One dance move at a time...

First off, Happy Valentine's Day to you and yours.

This morning, I spent time with one of the main men in my life, my little 5th grade mentee, Bryant. Bryant was in a much better mood than he normally is...a) because he recently was moved to a new classroom where he has the more specialized attention that he needs, b) because we are making progress together, and the initial, yet inevitable awkward feelings related to any new mentor-mentee relationship have dissipated, and c) it's Valentine's Day and that means a classroom party with pizza and candy.

I told little Bryant today that he better watch out or Cupid was gonna make him fall in love. He said, "For real?" I said, "You bet. If you feel the sting of one of his arrows, you're gonna fall in love with the very next girl you see." He said, "For real-for real?" I said, "For real."

I asked him if he knew what Cupid looked like, and he shook his head. I said, "He has wings, a big belly, and chubby cheeks, and he flies around the world, looking for people to shoot with his arrows." And then a look of understanding washed over Bryant's face, and he said, "Oh yeah, he wears Pampers too, right?"

Anyhoo, since it's Black History Month, we read a book today about Elijah McCoy, an African-American inventor in the 1800s. Mr. McCoy, among other more notable inventions, designed the very first sprinkler. I asked Bryant if he knew what a sprinkler was. He wasn't sure, but he knew it had something to do with water. We looked at a picture, and then I demonstrated how it worked. Then I said, "When I was your age, the boys in my class didn't know how to dance. So, they made up a move called 'The Sprinkler.'" And I showed him how the dance went.

Later on, at the end of the mentor session, I looked at the calendar and let little Bryant know that he had a three-day weekend since Monday is President's Day. He said, "Sweet!" and immediately busted out a very funky version of "The Sprinkler."

I felt like a champion.