Basement Stories

When your classroom is in the basement and it is next to the nursery (babies, not plants), and the room is small, and there is no whiteboard (or any board for that matter) and there are not enough desks for the students, and the electrical panel is located in a closet in the room, it sends a pretty clear message to the teacher and to the students. But it becomes the job of the teacher to make sure that message is obfuscated by what happens in that room. And what happens in that room is sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant, and often ridiculous. It is a baby left behind in the nursery at the end of the day. It's a deaf interpreter complaining of bruised thighs because the desks are so close together she can't help banging into them as she walks through the room. Its a student telling me he knows how I feel when I return to the classroom after my mother dies. It is faces I will always remember and names that I never will.

Occasionally, I will leave those stories here

. I hope you enjoy them.