What do you say?

The kids were really wild today, maybe because the weekend just ended, maybe because of the leftover sugar rush from the Easter candy, who knows.  But wild they were.  By the end of the day I was fairly frustrated because the kids were almost trying not to pay attention, which irritates me to no end.  Regardless, I made it through the day with a good review from my observation, which is always nice.

Then it happened, one of those moments where I honestly thought, "What do I say?!"  A student rushed up to me with about 20 minutes left of school with an extremely concerned look on her face.  In a completely serious and urgent tone she said, "Miss D. Is Santa real?"  I had no clue what to honestly respond to with that.  I didn't want to lie to her but I also didn't know what other kids around her thought so I just brushed it off and said she needed to be focusing on the words work in front of her.  But goodness.  I will not be the person who breaks that reality to her.  I still remember, vividly, the day I heard that Santa and the Easter bunny, and the rest of the troupe weren't real.  I was in AWANA (a youth group through a church) and the pastor was talking about how we shouldn't lie.  He then went on to say how sometimes parents tell lies to their children to make them feel better, like how they lie and say Santa and the Easter bunny are real, but that's still not okay to do because a lie is a lie.  And there I sat.  Just hit by a brick wall with that reality that my parents... my own mom and dad, were Santa, the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny, etc.  Yikes.  I am not having that moment happen for my students in the middle of my class.  :)

Just one more of the millions of things that I couldn't have been prepared for in any teacher education class!