The Image in my Head

I stayed at school late tonight working on my classroom library. I want all my books to be properly shelved according to the labels my students came up with: Adventure, Mystery, Fantasy, Sports, Animals, Historical Fiction, etc. This was supposed to be an easy task. At the beginning of the year my students go through all the books in small groups and determine what category they fall under. After looking at the results of this year's attempts, I was quite disappointed. There were biographies with the adventure, historical fiction with the funny fiction, and award winning books (with the award symbol right on it) mixed in with other categories. This had to be fixed. So I sorted and sorted and sorted, finally leaving school around 7:45pm. There is something incredibly peaceful about a nearly empty school building, though, and I would rather do a project like this when it's quiet than when the building is buzzing with people I'd like to talk to.

But on the way home, while listening to my inspirational 102.5 FM, I had an image flash in my head that didn't seem all that crazy. It was an image of my students all singing, dancing, and signing the words to an upbeat song using a synchronized choreography. In my vision I saw all my students smiling, loving school, happy to be alive. I saw us performing unexpectedly like the flash mob during open house or some other school gathering. And then I thought, "I need to find a great song, now, so I can get working on this!"

Did I work too late at school? Am I that blinded to think I have the best class this year? Am I truly lacking that much sleep? Even if all those things are true, I don't care. I'll fall asleep tonight with images in my mind of my students beating all odds and coexisting in a classroom filled with complete Joy.