More Laughs than a Stack of Comic Books

Teaching 10 year olds makes me laugh harder than imitating You Tube videos, playing Catchphrase with my sisters, or watching a Will Ferrell movie combined.

Not only do my students make silly faces and tell hilarious stories, they tend to shout out ridiculous comments that make scripted lines seem lifeless and phony. They will put rubber pencil grips on the end of their noses during a spelling test, just because. Made-up songs and dances are commonplace at recess. Some are dumb, but some of them are truly funny-bone-tickling.

I'm telling you, 10 year olds know true entertainment.

Just today, I had two double-whammy shout-outs, one so funny that I actually had to quickly step out of the room to take a breath so I could keep my composure.

This morning as we talked about WWII, we were discussing the Allied Powers. I said something about the United Kingdom. One of my girls, a chronic shouter-outer, screams, "I'VE BEEN THERE!!!" I'm pretty sure this particular child hasn't left Greenville county, much less been to Europe, but I decided to humor her. "Wow! Really? When?" I asked politely. "My dad took me when I was little," she said as she nodded for extra emphasis. "Really...hmm...do you remember that long 8 hour plane ride?" I questioned.

"Oh no...we didn't fly," she said assuredly. "He drove us."

Then, later on today, we were discussing the Leaning Tower of Pisa for a reading assignment. I approached the lesson by asking my kids to brainstorm with a partner all the things they already knew about this topic. Then we shared as a class and I wrote their answers on the board. Most of my kids had pretty solid answers, like "It's leaning!" (YES!!) or, "It's in Italy!" One brainiac even explained that it was built on soft soil, which caused it to start tilting. I eavesdropped on someone wondering if Leonardo da Vinci had designed the tower during the brainstorming (which was totally a good guess), so I asked, "Does anyone know who designed the Leaning Tower of Pisa?"

"GEORGE W. BUSH!" my chronic shouter outer shouted.

My kids lost it. I lost it. Even my shouter outer started giggling at herself.

Now I know:
Republicans clearly don't make the best architects.
AND
I need to review the world's oceans and recent political figures.