Score one for the fifth grader...

I love my job.

Granted, it is most likely aging me more rapidly than I would like but I truly enjoy what I do.

Quick example why.

I was discussing some vocabulary with a reading group today. They are reading their way through the novel The River Between Us by Richard Peck. A wonderful novel that my fifth graders are eating up.

We were discussing words like interlocutor, loblolly, petticoat, and coax. Part of our practice in identifying new vocabulary is to discuss synonyms and antonyms of the words in question.

So we were on the word coax. I asked for an antonym of coax. The group paused in thought for a bit then one of my students, totally dead pan, raises her hand and says...

"Some Pepsi."

The group freezes as they look at me...silence...a tumble weed blows through...then she cracks a smile...and then we all laugh for a good five minutes.

I had to give her props. It is not often that a student gets me to laugh so unexpectedly.

Yeah...I really enjoy my job.