Mrs. Albrecht - Time Bandit

October 1st, 2007

I think I may have become a “Time Bandit” in my students’ eyes. Last Friday, September 28, an interesting exchange took place between myself and the students in Division Four.

“Next time I see you will be in October” I casually announced as they were leaving for the day.

“What?”

“No way!”

“How can that be?” was the reaction.

Then the teacher-pupil exchange took on an accusatory tone as the class realized that September had indeed, passed.

“Hey, what happened to the third week of September?” a boy asked (with the tone of a lawyer, I might add).

“Yeah”, came the supportive chorus, with accompanying nods.

I started to laugh at this implausible scenario (that, somehow, I had stolen and hidden an entire week of school). I reminded the students that we had only been in our officially assigned classrooms since September 10th,which made the month seem very short.

So yes, they were right. We hadn’t ‘ideally’ received a third week of a school month. Technically, though, September was over and all weeks were accounted for.

I knew then that I was going to be held accountable for many school ‘happenings’ (whether they are my responsibility or not). This group of children is not letting anything slide by without close examination.

And I wouldn’t want it any other way.