Wanderer

Photo #1: AntWorks habitat in my classroom on a shelf, in front of open book of Chris Van Allsburg's Two Bad Ants and beside Magic School Bus Gets Ants in the Pants.

Photo # 2: Two Bad Ants with ant habitat, beside Space Shuttle launch poster.

The ants are well. I checked on them yesterday when I returned to school. They were all snug in their sanctuary of safety at the bottom of the habitat. I knew that I should open the lid and let in some fresh air, so that was the first thing I did after I turned on the lights.

The lid fell out of my hand and onto the floor when I lifted it. I retrieved it quickly, though, and replaced it. No ants escaped, that I was aware of. The fresh air revived them immediately and they quickly filled the tunnels to get to the surface. I can only imagine that a few of them wished they’d been fast enough to get out.

About ten minutes later, young Nicholas, a 2nd grader whose mother is a teacher, came to look at the ants, and while standing at my desk, he looked into the open desk drawer. “Hey! One got away!” he called to me. “Are you sure?” I asked. He wasn't there earlier when I had opened the habitat.

He pointed into the opened center drawer. “Yeah, look, it's in the drawer. Look, there it is!”

Sure enough, an ant was hesitantly climbing over unfamiliar terrain. Pens, pencils, an eraser, some coins, a paper clip, and sticks of gum foiled her get-away as she clambered about. The little boy stepped back to let me do the job of rescuing the lost ant. I had to be quick, I told him, to avoid getting stung. I couldn’t pick up the ant and have my hands free to lift the habitat lid, and I couldn’t open the habitat first then catch the ant… that would be like inviting the entire colony to join her on the desk.

Looking for something to contain the single ant until I could figure out a safe way to return it to the habitat, I noticed a red plastic egg-shape laying in the drawer… Silly Putty! I removed the plastic putty from the egg, then located the ant… it was still clambering about the strange obstacles, slowly and awkwardly. In fact, slow and awkward enough that I could easily press my finger gently on its back to prevent it from running off again, then carefully lift it up between my thumb and forefinger. Nicholas watched with interest as I dropped the ant into the empty plastic egg-half, then snapped on the other half. He wanted to know what I was going to do with the ant, how I was going to get it back into the habitat, and how did it get out anyway?

I explained about the need keep the ant in the plastic container so it wouldn’t get away again, that I needed to wait until all the other ants calmed down and settled at the bottom of their home before I could open the lid, and how it must have escaped earlier when I opened the lid. Then he wanted to know why I opened the lid, what if all the ants got out, and why did I want to keep ants like that? I answered his questions. He was satisfied, asked if he could play with the Silly Putty for awhile, so I gave it to him and off he went to his mother’s classroom.

The classroom is nearly in order, my schedule is almost completed, and none of my lessons have been prepared for the first few weeks. I have much to do, and feel very excited about the coming days and weeks. I've talked to many of the other teachers, and while most feel that they could use another week to get ready, especially those that had to change classrooms this year, or those that are teaching for the first time, or even the few that just moved here from another city or school, there is one thing we all have in common: we feel like kids standing in line at the tallest roller coaster ride, and we're about to get on!