Chance events

In working with kids in schools there is always the possibility that something will happen that you think "Wow... I'm glad I pursued that!". Such was the case at school today.
I loathe the way some people have kids gather in the carpeted meeting area in classrooms. I know it is an attempt at orderly behavior but it is so impersonal and just not fun. "Table one- come to the carpet/rug" almost military as far as I am concerned. What I tend to do is say "Anyone wearing red come to the carpet." It has kids thinking about something about themselves petty but a little more human.
Anyway on this particular occasion in a grade 4 I asked them to tell me something they had in common with the new president. This was in a school in Harlem where they had heaps in common. The first hand that shot up was a girl in a plaid sweater. I asked her what she had in common with the new president and she pointed to one of the white squares on her sleeve. Both the teacher and I looked a tad startled... did she not know who the president was? .... did she not know her very obvious links to the president? But I asked her what it was she had in common and her reply..... "This square is white and our new president lives in the White House!" Smart kid! We worked our way through all kids some very proudly announcing that they were African American, or from Africa, or had short hair like the 44th president. Once all were settled on the carpet I said I had something in common with the president. The children and teacher's turn to look startled, apart from my being Australian they could see how very white I am. I then proceeded to tell them "I am left handed and Barack Obama is left handed". Great cheers went up from three other left handed kids in the class- yet another connection they had to the new president.
Just as I was going to move on to the purpose of the lesson one boy shot his hand up and said he had a question. It was one of those moments in teaching when you have to decide whether to go with what is happening or move on- I chose to ask Ronald what his question was and he asked "Why is Michelle Obama called the first lady?" Another great five minutes of discussion while we "tried to work it out together" and a lovely segue in to the comprehension strategy we were going to work on "clarification". Thanks to Ronald we had used a whole heap of strategies to clarify the concpet of First Lady. Talk about lucky and fun!
After work we gathered at Mare a bar in Chelsea and then on to Spice for dinner. We caught the subway back home and on the platform someone had dropped their "gummy letters" candy/lollies and look what letters were there- just had to form my name and photogrpah it. A woman near us on the platform was very curious about what we were doing and was shaking her head in disbelief- I think at my egotism rather than my luck.