inappropriate

Today was picture day at school. I usually choose this one day to do my hair and look nice. Today was no exception. A 1st grader says to me "Mrs. Prouty, I really like your clothes and how you put them together. I wish my mom dressed like you. She always dresses so inappropriate."

overheard

-So class, what did we learn from the book Pinocchio? Yes, that you should never run away when your dad makes another person
Dallas teaching to his imaginary class

By your face

At church on Sunday Dallas needed to go get a drink of water. Since he's 5 now, I figured I could let him go by himself. Of course, I was a little concerned that when he walked back into the sanctuary, he wouldn't be able to find us, so I told him I would put something at the end of the aisle to see and he could find us that way. He went to get the water and when he came back, he says "I didn't need you to put that there, because I knew who you were because of your face"

No Glittering

"Mommy, you shouldn't glitter"

- Dallas, upon seeing me dump some crumbs out the car window.

Well he was being one...

Today a 5th grader was being picked on by a fellow student. I guess he'd had enough when he shouted "Leave me alone, you freaking asshole."
What can you do but laugh?

filling the bucket

This year, at my school, we are using a new philosophy to improve teacher morale. We are "filling each other's buckets". It is the concept that we all have a proverbial bucket that when filled with drops of encouragement will sustain our self esteem and therefore make us better teachers. IT IS A LOAD OF CRAP.
ahem...until you get a drop or two in yours. I didn't know the power of a random compliment. But yesterday, my bucket was filled. Not by a peer, but by a student.
I was asking my (5th grade!) students if 22 was an odd or even number. Almost all of them said odd, except for one boy in the back that kept saying "even", even while the others where emphatically shouting "odd". I asked him why he thought the number was "even". This boy happened to have been one of my very first students 4 years ago when I taught 1st grade. His answer was amazing. "Well, in first grade you taught me to ignore all the numbers but the last one, and the last one is 2, making it even".
You can not understand how this overflowed my bucket in so many ways. Number #1, I HATE MATH. So, I couldn't fathom that I could have taught this student something in Math that stuck. #2, I couldn't remember actually teaching that, but I could totally imagine myself saying to ignore all the numbers except the last one, because I HATE NUMBERS, so the more you ignore, the better. and #3, He said "When I was in first grade, YOU TAUGHT ME". He didn't have a vague memory of learning it in the first grade, he remembered ME TEACHING HIM! This is the biggest compliment that I can get...that I taught something and that it was retained...it's priceless.

So, contrary to what my friend Michelle so eloquently said that perhaps there was a "hole" in my bucket, mine fills up quite nicely and it feels really good.

They don't own one

Today, we drove by a procession of tractors to which Dallas of course asked "Mommy, what is a tractor?" I always try to sound like I know what I am talking about even if I don't, so I responded "A tractor is a piece of machinery that helps farmers do their job". (Sounds good, right?) Well, Dallas responded "So, how many tractors do Addison's Godparents have?"

This would not be a funny story if Addison's Godparents weren't named...The Farmers.