School's Out

I haven’t updated my blog in a while, I’ve been busy. This past Monday I visited my niece’s 6th grade in Chicago and I had a wonderful time. It didn’t dawn on me until early Monday morning that I hadn’t prepared for the visit and instead of panicking I decided to just play it by ear.

My niece Nicole invited me to her class earlier this year and finally the day was upon me. I arrived at the school and my niece and her friend met me downstairs to escort me to the 2nd floor. My daughters are 24 and 29 years old so it’s been a while since I was in an elementary school. It brought back memories of past and I had a long way to go back too (smile).

Nicole’s class size was larger than I expected. I would estimate there were between 25-30 children in the room. Her teacher was quite cordial, after introducing himself and the students; he turned the class over to me. I had flahsbacks of the when I considered teaching as a profession.

I introduced myself and passed a couple of my books around the room for the class to see. They asked questions and the questions were quite articulate for that age group. I was asked which book was my favorite, what were my books about, how long had I been writing, and what inspires me to write. The queries were pretty much what I get from an adult interviewer.

The class journals and I peeped at a few. The students shared their poetry with me and the poems were very nice. I asked the class to share their future plans with me, quite a few want to go into the medical and education fields, and one wanted to become a basketball player and another an actor. One student had a niche for drawing which he shared with me. Quite a few raised their hands when I asked who likes to read and shared with me their favorite genre.

If I inspired one student that day then my visit wasn’t in vain. Room 205 and their teacher made me feel at home. One student asked if I could publish their poetry and I said yes. The teacher will check into that. The class asked for autographs before I departed. I had a delightful time and felt good about the visit.