BEST Shaping the Young Minds of Tomorrow EVER

Do you remember when you were in school, and on occasion, a stranger would come in and teach something social studies-related for an hour? Well, I was that person for the past month. I volunteered with Junior Achievement, and I just finished teaching the last of five lessons to a third grade class in which they learned about the City. For those of you that are thinking of teaching or currently teach, here are a few memories/lessons I will take away with me:

(1) On my first day, within the first five minutes, a little boy vomited his breakfast all over his desk. He had eggs for breakfast.
I will not be having eggs anytime soon.

(2) I promised the kids a surprise if they behaved during class. The next thing I know, a little girl was saying, "You're so nice. You're so pretty."
Of course they got the surprise. Flattery will get you everywhere.

(3) After someone answered a question, I instinctively said, "Excelente!" Then, the following conversation took place:
Little girl: She speaks Spanish. (This is not true. I speak fluent Spanglish.)
Little boy: Oooooh.
Little girl: She looks Italian, but she's not. She's American. Sometimes she teases people into thinking she's Italian. (This girl is onto me!)

(4) During one of the activities, the children sat on the floor around me as I taught. At one point, I turned around to find a couple girls looking up my skirt.
Now, that's definitely a first.

(5) When the kids found out that it was my last class and that I would not be coming back after that day, they started shouting, "Noooooo" and ran up and threw their arms around me.
This Junior Achievement thing has done WONDERS for my ego. I'm kind of a big deal these days.

(6) During the last few minutes of the last class, the kids were extremely hyper. The actual teacher chimed in with "Quiet on 2. One. Two." Complete silence.
I couldn't help but think, so, this "Quiet on 2" thing would've been useful information FIVE CLASSES AGO!

(7) On the last day of class, the kids grabbed their pristine yearbooks and crowded around me to sign them.
I'm such an elementary school celeb. Why does that sound like something Michael Jackson would say?