Picture Day

I have to say right away, that I HATE Picture Day. I do. It's chaotic. The kids are like swarming termites until we take them and then they're silly after we're done. Of course, because we are second graders, our pictures come AFTER recess and AFTER lunch.... (sigh) ... They're still 7 or 8 years old.... I'm tense because I can never take a good picture and more than once I've been told that I don't look anything like my picture in the yearbook.... It's hideous and with the kids all over the place-- it's a nightmare. And yet, I'm still expected to teach. Today in math we looked at area using different sized rectangles. (I actually think the lesson went well but we'll see what makes it into the discussion tomorrow and what doesn't...) But back to the point of the story. So we go into the library to get our pictures taken. (Remember that? It's still the same.) Thank god, the photographer is my favorite. For whatever reason, any time I get a photo from him, I'm just that much happier-- and a bit more recognizable...and he instructs on where to sit on the risers. Yes, you heard me right, we SIT. For the first time in 18 years, I sit to take a class photo. So the facts that I spent considerable time and thought on picking a dress that would flatter me and the 5 minutes I practiced angling my body for my thinnest silhouette was for naught. The steps are perhaps 8 inches apart, and perched on the edge of the step, I feel like I'm kneeling sideways... I do have a dress on, remember?-- Keep those knees together! But I remember not to slouch... and to lift my chin... and to try to smile-- just a little so I don't look so forbidding and..... It turns out okay. We get a thumbnail so we can record the location of each child. But before I do that, I show the students our class photo. They are so happy. They think they look beautiful and they do. My only regret is that posed the way I am, I have my back turned to the student on my left. That, I don't like....

Then we go down the hall to take individual pictures. These are not the yearbook pictures, these are the "Glamour" shots. The photographer comes out and asks me to hand out the name cards to each student and the boys file into the room. I watch from the hallway as I stand with the girls until it is their turn to go in. And something happens as they sit on the floor and pose. All of a sudden, I see my wonderful/terrible students taking their senior pictures in high school. I see James, who still hasn't learned to smile yet, his life has been so hard and he has to work so hard everyday to make it to the next day, trying to come up with a happy thought to make a smile. Then comes Sean who looks just like a sports jock who will always cool but quiet. Mendeleve poses shyly but I can already see the handsome man he will become and know the girls sigh when he walks through the hallway. And on and on it goes...it's crazy! Why am I thinking this and why am I hallucinating!??! Then it's the girls' turn and it happens all over again. Rainey looks like a professional model and I know she's a cheerleader and maybe just a little bit of a snob when her feeelings are hurt, and Maria is too shy to look straight up into the camera and so her photo is taken looking off into the distance, but she is so very beautiful and distant.... Gaye has matured into a wonderful young woman who is so dependable and trustworthy...I find tears running down my cheeks as I watch my students in the future. I know I'm not pyschic so I have no idea where these visions come from except that these children have written their names on my soul and I am that much better of a human for knowing them...