November 4, 2018: Just what I wanted to see...

This morning, one of my students came into the classroom and told me that he had to put special medicine in his hair at home because his mom found bugs in it.

This is on the list of worst things you can hear from your students.  It's right next to "I woke up today and my eye was pink for no reason and my mom said it was probably ok, so I still came to school."

I called the school nurse and she said she would do a head check for the whole class but that she couldn't get to it until after lunch.  Wanting to keep the bugs at bay, but not wanting to shame the poor kiddo who may be hosting them, I told the students that our school had to wash all the pillows and beanbags in the room because they accidentally got chemicals on them (best I could come up with on short notice) so we couldn't put our heads on anything while reading or working throughout the day.  They didn't seem to think this was a big idea.  Win!  Then I put my hair up in a tight ponytail and got to work.

Partway through the morning, I began to give individual reading tests to the kids.  When I test a student, I wear this big crab hat.  Lots of teachers use a "not now" necklace.  When they put it on, it indicates to the other students in the classroom that the teacher is unavailable at the moment.  In first grade, a huge crab shaped hat is a little more effective than a simple necklace.  My kids LOVE when I wear the hat and they all make sure I wear it when I work with them.  No exceptions.  I was wearing this hat today, and took it off in between students.  When I came back, I saw that my kid took the liberty of "surprising" me by having it on his own head.   Not the day for this little surprise, buddy.  I can't even remember the lame excuse I tried to come up with to explain why I couldn't wear it now when I had just been wearing it moments before...