A colleague's story...

She's a new teacher. She started last spring, so this is something like her 4th month of teaching. Before I say more, let me comment that I have never seen anyone walk into a classroom and just plain know what to do like this woman did. She is truly a natural, and has become a good friend, too, as we share a commute.

So anyway, she borrowed my bin of markers for a project her kids are doing. She was walking around, checking on different groups, when she looked up to see all four kids at one table sniffing markers. Holding them up to their noses and inhaling deeply.

Oh my god, this is it, I'm going to get fired, kids are getting high on markers in my room.

Now let me insert here that when she told me which particular four kids were in this group, my reaction was, "Those four are all at the same table???" These are some real wildcards.

She rushed over to the table. Just as she got there, the wildest wildcard of all, a girl who is extremely smart but has a knack for calling out the absolutely most annoying, inappropriate things, looks up at her and says,

It's all right, Ms. Cleopatra, they're fruit flavored!