The Mouse in the Room

As a new graduate who just finished his undergrad work, I was ready to  change the world one child at a time. When I finished my student teaching it was in the middle of the school year, so no one was hiring. I was taking sub jobs daily to try to earn some money before applying for a full-time teaching position in the fall. While subbing I got to know a good amount of teachers and they started to request me as their sub. Business was booming and I soon became busy on a daily basis.

While subbing one day I learned of a 2nd grade teacher who was going to be on maternity leave soon and needed a long-term sub for the last three months of the school year. Although I did not have a lot of experience in younger grades I decided to  apply to be her long-term sub. I was thrilled when I got a call informing me that I got the job. It was a huge sigh of relief to know that for two and a half month and I would not have to worry about being woken up at 5:30 in the morning, asking me to fulfill a sub job. Little did I know what excitement was waiting around the corner.

As I started to settle into my new 2nd grade teaching position there were a lot of things I would learn on fly that a textbook just can’t prepare a person for. My first week the teacher left sub plans for me to follow, which allowed me to get to know the students better and not have to worry about the lesson planning. As I got to know my class, I soon realized that many of them came from trouble home lives and backgrounds. I tried to make connections with each of my new students, but that task would prove harder than it seemed.

One day while they were finishing Music class, I heard one of my students shout, “what is that?” As I turned around to look I noticed a little creature eating crumbs off  of the carpet in the classroom. I thought it was a mouse, but was not positive. So very slowly and quietly I went in for a closer look. Sure enough, there it was, a mouse in my classroom! Great! Now what the hell am I going to do? I have 17 second graders getting all riled up and all the theory books  I read in college never told me how to handle a classroom of kids when there’s a mouse in the room.

Guess I’ll have to improvise. As I looked around the room, I noticed that one of the trash cans was still empty because it was early in the day. That really couldn’t work, could it? As I kept looking, it seemed to be my only option at this point so I removed the bag, flipped it upside down and set it on top of the mouse. To my surprise the mouse didn’t try running. He didn’t look spooked at all. He seemed like this was a daily occurrence for him.

After I secured the mouse I sent one of the students to track down the janitor. While we were waiting for him to come take care of the problem, I had two students who were returning from the office. They missed all the commotion and had no idea what was going on. With all the hoopla that was already occurring they came in and of course started to contribute to the madness. Before I could inform them of what just transpired, they decided to figure it out for themselves. All of a sudden I heard, “why is the garbage can upside down?” He picked it up, flipped it over and it landed right on top of the mouse. I mean why wouldn’t it have, right? What the hell is going on, and why is this happening to me right now. Couldn’t I at least have a few years or even days of experience before being launched into this kind of excitement.

As he flipped over the garbage, my life began running in slow motion. I began to yell, “don’t touch the garbage can!” It was too late. He flipped it up and dropped it right on top of the little mouse. I expected to see the little mouse dart out from underneath the can, but instead it just sat there. As I approached it, I reached for the can to set it back on top, but it didn’t move. I gently tapped it with the side of the can and quickly realized that it was DEAD! Are you kidding me? What else could happen today? I figured the day could only go up from here. Well, I quickly realized I was still riding this avalanche until I reached the valley.

The students started yelling, “Why isn’t it moving? Did he kill it?” Others in the classroom started crying because the mouse was dead. At this point the janitor finally arrived and made a quick disposal of the mouse and we were off to start math class and finish the rest of our day.

Alright, glad that’s behind us, let’s get to math class. That was wishful thinking. I had to spend the next twenty minutes of class comforting the kids and making sure they knew it was going to be alright. Then we were finally able to start math and the rest of the day would be smooth sailing compared to this, or so I thought

After lunch I received a phone call from the principal. She informed me that students stopped down at her office when they finished eating lunch and explained what happened in the morning. Oh, Great! this must look wonderful. My first week and I’m already getting a call from the principal. She informed me that supposedly one of the students told her that he brought the mouse to school and it was his pet from home. You have got to be kidding me! He brought his mouse from home? What have I gotten myself into? Is this really the profession that I’ve chosen?

The principal ended up spending the majority of the afternoon trying to sort through the morning incident. After she had all the facts and made phone calls home to the student’s parents, it turned out that the student claiming the mouse to be his, didn’t even have a pet mouse. He was just mad at the other student for killing the mouse. Crisis adverted! Welcome to teaching! If I could handle this, I could handle whatever else would be thrown my way. Right?

Lesson: Don’t let students keep snacks in their desks and never dispose of anything in their presence!