious. At least SOMEONE is his "boy," even if it is a tiny fish.