Funny Teacher Stories

I still chuckle every time I look at that "hores" writing piece. Hee hee.

I don't have quite so many funny moments now that I teach fourth grade, but back when I worked with the little kids....

When I was in college, I had a job at a child-care center every weekday afternoon. I worked with first graders. Since I was honing my teaching skills, I would make up little assignments and activities for the kids to do. One of my projects was an alphabet book. Well, on the day we were working on a the letter "R," the kids helped me brainstorm a list of r-words to put on the board. Then, each student had to choose a word and write a sentence or draw a picture to go with it. One little girl proudly brought me her paper. She had chose "roots," and the picture did not show a tree or plant with its roots going down into the ground. No, instead it was a disturbingly realistic rendering of an African American slave being whipped by his white master while tied to a post. Apparently this child's mother had though it was a good idea to make the miniseries Roots into a family viewing experience.

A couple of years later, during my first year as a credentialed teacher, I was reading my second-graders' writing journals one afternoon. I came to Alicia, whose mom worked as a massage therapist and whose dad was an astrologer. No not an astronomer, and astrologer. As in, he drew detailed zodiac charts for people for a living. Anyway, Alicia's parents were especially hippy-ish and communicative with her and it was reflected in Alicia's journal entry: "I am really worried about my mom right now. She is so sick. She has this really bad disease called P.M.S"

When I moved to San Diego, I was placed in the first grade in the Del Mar district. I had my students scattered around the room one day doing various free-choice and centers-based activities, while I worked with small groups of readers. I noticed three of my boys snickering in the corner, and decided to go over and investigate. It turns out one boy was creating a 9"x12" book -or maybe it was a magazine- called "Big Boobs." These were the only words in the book, but there were plenty of illustrations.

Man, oh man - how I wish I had made copies of this stuff and saved it!