Things you hear in school

Well, today was my first day back at school. I am spending a year as an Americorps Reading Tutor in an elementary school. Today I shadowed this awesome teacher. I already knew some of the huge difficulties teachers face but I saw some for real today. Like teachers have to buy their own paper for the copy machine (they get like 2 reams a month but photocopy homework every day for 17-20 kids!). Then I waited in line for 45 minutes to use the copy machine.
The teacher I shadowed today was a paragon of patience. She used her quiet voice and taught kids how to behave with her own actions. When she was frustrated she said, "Ok, I am sad and I am going to take a minute to calm down." She waited a minute or so and all the kids calmed down too, then she repeated her directions. One of the reasons I don't want to be a teacher is I have not mastered this patience yet (I am working on it). The teacher explained it to me later. She had read this book (I don't remember the title but can find out if you want it) about modeling behavior and responding to chaos rather than reacting to chaos. It made me think of Jesus' philosophy of teaching. He listened and cared for people whether it was one or a multitude. I mean people often came running to him in a panic telling him how so and so was sick or dying. The Bible doesn't say, "And Jesus was concerned, started barking out orders to his followers and ran to the scene, then yelled some special prayer and miraculously fixed the problem, then patted himself on the back." No most of the time Jesus was calm, soft-spoken or no spoken. Sometimes he just touched a person, some times he just listened. He always met the persons need in the situation.
Anyway, the opposite of this was one thing I did hear in school today when another teacher understandably lost her patience, "You know you are not supposed to do that! When we get back to the room you move your monkey down!" I covered my mouth so the children would not see me laughing. It reminded me of something I should have learned in Kindergarten: I should work every day to have the right attitude so my monkey, or smiley face, or whatever is up. So, where's your monkey today? If you have to move it down go spend some time with the Savior, he'll teach you how to keep it high!