Core scripture: “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (Romans 7:15)

Message: This blog is dedicated to the Big Hairy Bear!  Every teacher has one of these kids.  They might make you pull your hair out—I knew there was a reason I am bald!—yet at the same time they make you smile.  You shake your head at their antics, yet you embrace the hilariousness of their personality.  Why?  Because they light up your room.  They provide a clever wit that keeps you guessing.  Never a dull moment, right?

I am blessed to have the Big Hairy Bear twice a day.  Once at the beginning, and once at the end.  On the days he forgets his meds, the kids is off the charts crazy.  Like a hamster that just chugged a Monster energy drink.  He got his unique nickname the day he wrote a creative story last fall and was so proud of it that he ran up to me and declared, “I AM THE BIG HAIRY BEAR!”  Ummmm … okay?  He shoved the paper at me, raising his arms in triumph.

I want to get into that kid’s mind.  Not being ADHD myself, I want to take a walk in his shoes for a short while.  It might actually be fun!  I have never written an ADHD blog, so if you see any run-on sentences, misspellings, or comma splices below, do not take offense.  Just know that I am trying to get my Big Hairy Bear on!  It might even provide me to have a bit more empathy for this young man as he endures the last two and a half days of school.  Here we go!

You know you’ve taught to long when the posters on your wall leave a dark shadow on the wall why is that weird noise always clicking in the back of my room this time of day?  I never hear it when I am teaching.  Only now.  In the quiet of my room.  When it should be silent.  It’s like a cricket that won’t stop chirping.  You wanna crush the little critter but ya can’t find it!  Question … what the heck is up with middle school boys?  There is no consistency there some like Pokemon others are dating others yet are taking the musical toys off my shelf and playing them oh yeah I have heard the little frankenstein thing sing “I Come From a Grave Down Under” (remember the 1980’s song I come from a land down under?  Yep incredible parody) about 95 times the past 24 hours why do boys fall at least two years behind in maturity?  Why do girls even give the boys the time of day they ain’t got no game!  I mean, seriously, you take a kid who says I enjoy eating glue and you just wonder.  Ladies and gentlemen proof that the human brain does not fully develop until you are 25.  Wanna know the best adhd shirt I ever saw?  It said I have adhd oh look a chicken!  I like chicken had some last night for supper, if I go to a restaurant 90 percent of the time I get a chicken sandwich, weird huh?  Hey, what’s the most random bible verse you ever heard … me thinks this one takes the cake: If two Israelite men get into a fight and the wife of one tries to rescue her husband by grabbing the testicles of the other man, you must cut off her hand. Show her no pity.  Woah there!  Hold on, Deuteronomy 25:12!  I must ask this simple question … HOW OFTEN DID THIS HAPPEN???  Obviously enough to write a law about it!  Was it common practice for women to grab their husbands … um … yeah, I can’t even say it!  You know what I can say?  I gotta poop.  Bad.  Coffee went straight through me this morning.  Thank god for coffee, he got that one right.  Pretty sure there is a missing verse in the bible about God creating coffee, and you know it was good!  Amen!  The mild kind, not the bold kind, hate that stuff.  What is a period I hate periods they take WAY too long to write anyways it is much more fun to let your thoughts run on and on like a never-ending glorious cascading waterfall almost like a story that comes out of the mouth of my second grader that has about 19 and thens that string sentences together like a perfect puzzle oh dear me this is entirely too hard to write this right now do you ever get annoyed with the blue squiggly lines not to mention the red squiggly lines on words you KNOW should not be misspelled, like the word ohana, what you have never seen lilo and stitch, ohana means family and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten, it is my class motto we are kinda like the army rangers, never leaving a fallen soldier behind except we don’t have guns, we just have pencils but hey the pencil can be a weapon can’t it, okay now I really gotta poop

(Gone pooping)

Alright, seriously, I cannot do this anymore!  Do you know how hard it is for a Language Arts teacher to write this way?  The Big Hairy Bear wrote me a letter yesterday.  Yeah, it was full of grammar errors galore, but hey … who out there is perfect?  That is the way I want to remember the kid.  As a matter of fact, I want to take a second to list my favorite Big Hairy Bear moments of the year.

1. After seeing multiple boys shoot their wadded up paper wads at the recycle bin, I yelled at them to stop. The Big Hairy Bear stared me down, smiled shyly, and chucked the wad across the room.  After rebuking him, he looks at me and innocently says, “But I made it!”  Congrats, Big Hairy Bear!  I knew they chose you for the basketball team for a reason.
2. We are getting ready to do an activity last week, and the kid is literally running in place in the back of my room. The stares of the sweet girls that surround him were questioning his antics, but he proceeded on, doing his thing.  Lucky for him, our opening activity got him out of his chair.
3. The kid’s laugh. It is beyond memorable.  That laugh may have haunted my dreams on more than one occasion, but it is weird.  Now, I smile at it.  I have a video of him laughing like that upon request.  I simply had to commemorate the kid.
4. The Big Hairy Bear dominated a Freak the Mighty rap song that he memorized last fall. His voice sounded like an auctioneer, sentences coming together like a blender gone mad.  While performing the song, he was flipping my director’s chair armrests up and down.  I have that one on video too to savor forever.
5. Paying tribute to the Big Hairy Bear last week was unprecedented. I teared up and his watery eyes did likewise.  Why is it that the stinkers are the hardest ones to say goodbye to?  His heartfelt letter he wrote in return will be kept forever.

Who is your Big Hairy Bear?  A little advice for the last week of school … give that kid some grace.  Get them out of their seats a bit.  Let them have fun.  Let them be in their element.  If you keep that kid in their seat the last week of school, it would be like that old Mike Myers Saturday Night Live sketch.  Watch the video below.  It will be worth it!  Best five minutes of your day.

You’re welcome.

Video application: If you do not laugh at the video below, you are not human.  Once again, you’re welcome.  We all need laughs this time of year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGPfCPoca04

Quote: I like pie. (me)

Prayer: Father, let my ADHD kids shine the last week of school.  Give me grace and forgiveness in my heart to allow these masterpieces of your creation to flourish.  Amen!