Happy Turkey Day, readers!

Thanks to the teachers,

who are trying to get those kindergarteners to stop poking each other and just listen from their spot on the rug,

who are herding cats and also first graders,

who are listening to second grade Jenna tattle on second grade Anthony, and trying to figure out how to protect Jenna from her own best impulses,

who are trying to figure out the new Common Core third-grade math so they can teach version #253 of the New Math,

who are helping fourth graders who are not sure if they want to be independent yet but don’t want to be treated like a little kid either,

who are surprised by the fifth-grade feistiness popping up in this latest crop of students, some of whom are beginning to believe they are ready to run their own classrooms,

and to all the teachers of older children, children who keep smiling down at their laps at smart phones that they then slip between their legs to hide. Who me? Phone? No way!

These are challenging times, but also fun times. I love to watch those kids with the phones when I ask them to stand up. So many kids, so many stories, so much need for a guiding hand and for a loving lesson plan…

To those who are having a rough holiday, I hope you will take comfort in the children you have helped and sheltered. Many of our kids live in a helter-skelter world, and your volcano lesson or field trip to the Nature Preserve may have been a high point of their year.

Hugs to all.