All Eyes On Me

So…it has been brought to my attention that I haven’t posted in a bit. And while I’m flattered that you are hanging on my every word (I like to kid myself.), it is hard to think of school related posts when one is not working. Or thinking about working. In fact, denying the fact that one has to work ever again.

Although I haven’t been totally useless all summer. I have had this ongoing project that has drawn many an odd look. Seriously, I have had more people staring at me, whispering about me and giving me really strange looks this summer.

So what am I doing? Walking around topless? No…… Public drunkenness? No……. Picking my nose at restaurants? No…..

I’ve been reading.

(GASP!)

I’ve been reading chapter books from popular children’s series – like Horrible Harry, Jigsaw Jones, Cam Jansen, etc. All the types of books that a second grader might read at school.

I know, shame on me. Working in the summer. I mean, it’s not like I’m getting paid, am I?

Wait, am I?

Anyway, after switching grades last year, I quickly realized that you can’t “skim” an 80-page children’s book and get the gist. After listening to a few students spin fanciful tales that couldn’t possibly be accurate, I knew that I was in trouble. So I furiously started reading the books I assigned my students each week. And considering I had six different guided reading groups, each of whom received their own book each week, that was no small task. Soon, all of the stories started running together and I needed to create my own little cheat sheets on index cards to keep all my characters straight.

To save myself hours of cramming, I decided to leisurely read many of these books over the summer and create more thoughtful cheat sheets. You would think that I was exposing myself in public from the looks I’ve been getting.

There are those people that glance at me quickly and then look back to what they are doing. About five seconds later, it apparently registers that I was reading something with cartoon characters on the front, and they brazenly begin to stare, eyebrow raised, desperately squinting to read the title. These people kind of make me wish I was reading some raunchy porn that would really shock the pants off them. But, alas, I neither have the balls, nor the interest, to carry one of those around.

Then there are those people who look at the book, look at me, look back at the book and then look at me in disgust. I don’t get those people.

And finally, there are the people that look at me, look at the book and then look back at me, eyes filled with pity. The look says,”Oh, you poor dumb thing…good for you! Good for learning how to read at 30! You sound it out, girl! Go ahead…beat the odds!” And then maybe, if I catch their eye, they give me that “Go get ’em” smile. Those people make me laugh.

So, in sum, I am trying to use my summer productively, but sometimes it seems as if everyone is just encouraging me to get back to the couch, pick up a magazine and let it all wait to fall.

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