Heartstings

"It's opener there, in the wide open air.  Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you.  And when things start to happen, don't worry, don't stew, just go right along and you'll start happening too!" - Dr. Seuss

Somedays, things start to happen and I roll right along.  But some days, I feel like a brand new teacher, lost and "hung up in a prickly perch."  Today was the former.  Today was a great day!  It was just one of those days when things all went quite well.

This morning, before many of you were even beginning to hit the snooze button, I was dissecting the heart of a lamb.  We have been studying healthy eating, muscles and the heart over the last few weeks, and today the kids got to see what a real heart looked like.  I must admit, I was a tad nervous.  No, I'm sorry, that was a lie, I was very nervous.  What if I cut it open the wrong way?  What if I can't identify the right things on the heart?  What if a kid throws up in the classroom?  What if I faint (I'm not known to have the toughest stomach)?

It went great!  And it was really very interesting!  The heart, probably about the size of my students' hearts, was actually pretty straight-forward and simple.  We could easily find the arteries that carried blood to the body and to the lungs.  We found the atriums and the ventricles where the blood is pumped through.  Students even helped to identify which side of the heart pumped blood throughout the body and which pumped blood to the lungs based on which part of the muscle felt thicker.  The students were able to feel the fatty part of the heart and could quickly grasp why fatty foods are not good for them.  The fat felt nearly as hard as a rock, which is obviously more difficult to squeeze and pump.  

I thought of putting the photo of the heart on the blog, but in case any of you are as queasy as I am, I'll just share these bits of the heart that the students felt.  In this plastic glove, on the far left is the muscle from the right side of the heart which is rather thin because it just pumps blood to the lungs.  The middle bit is from the left side of the heart, a much thicker muscle.  The white bit is the fatty bit, a much tougher piece.

And deep inside the heart, I'm sure doctors would call them tendons of sorts, I saw heartstrings.  Thick, string-like fibers along the interior of your heart, the part of your heart that I have no doubt tightens when you see someone you love or when you hear something that seems to penetrate you heart and soul.

My lessons went well this afternoon.  I felt like my kids made some wonderful progress in the stories they are writing and in double-digit subtraction.  I was able to work with individual students and I even saw a few light-bulbs go off, which is always the sign of a wonderful day.

And then this evening, those heartstrings I found today, were tugged on once again.  I got a call from a very special kid this afternoon, a former student of mine who could always make me laugh and bring a smile to my face.  And since it was a Facetime call, that meant, I could see his smile too!  We talked about our usual topics (catfish, chocolate cake and grits), he made me laugh with his silly faces and told me about his football team.  I even had the pleasure of talking to some of the amazing teachers and friends at my home school.

I know that somedays, like Alexander, I'll have a terrible, horrible, no good kind of days.  But today was an amazing, fantastic, all good kind of day, and right now there are peanut butter cookies in the oven.  Could there ever be a bad day with that smell wafting through the room?