by Allison Hickman

Created on: March 08, 2008

When I greeted my students at the doorway on their first day school, little did they know it was my first day as well; as a teacher. I shutter when I reminisce about some of the situations that I faced those first few months in the classroom. I can tell an array of different tales about those years; however, one story in particular seems to pop into my mind every once and awhile when I find myself trying to get too much done in a short amount of time.

Coming in to teach at my school as "green" as I was, I didn't know any better than what was presented to me. That fact leads to my class roster for that year. I don't know if it was an initiation test or what, but I look back and realize I had several "unique" students that year. I didn't think that seven more boys than girls would make much difference until I learned what they were capable of.

If they had put as much effort into their school work as they did in their subtle, harmless pranks, they'd all have college degrees by now. One in particular stood out to me. He had buck teeth, a freckled nose and good sense of humor. The poor kid didn't have much upstairs, but he had a good heart and attracted the other boys like flies around a light bulb. As you may have guessed he was the ring leader of the circus clowns. Whether I found paste wedged into the board eraser, or ended up sending them all to the nurse because one by one they each convinced me that they had tried a "funny, little" berry off a bush at recess, it always lead back to "Freckles".

Well, when their first Science Test of the year (and mine) approached, we reviewed, read aloud, and I found myself "cracking down" on them to help them concentrate and focus. "Freckles" didn't like to study so to take up his (and my) time; he would coyly exist by making noises and, on occasion, even practice his pitching skills with a wad of paper. This Science test was especially important, being our first, and I wanted all of them to do well on it, including him. The glimpses of flying paper, ceased there.

I was in a terrible rush the morning of the test trying to figure out which one of two tests from the Science book I was supposed to give to them. They looked just the same to me and copy paper was literally falling off the table in all directions, so I got distracted and just picked one of the two and copied it without double checking.

The startling scream of the bell had sounded by the time I slid into class on the freshly waxed floor. There was "Freckles", book

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