Omni Hotel or 5th Grade...WWYD?

Regan's class had a field trip to the Omni Hotel downtown (they are studying maps and directions) and she was so excited, she really thought she was going to have "The Suite Life of Regan" or something. She liked swimming pool and hot tub on the roof and the suite that they got to see, complete with a bed for me and dad, and a bed for her and Riley to share (yeah, right) and they saw the laundry room, and they got to eat cookies and milk! She wanted me to go with her, and I was about to, but got a last minute call to sub for...5th grade.

I was apprehensive, but as it turned out, I AM smarter than a 5th grader. Maybe barely, but it counts. I was so excited that the afternoon was a Social Studies lesson and that was always one of my favorites, so I was really getting into it. The morning was math and science, which is kind of boring and I probably didn't remember as much about food chains as I needed to to really get anything across, but I handled it. The kids were decent, we had a great discussion in the afternoon when one of the kids grabbed a 9/11 book off the shelf and wanted to ask a bunch of questions about it, the whole class got to talking, and this just seems like a great age, very inquisitive, not quite much of a F-off attitude like most middle and high schoolers, I felt like they were genuinely interested in learning something.

I have been thinking a lot lately about what grade I want to teach when I do go back to school, and I had always before wanted to do early childhood, but the older I get the less I want to wipe snotty noses and tie shoes that have pee all over them. So one of the reasons I wanted to sub was to see which age group was a good fit, and this one was. I really did enjoy it, so I'm putting this on my list. I'm narrowing down my options. Of course, let's hope I don't reach retirement age BEFORE I graduate!!