Sundown Elementary

I could hear the wind whistling before I even opened the door. It took nearly all my strength to not let the door fly open as I hopped out onto the curb. A student ran past me trying to catch all of his papers as they scattered into the dusty fields surrounding the school. The wind hummed so loud it was all I could hear once I got away from the car. It was a song that only the people who have visited the panhandle of Texas would understand. Being born and raised in Amarillo, I didn’t think anything of the weather that day. My mind was completely focused on the day I had ahead.  

With my head held high and my back pack strapped tight, I proudly walked towards my third grade classroom. The day was finally here. Third grade was far more prestige than second. I had a couple friends that rode on my school bus last year who were in third grade. They always made it sound like a place for adults and not for children, like second grade was. 

My teacher Mrs. Waldon, was new, so no one knew anything about her yet. My older brother insisted this meant it was inevitable that my teacher was going to be mean. 

 I wasn’t fazed though. I didn’t really even like reading, there was no way one teacher could do that much damage. So I just paid attention to the numbers above the classroom doors, waiting to see the number “307”, as my brother went on about how I was destined for a disastrous year.

“All teachers try to scare students their first year,”

 “I still hate reading because of my third grade teacher.” 

After I made it to the room, we all found our desks. “Good morning students!” Mrs. Waldon said from the back of the room as she walked to her desk. “I am so excited to get to teach you all this year! I don’t know if you have heard, but this is my first year teaching at this school so you guys might be teaching me some stuff!” She giggled as she plopped down onto a rainbow cushion that was covering the seat of her chair. 

Hello everyone! I'm your new third grade teacher, Mrs. Waldon.

“I’m going to take roll quickly if you all want to pull out a book for a few minutes. If you don’t have one, I have plenty over on the bookshelf that y’all are always welcome to borrow. I can’t wait to get to know what kind of books you all like to read" as she put on a pair of small, rectangular glasses and focused on her computer screen. 

I pulled out a book that I had bought at the book fair last year. It was from the Magic Tree House series, the only books I had ever liked. I picked up where I left off last school year and before I knew it, I was lost in the pages. I felt as though I was with the two characters on their journey through the jungle, running from the terrifying giant catching up to us.

Panic rushed through my body when I heard Mrs. Waldon say, “Alright everyone, reading time is over. Let’s make our way to the carpet!” I started to read the words as fast as I possibly could in order to finish the chapter

As soon as I started to skip over the words that seemed least important, in fear of getting scolded in front of the class for my failure of following directions, I heard my teacher announce to the class, “See everyone, that’s how excited I want you guys to be about reading! We should all try to find books that we feel like are interesting enough that we just can’t put down!” I was completely thrown off by Mrs. Waldon’s reaction. I had heard rumors from the kids on my bus about how awesome third grade was, but I didn’t think they were true. I got up and ran to the carpet, thrilled to listen to her read us a story. 

I love to see students lost in a good book!