Everybody knows that teachers of young children have certain inalienable rights. Such as the right to sing off key without judgement, the right to use a whole bottle of hand sanitizer in one day during flu season, and my all time favorite teacher perk: the right to wear goofy shirts that you would otherwise never dream of wearing. You know what I'm talking about.... everybody has picked up a shirt while shopping and thought to themselves " Who wears a shirt like this?". Chances are a preschool teacher does.
I have a shirt like that. Okay I probably have a couple of shirts like that, but my all time favorite hideous shirt is my turkey shirt that I only get to wear once a year on our school Thanksgiving Feast day. It has a giant multi-colored turkey embroidered across the entire front of the shirt and every year when I wear it my five-year-old students think I'm the coolest thing since Scooby-Doo fruit snacks.
Yesterday was our Feast day so it was time to break out the good-ole turkey shirt. It's getting a little thread bare since I have had it over 10 years and I swear each year it shrinks a little more(!) but I will keep it around until it falls apart.
After school I went to pick up Trey from school since he is still on strict parental control and will be until his History teacher emails dad and tells him he is the model student. Here is how our conversation went when he got into the car:
Me: Hey Trey, how was school?
Trey: Good ( yep he is a natural born conversationalist)
Me: Hey guess what? You get to go to Hobby Lobby with me!
Trey: (Heavy Sigh) Great. (Then he looks over at me) Ugh! and you have that turkey shirt on too!
Double Whammy of embarrassment! Not only did he have to go to Hobby Lobby with his mom who was wearing a crazy turkey shirt, he had to stand in line behind me and buy a cake pan so I could use both of my 40% off coupons!
I'm thinking we will be hearing from his History teacher soon on how much his behavior has improved in her class.
Never underestimate the power of public humiliation!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Cheers to Experienced Teachers
Sometimes you can just tell when a teacher has been "around the block" a time or two. I love enthusiastic new teachers with grand plans and fabulous ideas, but there is nothing better than a seasoned teacher that knows some good tricks.
Case in point: Trey's history teacher.
It seems my son was acting up and being disruptive with his buddy at the end of class yesterday. Somehow that doesn't come as a surprise to me. Anyway in her infinite wisdom ( and much experience teaching Jr. High) she explained to Trey and his partner in crime that she would be making a call to their parents and asked them which parent she should call. Of course Trey said his mother... and so the teacher knew to call dad.
Kudos to you Mrs. American History teacher!
There is nothing like a call to dad, at work to ensure that the discipline problem will be addressed.
Addressed it was!
In addition to having to apologize to his teacher ( e-mail will verify that it has been done),and being grounded for an undetermined amount of time, Trey is now on strict parental control. He gets a ride in moms loser cruiser each morning right up to the front of the school so I can watch him go straight into the building ( I stopped short of making him give me a kiss goodbye... but I considered it) and he gets to see me waiting to drive him home each day after school. Plus he is sentenced to a weekend of hard labor with his dad. He doesn't have to tell us how happy he is with this arraignment... we can see it in his body language.
So here's to wise secondary teachers everywhere who know how to use reverse psychology on teenagers! May you continue the good work!
Case in point: Trey's history teacher.
It seems my son was acting up and being disruptive with his buddy at the end of class yesterday. Somehow that doesn't come as a surprise to me. Anyway in her infinite wisdom ( and much experience teaching Jr. High) she explained to Trey and his partner in crime that she would be making a call to their parents and asked them which parent she should call. Of course Trey said his mother... and so the teacher knew to call dad.
Kudos to you Mrs. American History teacher!
There is nothing like a call to dad, at work to ensure that the discipline problem will be addressed.
Addressed it was!
In addition to having to apologize to his teacher ( e-mail will verify that it has been done),and being grounded for an undetermined amount of time, Trey is now on strict parental control. He gets a ride in moms loser cruiser each morning right up to the front of the school so I can watch him go straight into the building ( I stopped short of making him give me a kiss goodbye... but I considered it) and he gets to see me waiting to drive him home each day after school. Plus he is sentenced to a weekend of hard labor with his dad. He doesn't have to tell us how happy he is with this arraignment... we can see it in his body language.
So here's to wise secondary teachers everywhere who know how to use reverse psychology on teenagers! May you continue the good work!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Still Alive and Well
Wow it's hard to believe that it has been almost a whole month since I have posted! I guess there has not been anything blog worthy to post about.... but come to think of it, that has never stopped me from posting before, so I guess there is really no explainable reason for my absence except for the usual work,family, school reasons.
This semester I am only taking one class but... Horrors!!!.... It's a fitness class! OMG! I have to work out at least five times a week! Yes five times a week and strolling through the mall does not count as a work out! It's probably one of the hardest classes I have ever taken.
Okay I'm being dramatic I admit but really those people that say they love their workouts have got to be lying. I signed up for the class shortly after my break-up with Twinkie and the gang so I thought there would be some noticeable differences in my physique. HA! The workouts have made me hungrier than a horse, and well a woman on the rebound after a painful breakup doesn't always think clearly.
I have a new BFF:
I think it is ironic that it is dressed in what appears to be workout clothes. I don't know if that is to subliminally trick people into thinking Oreos are healthy, or if it is to remind you that you will have to work your butt off once you eat one. Nonetheless, they are yummy and I love them.
Since I'm starting to come down from my Halloween sugar high, I will end this post by sharing some Halloween memories. When we first moved to our block ten years ago, the dad's on the block were in charge of taking the kids trick-or-treating while the moms gathered together outside to hand out candy - and possibly indulged in a few adult type beverages. Oh those were the days when I had three little beggars out there bringing home sacks of candy! But seasons change and while we still gather outside to hand out candy, the dads no longer have to pull their beverages in a rolling cooler and instead they get to sit with the moms, and our grown children to hand out candy. Trey and his buddies are still hanging onto that one little bit of childhood and they decided to go out and see how fast, how far, and how much candy they could get. Here is a before picture of them:
I sometimes miss the days when these boys would come and play transformers or climb the tree outside for fun. Now they are into girls and trying to act cool.
Here is a picture of them ready to go hunting for candy. You can see they don't have that cool thing down yet!
Those little boogers crack me up sometimes!
Well my body tells me that this time change stuff is for the birds and even though the clock says it is only 8:30, I'm going to bed anyway! Till next time!
This semester I am only taking one class but... Horrors!!!.... It's a fitness class! OMG! I have to work out at least five times a week! Yes five times a week and strolling through the mall does not count as a work out! It's probably one of the hardest classes I have ever taken.
Okay I'm being dramatic I admit but really those people that say they love their workouts have got to be lying. I signed up for the class shortly after my break-up with Twinkie and the gang so I thought there would be some noticeable differences in my physique. HA! The workouts have made me hungrier than a horse, and well a woman on the rebound after a painful breakup doesn't always think clearly.
I have a new BFF:
I think it is ironic that it is dressed in what appears to be workout clothes. I don't know if that is to subliminally trick people into thinking Oreos are healthy, or if it is to remind you that you will have to work your butt off once you eat one. Nonetheless, they are yummy and I love them.
Since I'm starting to come down from my Halloween sugar high, I will end this post by sharing some Halloween memories. When we first moved to our block ten years ago, the dad's on the block were in charge of taking the kids trick-or-treating while the moms gathered together outside to hand out candy - and possibly indulged in a few adult type beverages. Oh those were the days when I had three little beggars out there bringing home sacks of candy! But seasons change and while we still gather outside to hand out candy, the dads no longer have to pull their beverages in a rolling cooler and instead they get to sit with the moms, and our grown children to hand out candy. Trey and his buddies are still hanging onto that one little bit of childhood and they decided to go out and see how fast, how far, and how much candy they could get. Here is a before picture of them:
I sometimes miss the days when these boys would come and play transformers or climb the tree outside for fun. Now they are into girls and trying to act cool.
Here is a picture of them ready to go hunting for candy. You can see they don't have that cool thing down yet!
Those little boogers crack me up sometimes!
Well my body tells me that this time change stuff is for the birds and even though the clock says it is only 8:30, I'm going to bed anyway! Till next time!
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