Pants on the Ground

I worked in my classroom on Monday putting all the books away, but then was stuck at home on Tuesday while our new windows were put in at our house. I am so excited about my new windows and actually being able to open them let fresh air in. (I bought a foreclosure house about 4 years ago before I got married. My parents and I remodeled the whole thing, but we never replaced the old windows. You will have to check out my family blog to see the transformation.) On Wednesday, I went back up to the school to do the dreaded organizing. I get a little OCD so things have to be perfect before school starts. Then we got an e-mail from our principal stating that the floors were going to be waxed in the halls starting Thursday so not to come to school until we hear from her again. So now I am stuck at the house working on things here. I keep reminding myself that I have over a month before school starts and usually all of this stuff gets done during the two weeks before school. I just want to make good use of this extra time we have so that I can be ready to roll when school starts. 

On a side note, I wanted to share a funny thing that happened to me on Friday when I was putting things back where they belong in the classroom. We have all heard the song "Pants on the Ground" made popular by that crazy guy on American Idol. Well, last year I had problems with a few of my boys wanting to let their pants hang. They thought it was the cool thing to do, and they knew it got on my nerves. Every time I would correct them and make them pull their pants up, they would sing the song to me. We got a good laugh about it throughout the year, and they eventually only let their pants hang when they wanted to make me laugh. On Friday when I was going through my stuffed animals that I have, I found this:

I can only guess which of the three boys did this, and I am not sure why I didn't notice this when I was packing my classroom up. I can't wait till I see them so I can ask them. I got a huge laugh, and it brought back lots of memories of the year and the progress these boys made both academically and socially. They truly will be three of the students that I always remember. Of course, my OCD kicked in, and I had to change it to this:

Do you have kids that make a lasting impact in your mind? Why do certain kids stick out more than others? I think it's important for teachers to remember that the kids are always watching and sometimes we are the only positive role models they have.