What's In A Name

So I have this 6 year-old student who is probably one of the cutest kids ever. One day we had the following conversation….

Student: (talking to my aide) What’s your name again?

Aide: Mrs. E remember? I have worked with you before.

Student: Oh yeah, well my name is Bob Lee (name has been changed).

Aide: yeah I know Bob I have been working with you remember, I know you.

Student: That’s right. And guess what my middle name is Bob Lee

Now, I have one of the nicest aides ever and I think to spare him from getting his tiny feelings hurt, she just kinda nodded her head and smiled. I, however, am not so nice so I jumped at the chance to correct him!

Me: Bob, that is not your middle name. That is your first and your last name… Bob Lee. That’s a first and a last name.

Student: Yeah I know, that’s my name and my middle name is Bob Lee.

At this point I could tell he was not understanding so being the genius I am I decided to try and reason with the 6 year old.

Me: Bob, your name is Bob Lee. I don’t think you have a middle name because if you did it would come in the middle of Bob and Lee.

Student: Yeah, my middle name is Bob Lee.

Me: So you mean your full name is Bob Bob Lee Lee?

Student: (confused look with his mind thinking… you are crazy lady!)

So, me being the wonderful TEACHER I am, I decide I am going to take this opportunity to TEACH him about names. I walk over to the board, grab the whiteboard marker, and write my first and last name on the board with a huge space in the middle like this:

Robin Silatolu

Me: See Bob, my first name is Robin and my last name is Silatolu and this big emtpy space in the middle is where my middle name goes. Now, when I was born my parents gave me a middle name and it is Lee (so I wrote it in the middle of my first and last name).

Student: Oh!

Me; So, let’s write your first and last name on the board like mine,

Bob Lee

Me: See Bob, this blank space in the middle is where your middle name will go. I don’t know if you have a middle name because not everyone has a middle name.

Student; Oh! But my mom did give me a middle name.

Now I am beaming thinking what an awesome teacher I am and how much I deserve a raise because I have just seen learning occur… he finally undersands middle names.

Me: O.k. Bob, what is it?

Student: Bob Lee!!!!

Me: (walking away gloomily) Just go ahead and work on your math Bob.

Now, you may think I had learned my lesson and that this 6 year old just was not quite ready for the middle name concept…. but you are wrong. I could not let it die here. I was determined to force, I mean teach him to understand middle names. I headed straight for his birth certificate to solve this mystery once and for all. Low and behold he does have a middle name… Alexander! I walk back into my classroom happily and have a seat next to Bob. Our conversation follows…

Me: Guess what Bob, I just went and looked and you do have a middle name

Bob: Really?

Me: Yes, it’s Alexander. Your middle name is Alexander isn’t that cool?

Bob: So my name is Alexander Lee. Cool!

Yes, that’s right. I have done such great teaching that I have convinced him his name is now Alexander. I am awesome! I quickly try to remedy the situation…

Me: No, Bob, your middle name is Alexander so your full name is Bob Alexander Lee. But you really like to go by Bob and that’s what people call you.

Student: Oh, yeah. But my real name is Bob Alexander Lee.

Me: Yes, that’s right, but for now we will call you Bob because that’s your first name.

As you can see… I will surely not be nominated for teacher of the year and no…. I am not getting that raise I deserved!

You know it's been a long day when....

• you ask one of your "star students" to write a good sentence about what is happening in the picture (a boy opening a present that is an airplane) and they write: ow my peniis is here. They then read it to you as "Oh, my present is here".
• you have a boy in 4th grade who continually talks to you about his stuffed animal dog named Princess Madeline Maxwell.
• you have a 2nd grader who sadly tells you "I can't make seem to make fart noises with my pit today!"

And last but certainly not least...

• you have the following conversation with a 4th grader:

Student: well I have been living with my grandparents in their house and I hate it.

Me: why do you hate it? I have met your grandma and she seems nice.

Student: well I don't like living with my grandparents, especially my grandma cause
she walks around in her garments all day. And also, my Grandma is really bossy....
but not as bossy as you.

It is for these reasons that I am glad it's Friday and... I LOVE MY JOB!

Separation of Church and State?

So, as you may know I work with kids with disabilities and I find that they sometimes say the darndest things. Somehow, religion comes up often with some of my students and we have some pretty funny conversations. I just want to share a few:

1. I was having a conversation with one of my 6th graders (we will call him Billy) at the time about how we all need to be nice to each other. He had been having problems with a friend so we talked about when we are not nice we feel bad etc. All of a sudden, Billy turned to me and the teacher who was also in on the discussion with us, put his arms around us, and said "after all, we are all brothers and sisters from God"!

2. One of my 3rd graders (we will call him Jon) was having a really hard day. He was out of his seat constantly and in fact had spent some time crawling on the floor trying to escape his work. When he was finally in his seat and doing his spelling I walked over to him and said "you spelled that perfectly Jon, great job" to which he quickly replied "it was not perfect, no one is perfect except Jesus". Not knowing how to respond I simply gave him a "great job" and moved on!

My Own Personal Chef

So, Vita called me the other day at work and was excited because he had made the banana bread he had been craving. Naturally, I was also very excited because that meant I didn't have to make it when I got home from work. Then I started to think... how did I get so lucky? How did I find this guy who was very capable of not only cooking, but baking? Then, I came home to this..

Yes, that's right the water is in the sink with the dirty dishes but they did not quite get washed! Needless to say I kept an eye out as I was cleaning up for any other little disasters that might have happened during the unsupervised cooking... I found more evidence....

That's the pile of flour that somehow landed on the backsplash and then remained there hoping to never be found! Well, good news is... I found it! After cleaning up from my wonderful husbands cooking adventure I did find the finished product.

Now... you might be thinking to yourself that does not look like normal banana bread! Well, you are right! Vita later explained to me that since we had no eggs in the fridge at the time he started to make the bread, he decided that the blackberries I had bought the night before would be a natural substitute (that's why I love him!). To this day we are still enjoying our banana blackberry minus egg bread!

From the Mouths of Babes

When given a writing prompt: "When I grow up I..."

One of my little ones wrote: "When I grow up I wont

to be a tenajr. tha can get thar pom poms and get rede.

tenajrs can jrive cars.

(When I grow up I want to be a teenager. They can get their

pom poms and get ready. Teenagers can drive cars.)

We are still trying to decide where the pom poms came from,

but she was totally sure that is what teenagers could do

that she could not yet do... seeing as she is only 7!

Halloween!

So this Halloween was... well... uneventful! A few days before, however, we did have some fun. We went out to Brooke's house and carved pumpkins with the Thompson family....

Vita had a really good time...



and we made some cool lookin' pumpkins!

Welcome To The Real World...

O.k. sister this one is for you. We have finally entered blog land. Since you are really the only one who will read this I hope you are happy now! Stay tuned for more fun pics. and lots of fun stories I know you will enjoy.