Mrs. O'Barr, Are you pregnant?

I have been student teaching in a 7th grade math classroom since July 2010. I will be finished student teaching the end of this school year, May 2011.

When I first started student teaching the students knew me as Miss Whitney. It wasn't until the Thursday before October break I told them that I would not be there the next day because I was going to be getting married. I explained that when we came back from October break I would no longer be Miss Whitney but would be Mrs. O'Barr. Students were excited for me and had a million and one questions. It was the biggest disturbance to the classroom I have ever seen.

So, when I found out I was pregnant, I waited a couple of weeks and then decided only to tell my mentor teacher. I felt that she needed to know so that as she sees me come in looking and acting sick, she would know I was not spreading some horrible disease by staying at school at teaching.

I did not tell my students that I was pregnant for several reasons....

1. My marriage news was such a disturbance and caused a million questions, I could only imagine what      it would be like telling them I was pregnant. Oh, I could see the dreaded birds and bees questions being asked and me squirming and trying not to laugh as I tried to answer and dodge questions at the same time. 
2. Since I am not due till July, I knew I would be getting rather BIG and pregnant looking before school was out. I really wanted to see how the students would react to seeing me get BIG and not knowing that I was pregnant. Kinda of a cruel, personal, mini science experiment for myself to see how this age group would react. 

Well it happened on Thursday. I was exactly 14 weeks and had quite the baby bump going. I had noticed a couple days earlier that there were several students who kept staring at me and my belly all period long. I knew that were suspicious and wondered how they would handle it. That Thursday, we had just gotten the all clear call for the lock down and students were getting up off the ground and going back to their seats. One of my girl students approached me and dropped the question with no hesitation.

"Mrs. O'Barr. Are you pregnant?" 

I refrained from laughing and kept a straight face and the following conversation took place. 

Me:          "Why do you ask? Do I look fat?" 

Student:   "Yes...I mean kinda of...I mean not really. I mean, your clothes have been getting kinda of tight and then today you are wearing really loose clothing."

I couldn't help it. I had a huge grin on my face and even started to laugh. I just smiled at the student and asked her to have a seat so we could continue the lesson.

Even at 7th grade, students are very observant and are very honest in what they say.