I Came Home From Work Filthy

I came home from work filthy.  I had dirt under my fingernails and huge black marker smudges on my hands and up my arms.  Forntunately I wore my basic black today so it's not readily apparent how much mud is ground into my clothing. 

There are days when I go to work and can confidently proclaim that there is not enough money on this planet to pay me for what I do.  But today was one of the days when I can lean back and wonder that  they pay me to do this.  I earned a living by playing with dirt and water and sand and chalk to demonstrate weathering and erosion.  What a wonderful mess! 

I fully understand that not everyone gets my point of view.  Another teacher, not a science teacher, heard me saying something about disposing of mud without clogging the sink, and she just shook her head, happy that she didn't have to deal with constant mess of lab work with middle schoolers.  To me, this is the fun part.

Years ago, I left the classroom on my lunch break and returned to find a dozen big plastic storage bins stacked up higher than me, parked next to the window.  Everyone else had received the same.  The powers that be ordered fully loaded science kits for a new text that we didn't know about yet.  The contents?  It depends on who you ask.  To any normal adult, the boxes were clumsy eyesores filled with unrelated crap that nobody knew what to do with.  I didn't know quite what to do with it either, but there I stood like a kid on Christmas morning, sorting wondrously through boxes of Slinkies, plastic trucks, wooden blocks, and a wide assortment of things whose identity I couldn't yet determine.  I was now the proud owner of a dozen Secci Disks, whatever they might be.  (These are patterned disks that can be lowered into water to measure visibility.  You'd be able to spot one in the Caribbean; at the Jersey shore, not so much.)  And sandpaper and little cardboard jewelry boxes, and a whole carton of plastic wrap, aluminum foil, and baggies!  Wow.  You know you're a science teacher when odd supplies are a cause for celebration.