Teaching in Small Towns

You know you are teaching a rural community when things like this happen... One afternoon, school had been out for about 30 minutes and a little first grader walked into my classroom. He said, "can you help me?" I was surprised to see him because school had been out for so long. I asked him what he was still doing at school. He said, "I went home but forgot my homework, so came back to pick it up" I then inquired what he needed help with. He said, "I can't get back on my horse." I had to stop myself from laughing. Sure enough, when he realized he had forgotten his homework, he hopped on his horse, bareback and rode to school. Then when he went to get back on his horse he couldn't manage. He had been trying for quite some time. I gave him a boost. That was a first for me as a teacher. On another occasion we took first grade classes to see a movie. As we arrived we sent the kids to the restroom. They were taking so much time in there. The movie was getting ready to begin so the teachers went to see what was going on in the bathrooms. The first graders were so amazed by the automatic flushing toilets, water faucets, and paper towel dispensers that they were setting everything off repeatedly. You know something is new and novel when a first grader would rather stay in the bathroom and play than watch a movie.