Why I need 4-hour naps

I know I need more sleep than the average person, but this year even more so. By Friday night I'm exhausted. Which is why I slept 9 hours last night and took a 4-hour nap this afternoon! It's no wonder I'm physically, mentally, and emotionally drained by the end of the week when I look back at how much energy each day requires of me. (I could never handle an actual high-stress job!)

These are some of the humorous interruptions during class this week (not counting the many I either forgot or didn't find humorous!).

Yesterday at the end of lunch time, I noticed that one of the boys had filled his plastic sandwich bags from his lunch with air. I had just directed him to sit in his seat quietly, so I decided to ignore the bags until they became a problem. We soon all proceeded to the carpet for read aloud time. This boy was sitting beside my rocking chair with a gleeful look on his face. Much to his disappointment, I immediately noticed the two bags that he had strategically placed behind and underneath my rocking chair. He was hoping for an explosion.

And then there are the countless random responses when I call on students thinking they have an answer or a relevant question. Here are a few examples all from this week:

• "My sister scratched me this morning." 
• "There was a guy whose stomach exploded because he ate too many pop rocks and soda."
• "I like snow."
• "Look, I made an Egyptian person out of my pencil grip and cap eraser." 
• "Can I go take a nap in the health room?" 
• After dotting his Math homework with his pencil: "My paper has chicken pox!" 
• After I said we should pray for the Elijah play they'll be performing on Monday (Lord, give me extra energy on Monday!): "The Elijah play isn't sick." 
• "What happens if you cut off a person's left side?" Me: "What?" Student: Repeats question Me: "Does this have to do with Math? We don't have time for this..." Student: "They're all right." 

And then there was the hand sanitizer incident. Those of you who know me know that I’m a “germophobe,” which is why I have a bottle of hand sanitizer next to the tissues and instruct my students on the first day of school to use it whenever they blow their nose or whenever they cough or sneeze in their hands.  (I have to say, my class has been very healthy this year!)  Every now and then, the sanitizer is misused, as can be expected with third graders, but for the most part they are good about using it. 

Yesterday one boy asked me what happened to the hand sanitizer. I didn't know, so I asked the class if anyone knew what happened to it. I expected the usual answer for something like this: “We don’t know!” But no, not my class. This was our conversation: 

Students: “It’s probably in the dumpster.”

Me: “What?” 

“Yeah, it fell into the trash can.”

“Well why didn't someone dig it out?!”

“Because our bus was leaving.” 

“Oh, so it’s still in the trash can?”

“No, this happened a few days ago.” 

At which point, I threw up my hands and said, “Why didn’t anyone tell me?!” 

I think I'll go sleep some more.