Friday, June 1, 2012

Snake Books

I have a goofy boy in my room this year (actually, I have more than one goofy student this year but this post is just about one of them).  I like C so much.  He’s bright and funny,  but he is impulsive and so distracted he can hardly sit still for more than a few seconds at a time.  One thing that does keep him focused for awhile is my animal books.  He loves to look at the animal pictures and talk about them and show everyone, including me.  A few weeks ago, he brought a book up to show me, and shoved it in my face.  I was horrified when it was a picture of a slithery snake. 

However irrational, snakes, even pictures of snakes, are probably one of my biggest fears.  Just thinking about the picture of the snake he showed me makes me shiver. Just typing the word snake does too.  As calmly as possible I took his arm and lowered his hand away from my face.  “Ya know what?” I said, “I don’t really like snakes.”  I’ve never told a student that before because I fear that a snake will end up crawling out of some kid’s backpack into the classroom some day.  

That was about a month or so ago.  Since then, C comes up to me about once a week, shoves a snake picture in my face, and after a second or two jokes, “Oh, that’s right, you don’t like snakes.”  I fake laugh at him, trying to hide the fact that my heart has jumped into my throat.  C is a reptile fan, and I know he has lizards at home.  He’s asked to bring them in to share for our animal unit.  Of course he can, but I told him he’d get suspended if a snake showed up.  He laughed, getting my joke.  I hope he knows I’m also serious.

15 comments:

  1. This post made me shiver multiple times. I HATE SNAKES! HATE! The very thought of a slithery serpant makes me mad. So sneaky! And snakey!

    Snakes are represented as evil in the Bible for a reason! EWWWWWW!

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    1. @crystal - ewww is right! I don't think there's anything else in the world (except maybe mayonnaise) that makes me shudder inside like, even the thought of, snakes do. We've had a recent rash of rattlesnakes coming into town from the hills. They've been spotted all over and I teach with a woman whose dog was bit by a rattlesnake. I'll probably have to move away if I spot a snake.

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  2. I go to a pet shop for bits for Jessy. HA, I wear the equivalent of JC Pennys but my dog gets bespoke stuff. AND her health insurance is better than mine. Anywoowoo's, at the pet shop I saw this creamy and orangey log in a tank. Then I ssaw the HEAD with that gimlet eye from a distance of a foot.
    I asked if the market was hot for snakes in Ireland and it turns out that it's remarkable good. I don't know why though, this fricking thing was the size of your thigh and would make a fair stab at swallowing you whole. And why in alll that's holy would you keep something that could kill you slithering about the house.

    I've never touched one, has either of you. They say they are not a slick as they look, more sandy if anything.
    Oh, the fellow in teh shop said they can 'like' people. That they will come if called and like being petted.

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    1. @vince - have I pet one? Are you freaking kidding me!?!? ;) I can't even look at them let alone touch one. The one you described sounds absolutely horrifying. Not sure if it's an urban legend but someone once told me about this guy who had one of these giant (shivers) snakes and it started to act sickly. He let the snake sleep with him (Gah!) and for about a week the snake stretched out and slept right next to this guy. After a week or so the guy took the snake to the vet because it still wasn't looking "right". He told the vet what was going on and that he let the snake sleep with him. The vet told him the snake wasn't cuddling but rather measuring up to the guy to see if it could eat him. I'd have died.
      Ireland doesn't have indigenous snakes right? I'm surprised that they'd be allowed to be sold/ purchased legally for that reason.

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  3. The snakes that might survive here are the Adder and grass snake. Both exist in southern England. But their range is extremely small. Here, we are both too wet and too cold for them to survive in the wild. And really twas only with central heating that keeping them at all became feasible.

    You've heard the rubbish about St Patrick and the banishment. That was a euphemism for the takeover of the Ancient Religion.

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  4. @Vince - Be glad that you don't have to worry about them on your hikes. I've wanted to take the dog on some canyon trails, but with so many sightings, I'm too nervous about it.

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  5. Good thing you don't work where I do! Today when i was working on my computer after work I had an eerie feeling there was a rattler under my desk. I keep my back door open and since my room has no storage I pile stuff under my desk where it is out of the way...so it would make a good hiding place. That gave me the creeps- but I do enjy reptiles and the only ones that scare me are dangerous ones in the wild.

    5 more days here!!
    TGIF!

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    1. @marey - stop rubbing it in! We still have 4 weeks...argh! This is when the long winter and spring breaks screw us over.
      If there was a chance that a snake could be under my desk or really anywhere I lived/work I don't know what I'd do. It's too horrible to imagine. Last year there was a snake found in the boys' bathroom downstairs from my classroom. That just about did me in.

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  6. I would totally be freaking out at that. Do you think he will really bring one in?

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  7. Don't like snakes at all. But pictures wouldn't bother me. I'm in Santa Barbara this weekend and it is lovely.

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  8. Spiders for me...Please tell me if he does bring a snake. That would be a funny story! ;)

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  9. @bc - ahhh you lucky girl! I just got back from Newport. It was June gloomy in the morning but the rest if the days were nice and the evenings were downright gorgeous. I do like to visit the ocean.

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  10. @jlo - oh you know it would definitely be a good story. :). We have the "lizard wizard" coming to school in a couple weeks, and I'm a little bit nervous about it. Jason may have to take my kids for the show and I'll pack a cabinet for him or something.

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  11. Love a kid with a sense of humor! Hate snakes.

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