Because I am the world’s most fun teacher, I decided to incubate eggs once again in the classroom. My “spirited” class was very excited for this magical event. And as time went on, the more excited they became about the arrival of the chicks. And the more excited they became, the more nervous I got. I do this every time . . . the worrying about whether or not anything will hatch. In the past, the other classes I did this with weren’t as excited about the coming chicks. But this class was 100% in.
To add to my worry, I realized I had possibly put the eggs wrong side up in the incubator. Because although I like to pretend like I am a farm and ranch gal, I clearly am not. AND THEN when I came into the classroom one morning, the incubator was about 15 degrees colder than it should have been. The horror.
Me to David: But, David! If you think about it, in nature, maybe a mama hen would leave her nest for a few minutes to get food and then get distracted and not come back for several hours, but still return to her nest . . . and those chicks might survive, right? Hmmm? RIGHT?
David (not really caring one bit for my incubation woes): Sure.
The eggs were supposed to hatch on Wednesday. But they didn’t. We went to home group Wednesday night and I had the audacity to ask my home group gal pals to pray for my incubation woes.
“I know it is silly, but WE NEEEEEEEEEEEEEED THIS, this class and I. It has been a year. And they are so “lively” and “challenging” and it is almost MAY and we are still working on when we should be calm and quiet and WE ALL NEED TO READ and write and not talk when the teacher is talking and it has been A year, my friends, and we just need this. This year has been so hard. And they are so excited.”
Dramatic, much? So on Thursday I came into my classroom all hopeful-like, and nothing. I waited until about 1:30, and when still nothing had happened, we had “the talk.”
And the talk involved discussions about the word “perseverance” and what would scientist do if the first time they tried something they failed? And my spirited class and I came up with a plan on how we could try again. We would put new eggs in the incubator the next week, make a few changes, and see if we could hatch an egg.
Later that evening, I told David about our talk.
David: Wow. You are like teaching them life lessons and about the real world. You are not just teaching them reading and math? Huh.
Me: You really have no idea what my day is like, do you?
But I digress. So I had the talk with my students Thursday at 1:30 . And I took them to their special and came back to my classroom for prep. As I was working, I heard chirping.
CHIRPING! I KID YOU NOT! Mere minutes after I told the kids they were most likely not going to hatch. Because, remember, I like to pretend like I know what I am doing, but we all know, I do not.
The chick was not hatched out Thursday afternoon. When I came in Friday morning, the boys and I walked into my classroom just as a chick was hatching. But, alas. It was not the Thursday afternoon hatching chick. That chick died mid hatch. Because it is a cruel world. This was a new chick. After this one hatched, part of the shell was kinda stuck to him/her for awhile. Teacher friends were peeking in and asking me why, and I acted like it was all good, but truly, I had no idea if it was all good.
So the kids came, and were all so excited. The chick survived the day and everyone got their picture taken with the chick. And I am glad I don’t have to start the incubation process all over again.
The kiddos decided we should name the chick, SuperChick, because he was able to survive even after being so cold.
Teach spirited children about the life cycle of a chicken . . . Check.
My favorite part about doing this in the classroom is the hilarious questions I get from teacher friends who are as clueless as I am about all things farm and ranchy. I mean, I know more now, because I am living the dream and all, but it is sure funny to answer their quandaries.
Friend: So how do you know which eggs are fertilized? Do you watch and see which ones the rooster sprays?
Me: Um, no.
***
Handsome Dude got his own dog for his birthday.
He named her Abbie and he is doing quite well with her. She seems to fit in to our family great so far! She is a two year old black lab.
Happy Sunday!
Brave woman! The first grade teacher does some hatching occasionally and goes through the same fretting that you experienced. I have done the hatching and the fretting before and think that our next Science unit will be plants….harder to kill. I am not science-y and rely on a cool website to teach it for me.
I love your stories ?
I was feeling all stressed reading this. SO glad you got your happy ending with a live chick! Your boy looks like all is right with the world. Nothing like a boy and his dog.
So. You only had two eggs to hatch into chicks??? Hmmm. I thought you would have had about 10 eggs for a whole grade school class to watch over and admire. Congratulations on having a chick to keep the class company for a while!!
Thrilling, isn’t it, when your husband realizes that you’re not doing just one or two things at a time, but many!
I have decided that giving them to us or bringing live things into the classroom in May should be banned in all schools. In our glorious science kits (FOSS) we got meal worms, gold fish, pill bugs, sow bugs, snails, guppies, and some other type of creature (all in the first 2 weeks of May). List of dead animals: meal worms, gold fish (after one day), pill bugs, sow bugs, and other type of creature. The guppies and snails are thriving! However, in the midst of the new animals, my turtle named Yertle who we got from the lake near us this summer, died. He’s the 2nd to die out of the 3 my teaching partner and I got. We are sad by this demise. I haven’t told my classroom children yet because we have the new fish. They’ve begun to ask where our turtle is. I’m a terrible teacher because I don’t want to have the talk. I don’t want crying. It’s almost June 9th. I can pretend he’s visiting the other turtle tank until then, right? Then, there’s what I tell my sons, one of whom loves the turtle. Live creatures….no teacher should have them in MAY!!