My friend Milo told me that I should start posting my teacher experiences here because during the last year only two teachers posted in this section of A Word A Day and so it won't matter if my stories are uninteresting and trivial.

Yesterday my third grader Michael, who is a sweetheart, turned in a writing assignment about upcoming events.
He wrote, "I'm so excited, my birthday's gone."

I said, " Michael, you are excited because your birthday's gone?"

"No, No, Miss Thomas, I meant coming, Miss Thomas. My birthday is coming!"

So then I came home and baby sat my three-year-old innocent granddaughter who said,
"Grandmother, you are beautiful! Have you lost some fat?"

Kids. We must teach them adult language.

Reading and writing - the sine qua non.

I wrote a long letter berating one of my older daughter's teachers (debate) and spoke to the math principal about her geometry teacher. Since that time I have written two letters in direct praise of my younger daughters teachers (that included indirect praise of several others). I have also written an email in praise of 3 of my older daughter's teachers - including the debate teacher whom she previously had trouble with. I also wrote separate emails of praise to her English and French teachers.

Oldest kid's writing skills have clearly atrophied since elementary school, but while she has been completely brutalized in her English class, her writing ability has shown dramatic improvement since the beginning of the school year. I credit the English/History combination of the IGCSE program (and particularly the English teacher's refusal to knuckle under to parental pressure). I also credit the debate teacher for making her learn to focus.

When I think they're screwing up, I write to them. When I think they're doing something particularly well, I write to them. I assure you, they much prefer the latter. I don't praise them for doing average or marginal work - not my kids and not their teachers.

I also wrote a letter to the school board recently and a follow-up letter to the school board chairman who had responded to me.

I share these letters with my kids. Sometimes they're shocked and fearful about how teachers will respond to my criticisms, some of which are pretty harsh. But what I've noticed is that they usually respond pretty well, if I'm frank and clear about what I see as problems.

I get annoyed when I send in a praise letter and I get a stock response like "well, we're proud of our teachers here ... blah blah blah." I spend a lot of time on each of those letters and when I send them, I'm trying to convey that this teacher has gone far beyond the call. As I'm not a person to give praise for nothing, I expect to hear that my letter has gone into the teacher's permanent file. I know they don't have a lot of leeway on salaries, but some of the teachers I think are really good are the ones that other parents have problems with - I just want it to be part of their permanent record that at least one parent greatly appreciates what they're doing.

k

Well, I'm glad to see I'm not alone.

It seems to be a rare occurance tough, because whenever I've written a letter of praise, people seem to be exceptionally surprised.


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Melt, why do you thing your student said gone instead of coming.

Kids. We must teach them adult language.
My 5 year old neice was eating pancakes with my Mom one morning and said "Grandma, you're a good cook." Just before Grandma could thank her she added "'cos you make what I like. Mommy makes whatever she wants."
Kids, you tell them to be honest but...

BelMarduk, if I had thought that Michael's comment was a deep-seated psychological cry for help I wouldn't have shared it here as an amusement. Simply put, he wrote "going" instead of "coming".

Today LaRico, who is a gifted student, said after I told my 3rd grade class of fourteen girls and five boys, that we could go on a field trip to the Children's Theater to see 'Ferdinand and the Bull' for only $3.00. "Wow!",he said, "I'm gonna go beat up a first grader and get me $3.00 'cause I just love 'Ferdinand and the Bull!"

I was amused, but the fourteen girls giggled.

Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings.

My sister, who has been a kindergarten teacher for many moons, has a fund of stories which she will happily regale you with after a couple of wines.

The one of these that I like the best is about "mat time". The kids all sit on a mat and everyone briefly tells the others about something that happened in the last day or so. The parents are usually standing around the walls at this time, waiting to take their little bundles of horror home ...

One day, a four-year-old boy used mat time to state "My mum told my dad to 'Fuck off and never come back' last night. And he did!"

Mum, of course, was standing there, presumably wishing that the earth would open up and swallow her ...