goofball stories

I keep thinking of tidbits to post on here, but they're none of them very happy at all. This job has me focused on the fatigue, neverending admin tasks, and the endless planning in which I'm drowning. I'm not a very happy person at this job, and this makes for either an unhappy and repetitive blog, or an empty one.

But I remembered that I have been collecting Goofball anecdotes. He's been a bit more annoying and talkative lately, but he still is so cute (in a nicely immature way [as opposed to an annoyingly immature way]) and he catches me off guard with unexpected sweetness.


It was the afternoon, and everyone was leaving for Christmas break. Out of nowhere, he goes, "Did anyone tell you you're a nice teacher?"
I said no.
"Well, I'm telling you."
"What if I'm not a nice teacher?"
"You still are, cause you teach."
"But what if I teach but in a not-so-nice way?"
"Doesn't matter, you teach kids, so you're a nice teacher."

-

We have a schoolwide token-type system. I've assigned two students to hand them out, because I already have like four systems I can't remember. One morning during morning meeting, he handed one to me. He said, "here, for you, for teaching."

-

We were walking down the stairs and he asked me, "Do you run the tracks?"
Me: "No, I don't. Why, do you think I need to? Are you saying I'm fat???"
"No, you're skinny, that's why I thought you did."
Then another kid piped in that goofball said I walked too fast for my age.
I asked what that meant and a third goes, "He means you're really old and creaky."
Then I grabbed ears all around.

-

Have I mentioned the BFG? I have a Big (mostly) Friendly Giant in my class. This week, after learning in another class about the lunar new year, he came up to me and asked what year I was born. I said something about not telling him that. He wanted to know what animal year I am. "Chicken?" he said. "Dog?" with a smirk. I narrowed my eyes and told him he was being inappropriate.

A few minutes later, he and another couple students were chatting. One of them called over to me, "Did they have cheerleading in your school?" I said yes. "Were you a cheerleader?"
BFG goes, smirking again, "She couldn't make it." "Hey!" I snapped.

Then another one goes, "Are you married?" I was actually about to answer this for once, when BFG pipes up, "That's too personal! You can't ask her that!"

I goggled at him. "You ask me that question like once a week!"

-

I was doing some kind of lesson about something or other. Who knows, really. A kid randomly called out, asking how old I am. I said, "Old enough."
Student 1: 29!
Student 2: 34!
Student 1: She's not that old!

This was the only good thing about my day yesterday

Friday sweetness on IM

B: hi ms just in case im not on saturday or sunday i wanted to wish u a happy happy HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!
ms: aw that's nice
ms: i'm not a mom or anything, but that's nice of you :-)
B: yes you are you are you tought alot of kids to grow up and be the very best they can be you thought me that and you was my mommy for 9 moths
B: months
ms: aw, how sweet!
ms: thanks so much!
B: your welcome you deserve it

Random snippets that I keep forgetting about

It's already my bedtime, but I wanted to get this stuff down before I forgot again.

I have a Word Wall behind my door. I've got cards with words up there, but I've never discussed the Word Wall in class. The words are from class, but I put them up there with no reminders or explanations.

On the pillar next to this Word Wall, I put up cards with parts of speech. The other day, a group of girls were ambling out of my emptying room, they stopped at the piller. One of them said, as if to 'insult' one of the others, "You're an adjective."
She said primly, "I'm a noun--a person."
The other girl said, "You're a proper noun."
It was weird and completely out of the blue, but it was awesome nonetheless. Osmosis in the classroom works! If you've got it up somewhere, the kids may (or, more likely may not) notice it and someday it might sink in. Talking about parts of speech! On their own!

Little C walked up to me one morning as his class was lining up outside my door. "Ms C, why is your hair always the same?"
I replied, a bit defensively but in that joking way he probably knows by now (what he may not know is that's the only way I can keep a straight face when they come up with these strange comments), "What an odd question to ask! Why is your hair always the same?"
He grinned and said, "It's not; I just got a haircut!" running his hand over his short hair. Then he turned away and that was that. Very odd.

I told this girl to read The Egypt Game since she likes mysteries. I also told her that The Westing Game is fantastic. So she read Egpyt and loved it, but has been chomping at the bit about Westing. Today at lunch, she announced that she had finished it (Egypt) and can she read the Westing Game now? I said, tell you what. Write me a letter promising me that you will let no harm come to the book, and maybe I'll let you take it home with you over break. She said, "Okay!"

At the end of sixth period, she came up to me, "Ms C! Look!" And showed me a letter that read something like, "Dear Ms C., I promise that if you let me read The Westing Game, I will take care of it. Love, T." So cute!