After Today, My Name Might Be Mud

Yes, you heard me right.  After today, my name might be Mud.  Which would be quite apropos, since we've had nothing but rain (and crazy, heavy, driving rain at that) for the last three days.  Some school districts even cancelled school today due to the fact that the rivers are so overfull, flood plains are bursting at the seams, and flood levels are at near-record setting heights.  Part of it has to do with the fact that the ground is already super-saturated from all the rain we've been getting (and I surely hope that the universe is getting MOST of the rain out its system BEFORE the summer gets here) and the other part has to do with the fact that we are under the influence of the full moon.

Yes, my name is probably Mud.

The third graders conducted an experiment today.  They combined glue (a liquid) with soap powder (a solid) and water (another liquid).  We added food coloring for effect.  The product: this cooooool, squishy, gushy, wiggily, jiggly flubber-like substance.  A chemical change took place creating a new material.  Really cool... until the kids started to move around the room (innocently) in order to show one another their technicolor goo.  Bits and pieces got ALL OVER the place.

I really have no one to blame but myself.  You'd think that after 17 years of teaching, and probably 17 years of making this "Magic Mud" (yes, that's a name that I coined myself, and once again, it's apropos), that I would have, well, laid down some ground rules.  Nah... these were third graders.  They could handle it.  Right?!?  Wrong! 

The fact of the matter is, I didn't really care.  They loved the experience.  They had so much fun and they learned a lot as well.  You should have seen the looks on their faces when I told them they could TAKE IT HOME!  It was almost better than winning the lottery, but that's why I do what I do.  After almost an hour of non-stop activity - a flurry of measuring, stirring, mixing, playing, sometimes spilling and in one case almost puking, it was time to clean up.  But by that point, there was very little time left at all.  I collected all 75 pieces of plastic mixing and measuring aparatus (which was now dirty) and all 50 popcicle sticks (hey, I'm frugal), and proceeded to wash it all.

Every once in a while, I would stop to think about the possibility of that magic mud clogging up the sink, but I always tried to flush those thoughts from my mind.  Surely, it wouldn't be the first time that my classroom antics had clogged a school sink, but the custodial reaction to such things is never a pleasant one - especially if it involves them actually doing work! 

I looked around the room.  It looked as if a cyclone had hit. I began to clean and wash and clean some more.  I only hoped that I wasn't slowly clogging the drain up.  I continued to wash.  Phew.  I had finally gotten most of the dishes washed.  I surveyed the room.  There was technicolor goo on the tables and on the floor.  It looked like the Easter Bunny had puked all over the place.  I begged my way out of lunch duty (and on a full moon day, getting out of it is a gift!).  I went down to the custodial office and raised a few eyebrows when I asked for a putty knife.  "You know... a scraper.  I need to scrape some glue off of the tables (and floor, I thought)."  I returned to the classroom.  Scraper in hand.  I got out a rag and some Fantastik OxyPower (the custodians love me, as I do most of my own cleaning) and started cleaning and scraping the tables and the floor.  Before long, I was done.  Tired, but done.

As I surveyed the room, I realized that I would be experincing Groundhog Day tomorrow and Thursday.  Ain't teaching great?  Yes it is... mud and all!