Five on Friday: Best Quotes from the School Tour Season

Teaching is a career I had considered but didn't pursue. Being a tour guide provides me with the opportunity to work with kids and get them excited about learning, which is something I really enjoy.

I never have to lesson plan or grade papers. I also get a brand new crop of kids every day (twice a day, usually, with how the schedule works) and I never know what to expect out of them. 

Now that the season is wrapping up, it's the perfect time to look back on the most memorable moments with kids this year:

1. I'm not sure why, but I've had more than one kid comment on my hair--I don't think it's that unusual? I'm not sure what's so fascinating about it to them. This year, a young boy asked me repeatedly if my hair was a wig. He was 100% serious and I eventually bent down to let him tug at it which was a bit of mistake since he pulled kind of hard, but at least he stopped asking me after that.

2. While walking from one building to the next . . .

Second grader: “Have you seen Back to the Future?”

Me: “Heck yeah!”

Him: “They could film Back to the Future Four here with the Mill and the Blacksmith shop and everything. Just saying.”

Me: “You might be on to something. I’ll write to Hollywood.”

Him: “It’d only cost 30 grand.”

3. In the schoolhouse, one of the 5th graders wrote "YEET" on his slate board. I asked him if he could tell me what it means, since my own kids can't seem to define it.

"Well, it means . . . it means yeet."

Yeah, that's what my kids said too. Thanks for the clarification, kid.

Only picture of the school house I have, my daughter and me in a photo taken for a special event

4. First graders are the worst when it comes to wildly raising their hands to ask a question that turns out to be a comment along the lines of "My cousin? She went on vacation? And this year I'm going with her."

It makes it very hard to keep the tour on track. So when I was explaining that the double turbine water wheel actually generated electricity for the town in the early 1900s and got a wild hand-raiser, I almost didn't call on him. 

But I did and he asked, "Isn't electricity and water not supposed to go together??"

I was not expecting that at all. Had to take a few seconds and then admit, "Well. Yes."

5.  The best kid quote of the season, by far: 

"That was an excellent learning trip and I can't believe my teacher spent so much time on the phone missing it."

Ah, out of the mouths of babes. Maybe that teacher needs to brush up on my tips for chaperones before coming back next year . . .