Things I Learned in 4th Grade

One of the few good things that the elementary school I attended did was have theme weeks. In fourth grade, it was a circus theme. My class room was the former auditorium, so we had huge, high ceilings, so our teacher set up a parachute as the big top, we made carnival games, and so on.

One of the days, we had clowns come in to teach us a handful of circus tricks. I still cannot juggle, but damned if I wasn't really, really good at balancing a broom on my chin. It's one of those cool but not very useful skills.

Until today. The kiddos were a little wound, it being Friday and a week before Halloween, and we'd taken them outside. Still wound. I'm not sure how it came up, but I mentioned something about my amazing balancing act. One of my co-teachers didn't believe me, so in I went to get a broom.

And omg, greatest trick ever. Way better than hoola-hooping around my leg! The kids thought it was awesome. I spent the rest of the afternoon teaching them how to balance the broom on the palms of their hands (with me spotting, obviously).

It entertained them for a good half hour. Useless party trick? Priceless.