Valentine's Days of Their (Junior High) Lives

In a junior high, the Valentine's drama starts a few days before the actual holiday. The kidlets, desperate to give and receive Valentine gifts, start searching for that special someone with whom they can "go out" long enough to exchange candy, flowers, stuffed animals, balloons, or a combination thereof.

When I was in junior high, this was accomplished by passing THOSE notes. You remember THOSE notes, don't you? The ones with the "check yes or no" boxes? Well, THOSE notes have been replaced by text messages and Facebook posts, but even with the technology up-grades, the result is the same: a lot of note passing/texting, five to ten minutes of hand-holding during lunch on Feb. 13th, and then the Valentine morning exchange of gifts.

Valentine morning at a junior high is magical.

Then Valentine afternoon hits. Gifts exchanged, the need for a significant other disappears faster than the candy that came with their dollar store teddy bears. The break-ups start as the school day ends.

Thanks to texts and status updates, most of the break-up drama will be over before the kidlets walk into my classroom tomorrow morning. With any luck, there won't be enough tears to warrant an extra box of tissues from the custodial closet.

Despite the hormones and the drama and the sugar highs that negate any attempts to teach the children anything at all, I do enjoy Valentine's Day at the junior high.

Why?

Two reasons.

First, the cheesy Valentines provide a wealth of examples of puns in action.

Second, it is the one day of the year when breaking out my red pen to mark up their papers seems festive instead of punitive.

In other Valentine news, I may have had to give up the H Family Fantasy Football trophy (post forthcoming) but I managed to score a decisive victory in the competition for World's Nerdiest Aunt. My victory came courtesy of these Doctor Who Valentines.

And speaking of Doctor Who, my birthday this year has had a very Whovian theme. I will do a full post about my birthday, as soon as I finish celebrating my birthday.

In the meantime, may I just say...

It's a fez.

I wear a fez now.

Fezzes are cool.