This is the time of the year when I have to step up my game. The kids have grown 3 and 4 inches and are getting to be as tall as me. With the new height comes a new attitude that needs to get fixed quick. So I step up my game and pull out the big girl shoes.  The three inch heels are a definite change from my ballerina flats, gladiator sandals or Chuck Taylors. I am on my feet for up to twelve hours and I never know when I’m going to run across the school to break up a fight. So heels are not an everyday event for Mrs. B. The kids notice.

 Back in the day when Mrs. B was a cute little thing she dreamed of moving to South America and  becoming a model. After ten years of snack time and intense graduate study I have acquired a nerd persona. I’m sure that my glasses, hair that stands on end when I am upset and being the proud owner and wearer of my daily denim shirt collection helped the process along.  My dreams of South America have changed into the ultimate field trip or literature study. Now I live vicariously through the Next Top Model Marathon. So when I wear my big girl shoes I strut.  If Tyra could see me she’d be proud.  

My personalityalso changes with my wardrobe change.  Time has taught me that attitude change is a sign of changes in cognition.  Those kids are thinking differently and I use it as an opportunity to step up my game. The teachable moments increase and I my tone is a little more serious and the expectations increase. We talk about honor and respect and the things we do to maintain the tone in the classroom. In turn they have a respect for the learning opportunities and embrace them.

So today we are reading an article written by Malcom Forbes. Mrs. B is walking around the room as she teaches and reads.  The kids are engaged and high level conversations are taking place. Imaginary t.v. cameras are capturing the moments so audience across the United States can say “Wow I wish I was in that classroom!”  Then it happens.

For anyone watching the movie and seeking to copy the moment I recommend not strutting in big girl shoes and reading at the same time. As the reading becomes more intense and all of us are ooohing I lose it.  You know those moments when you know you are going to fall so you send your arms flailing to try to save yourself.  Yep-that’s what happened.  Leaning back, one leg in the air, my arms flail and I catch myself before I topple on top of a kid.  The amazing thing is the moment came and went so quickly I never lost a beat reading. It was one of those if you didn’t see it you didn’t know the moment existed.

Unfortunately for Mrs. B the kids were giving me their undivided attention. So they saw it. They tried to keep it together, and probably would have if I didn’t go on with the strut. Five steps out of the moment the laughter starts escaping through closed lips.  It was a chorus of rasberries followed by a cacophony of laughter. I smiled while they laughed.  If I didn’t have to keep my cool I would have been rolling with them.  Shoot! That keeping my cool was what got me in trouble in the first place.

Every time we tried to go back to the article a snicker broke out. The lesson was done. For today, those big girl shoes were my undoing.