Detective Teacher

Have you ever had to do anything crazy? Have you ever had a mystery as a teacher that you’ve had to figure out? Sometimes I wonder if I watch too many detective shows (CSI, Murdoch Mysteries, Bones, etc…). I’m always fascinated by the way detectives are able to figure things out. What is even more interesting is that Evidence and Investigation is also a unit in Grade 6 Science. So I’m able to share my fascination with my students.

While camping this week, I had a series of unfortunate events that caused me to practice some detective skills. And without sharing any specific names or details as to the people that were involved, here is the story:

Tuesday afternoon, we come back from afternoon field studies, and one of my students had lotion all over her sleeping bag. So I cleaned it off, and figured it was just a prank (doors to the cabins don’t lock the best).

Tuesday evening, when we returned from the evening activity, there was lotion on another student’s bed and blue handprints on our door. Then the 6 girls in my cabin started plotting ways to catch who it was. They were checking fingerprints, thinking of places to hide and catch them, etc… It was a JOB to get them to sleep that night.

Wednesday morning, I assumed nothing would happen during breakfast, but low and behold, there was toothpaste on a girl’s bed AND MY BED/PILLOW. I didn’t react though, because I had it dropped in my ear by that point that somebody thought one of my cabin girls was doing it, and I figured if it was, then reacting by anger would not get me the results I wanted. So I played it off like it was no big deal, and listened to the plans the girls told me I should do to figure it out (hiding on the top bunk, pretending to sleep during afternoon field studies, etc…).

We went to lunch, and of course came back to water on two of the girls’ beds. One soaking the sleeping bag, one just on the mattress. So I began thinking without telling the girls.

Once they left for afternoon field studies, I knew I had to hide somewhere that nobody had talked about, especially if it was one of my own girls. So I swept out the concrete floor the best I could (it’s so dirty), packed my large and small suitcase (it was packing day anyways so I figured it wouldn’t be suspicious), strategically placed them where I thought I would be most easily seen, and hid as close to the wall under the bed as I could. Throughout the hour and 15 minutes, my arm went numb, the floor was cold/dirty, but I knew I had to do what I could to catch whoever was doing this.

At one point, one of my girls ran in and was asking if I was in the room. So I whispered to her that I was under the bed (I knew it wasn’t this girl) and she told me she figured out that whoever did the blue handprints had to have gone to a certain field study that day because it’s the only place that had the blue chalk (the kids are divided up into study groups for the week and get through 2 stations a day). I told her thanks for figuring that out, and reminded her not to tell anyone where I was.

About 5 minutes after she left, the door opened again, and another one of the girls came in asking if anyone was there. She then jumped up on all of the bunk beds to check to see if I was hiding there (as they told me I should do). Thankfully, she didn’t think to check under the beds! I was basically holding my breath, I was so nervous she would see me. She then went over to her bag, took out one of her permanent markers, and wrote the word “STUPID” on her own mattress, and quickly ran out the door. I didn’t stop her in the act and instead waited to see what she did after she had left.

As I was getting out and saw what she had done, the girl that had originally come in to show me the chalk said that she had just seen the other girl leave, and wanted to know if anything happened. I quickly told her yes and showed it to her, and she came up with the brilliant idea of pretending that nobody had seen anything and going to tell her that something else had happened. And wouldn’t ya know, the girl who did it was like, “Something else happened? What happened?” And I just calmly smiled at her and told her she could go look if she wanted, and continued to walk over to where the other teacher from my school was to discuss how I should approach the whole situation.

I’m telling you, the things we, as teachers, have to do sometimes!

Do you have any interesting stories, any ways you’ve had to discover something going on in your classroom or on a trip? I would love to hear them! Leave your story in the comments below!

Week 7 Day 1

Today was a miserable day. We had to wake all too early, my girls didn’t even want to get up. The kids were tired from playing the night before, and yet games started at 9:00 a.m. with breakfast at 7:30 a.m. The poor kids. And to make it completely make it terrible the temperature was completely freezing, and it snowed, wet snow. The kids were tired, soaked, freezing, and the wind made it the worst it could get.

Our students actually made it to semi-finals. But we assured them that if they decided to quit, they would not be letting us down. I mean the weather condition was about the worst it could get. But our kids were troopers, playing through injuries, sliding on the ground, and shivering all the while. Until it got to a point that two of our good players couldn’t run anymore, and they finally understood they would not be letting us down if they quit. So they forfeited, and came inside. Some of the kids even had skin that was turning purple. I sent them immediately to warm up in sauna that was in the locker rooms. The kids were completely done and it wasn’t worth it anymore.

After the kids finished packing up and left, I actually ended up staying at a friend’s house because our staff had meetings in the same location the next day, so it wasn’t worth driving home for the night then driving back. Of course, this was just another day I didn’t see my husband, but we both rather I be safe, especially with the snow on the road.

I had an excellent night with my friend. Of course, those handy meals were still super helpful. But I did splurge and went out for supper with my friend to a restaurant I had never been to before. I had a salad and some Greek appetizers that I split with her. It was very, very good. But I did notice how full I felt afterwards. A little too full.

My friend had not been at the gym in quite awhile, and so I volunteered to go and train her. I didn’t get much of my own workout done, unfortunately, but I was able to show her many exercises for the different body parts so that she could know of some things to do while I was gone. I had so much fun training her!

I thought I had gone to bed at a fairly decent time, until her husband came home. I’ve known them both since high school, so of course I had to say hello to him. I didn’t quite expect it to turn into a few hours of talking about football, but it did. And so it was another very late night.

Week 6 Day 7

So my mother started texting me at 4:00 a.m. My students woke up at 5:00 a.m. And despite any effort to make them go back to sleep, they were wide awake. And so, my girls were showered, dressed, hair and everything done and ready for church by 6:30 a.m. And yet breakfast wasn’t until 8:00 a.m. and church service not until 10:30 a.m. They spent a lot of time singing praises to God and even got compliments on sounding like a heavenly choir. I was so impressed.

Now the boys were a different story. They did not get up until much later. And although I turned on the lights at 7:15 a.m. so that they wouldn’t miss breakfast, I got yelled at to turn them back off. Oops. All in good fun though!

Following the church service that was held for us, we ate lunch (again, so thankful I had my meals prepared so that I could say no to the meal they had). However, what I didn’t expect was that I’d miss the activities for the next few hours.

We discovered a problem that had occurred between two students and it was immediately deemed that one student had to leave. Of course, upon hearing he would have to leave, he decided to make a run for it. I HATE running, more than I could ever explain to you. Not to mention running through brush and over hills. No need for a workout today. I got my cardio in for sure!

After everything was taken care of and settled back down, we were getting ready to play football in the town on their professional field. The kids played so well, even despite some unfair calls that were made, but that’s a different story. The problem was how cold it got. I had stopped and gotten snacks and hot chocolate for the students for later as even I was literally freezing watching the games.

We left the field at 11:30 p.m. (can you tell how long of a day this was for me?). The students were debriefed when we got back to the gym, they were thankful I had gotten snacks, and spent the rest of the night celebrating and having fun. After we sent them to bed and made sure they were all in bed, we went over to the weightroom and had a little fun workout session of our own. We kept checking in on the students who were of course tired and went to sleep very quickly. Following our workout, we sat around eating before bed. Again, couldn’t have done this without my pre-made meals. Thank you so much Fresh Fit Foods!

It was a late night of going to bed around 2:00 a.m., especially exhausted from already running so much today. But I was never more happy to see my sleeping bag on the floor, no matter how uncomfortable it was.

Week 6 Day 6

This morning was a bit of a rush, trying to get the downpayment for my Invisalign paid, trying to pick up a parcel from the Post Office, trying to get laundry done, trying to pack for the trip, trying to get the bed freshly made and the bedroom cleaned, trying to clean the bathroom, trying to make it on time to my chiropractor appointment, and trying to make sure all the extras, such as my food and vitamins and everything were all in order. I didn’t even get to the dishes like I wanted to! Ah! There is not enough time in a day.

I drove my own car down to the tournament while the rest of the students and the male sponsor (our P.E. teacher) went on the bus. We set up in the gymnasium where the girls slept on the stage and the boys slept on the gym floor below. There was only a drop down curtain on the stage to separate us. And the floor was less than comfortable.

There were only a few introductory activities that evening before everyone was sent to bed, but the kids were too excited to sleep right away and so eventually, they settled down and we were all to bed.

I did manage to get my workout in this morning, somehow. In fact, it was the first thing I did to make sure I got it in. Again, I did 3 circuits with a focus on back and biceps. I finished with 25 minutes of cardio.

And can I just say, having those pre-made meals made it so easy for me to say no to the supper they held for us at this event, and made it so convenient to have the fridge and microwave at my anytime access in the building we were sleeping. I don’t think I would have been able to stay on track otherwise! I may think about pre-ordering my food again when anticipating a trip away.