School Days Timelines: Fifth Grade

I’m blogging through my school days.  Fourth grade and the rest can be found here.

The thing I remember most about fifth grade was that it seemed popularity finally emerged as something to be desired.  I was declared unpopular, and spent the year simultaneously mourning that fact AND trying to remedy it AND hating the “cool” girls, who basically just announced that they were cool one day by writing their names on the white board and putting ARE POPULAR underneath it.

I had a teacher named Mrs. Armstrong that year, and I loved her.  She was really into art and history and loved being creative.  I so appreciated that about her.  We had to do a state report, but instead of a boring typed report, we got to make a magazine.  I chose the state of Hawaii and remember being ridiculously proud of my report when I finished.  We also got to do a play about the Revolutionary War, and I remember having the part of the narrator because my teacher thought I was a good public speaker.  I thought this was a huge deal at the time and remember being so proud of myself.

Perhaps the biggest change in my life that year was the fact that I joined band.  I started playing the clarinet, and found that I loved music and wasn’t bad at it.  Within a month I’d been asked to join the All-City Band, which met on Thursday nights with other kids from 6-8 grade.  I absolutely loved it.  Music became a solace for me, and I fell head-over-heels in love with it.

The other thing I was excited about in fifth grade was babysitting.  Our city offered a Babysitting Class, where we were CPR certified and learned some tips and tricks about being a good babysitter.  I absolutely loved it and this, combined with my unabashed adoration of the Baby-Sitters Club series made me ecstatic to start babysitting.  I started taking care of my little brother for short spurts and also watched the kids across the street.  The worst part of the class was the fact that we had to care for an egg—like a raw egg that we “baby-sat” to apparently learn responsibility.  I had to go to the bathroom during recess once, so I left my egg in it’s little container in my desk.  One of the aforementioned “cool” girls told my teacher and they “egg-napped” it to teach me a lesson.  I remember being horrified and feeling really ganged up on by those girls and my teacher.  As a teacher now, I know I’d never make the choice to team up against a student with a group of students; maybe I’m oversensitive, but wow.

My friend Jessica continued being my best friend and also starting playing the clarinet. I had a new crush that year, on a boy named Michael Myers. He played the trombone in band and we starting “going out” at the end of the year. He was pretty sweet and I have fond memories of us hanging out at school.

So, that’s fifth grade. A pretty good year if I do say so myself!