More Response to Tiger Mom

 Okay, so I seriously can't let this go.  The Tiger Mom intrigues me, what can I say!  (Yes, I am using more big words again that I have trouble spelling.)

The list of no-nos the Tiger Mom has really interests me.  Some of them, I completely understand.  Some of them make no sense at all.  Some of them are just plain un-American.  But I guess that is the point.

Tiger Mom's List of No-Nos     plus my comments
• attend a sleepover     Totally justifiable.  I think children could live their whole lives without this.  It is a  bit harsh, but really, there are a lot of crazies out there, and some of them are disgusted as perfectly normal looking parents.  No big loss here. 
• have a playdate  Sorry, I'm from the sticks I guess.  Who makes dates for their children.  Really?  Send them over to a neighbors house, have the kids come over for a while after school, but don't call it a play date. 
• be in a school play   Don't really understand this one.  Don't understand the evil behind theater arts.  It was my favorite class in school.  You don't want them to be confident, entertaining, and have to memorize long bits of literature.  : P  is all I have to say.
• complain about not being in a school play  All for it!  You shouldn't complain!
• watch TV or play computer games  And now you have brought up your child to be completely out of touch with most other Americans, but that's okay.  You can live without theses too!
• choose their own extracurricular activities   Boo!  Obvious, since they can't even be in a school play, but, of course, parents should approve all these things.
• get any grade less than an A  Yeah, well, I have to say okay to this one.  What happens if they don't?  I worry about the answer.
• not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama  Shouldn't this depend on the class and the classmates therein.  You can't expect to be best at everything, especially with competition.  What if they were twins?
• play any instrument other than the piano or violin  What exactly is wrong with other instruments.  Many of which are much harder to play.  I like a good trombone solo.
• not play the piano or violin.   Yeah, okay.  Fun times.

My Poor, Poor Old Sewing Machine!

Yes, I made most of the rice bag innards last night. Still have the covers to make and about 20 reuable shopping bags to finish. My class is working on an ecology project and my part is to take recycled materials and make shopping bags. But, after all of this continuous sewing, my machine is starting to rattle a bit and I am not going to use it until I locate the oil and get it nice and oily on the inside. From the diagram, it could take from 2-8 hours for me to figure out where it all goes. I haven't used my machine much in the past few years.

Testing Question

This past week I had to give a state test called the TAKS test to the fifth grade class. At part of the test, students are given a piece of paper that has measurement info and rulers printed on it to use on the test. The test instructions called this a "seperate mathmatics chart". The instructions I had to read repeated the fact that the students could not write on this chart probably seven or eight times. It got a bit rediculous. Anyway, all the students were feeling a bit tense and everytime I had to read that part again I would kind of grin at the craziness of it. The kids would roll their eyes. Finally I got to the end of the instructions and, of course, it asked, "Are there any other questions?" I looked around at the class. One boy raised his hand and a smile came to his face. He asked, "Mrs. M, are we allowed to write on the seperate mathmatics chart?" With this, the class collectively laughed and a rush of tension left the room so we could begin the test. Someday that kid is going to write sitcoms for TV!

Stop Me If You Have Heard This One

This is an old one but it really happened. In fact, I think it has happened more than once, but never to me.

My husband was on playground duty one day. The kids know not to come tattle all the time to him, but if something really bad happens they should let him know. So, one of the more well behaved children comes up to him and says "B said the F-word!" Suddenly, this child has my husband's full attention. This is a pretty big transgression for an elementary student. Before he set the punishment in motion, he wanted to be sure that this student had heard B clearly. After interviewing her for a minute or two he asked her to repeat the word.
"You won't be in trouble," he told her, "I just need to know exactly what B said."
"Well...." the little girl hesitated, "He said fart." After my husband stopped laughing he actually called B over and told him not to say fart again.


BTW: The S-word is shut up!

Elementary Teacher Predictions

You know, when you spend eight hours a day for 138 or more days a year with a group of kids, in your head you start making predictions about what they will be and who they will become. It is inevitable! One year I had a class so wild, so unruly, and so defiant, I could swear that some of them were destined for Huntsville! I kept this to myself of course. I didn't really want to think ill of them. Most of them were sweet souls with no self control at all. Well, I don't know much about what happened to this class. I do know that one of the worst of the bunch is now happily married with....get this....six children! I am so glad he is not in jail. Now, as for the teachers who work in that area....prepare yourselves!

My 100th Heart Celebration!!!!

Hey out there! I got my 100th heart today!!!! Yay me! Anyway, to celebrate, I am going to promote that shop here.

YeOleSuppyShop

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5552210&order=&section_id=&page=1

They sell supplies for all you wonderful jewelry makers out there! Buy some and make me some fabulous jewelry!

Vegetarian Vultures and Other Tales from the Classroom

There are so many tales. Some of which are so old I may not remember them. I am an elementary teacher. I have been teaching for seventeen years. Yes, I have lots of stories. Stories that will curl your hair...some might make it fall out! I will start posting them here as I remember them. Here's a new fresh one.

I have recently divided my class into two groups for a special project. I thought I would use our school initials to name them so that there would be no A, B...A's are better than B's business. So they were group B and group V. Well, in the course of calling them I discovered they are so close sounding that I needed to name them. So I started calling them Buffalo and Vultures, just to be silly. When one girl whined that she didn't want to be a buffalo I told her that it was better than a vulture because they eat dead stinky skunks. Then, my comedianne from the V group said..."Ewww. If I have to be a vulture, I am going to be a vegetarian vulture!"