Journal: 11/23/05

A number of surprising things happened yesterday. First of all, I had a completely unforeseen visit from a girl who transferred out of our school last year before I had a chance to teach her in the 8th grade. I had gotten to know her through some poetry-writing classes I occasionally teach in the lower grades, but I had not heard from her since last June. Then suddenly, yesterday afternoon, she bounded into my classroom. She had come to spend time with some of her old friends, but she sat with me in my classroom for a few minutes and we talked about poetry, popular music, and other things. It was wonderful to see her, and such a surprise. I received another shock when the parent of one of my students informed me that he had purchased a bunch of tickets to see the popular band “Cold Play”, and he had one especially for me! We had talked informally about this many weeks ago, but I had long since forgotten about it. As I talked with this parent, it was amazing to think that I, at the age of 64, would actually be attending a rock concert! Finally, the biggest surprise yesterday was the birthday party my students gave for me. At 2:30, several students came to my classroom asking for help with “participles, gerunds, and hard stuff like that”, as they put it. I realize, looking back, that they were just trying to detain me until another room could be prepared for the party. After a few minutes, a student rushed into my room and said the principal wanted to see me in the library immediately. Suspecting nothing, I walked quickly over to the library, where I was greeted by about 50 students jumping and shouting “Happy birthday!” I was totally shocked – and also totally thrilled. It was a surprising and wonderful finish to a rather astonishing day at school.