Regret....

Yesterday I went to Hobby Lobby in my continued attempt pretending that I know how to decorate my house. As I was standing in the checkout line a teenage girl and her mom got into the line across from me. Since the person in front of me was buying thousands of pieces of foam that had to be scanned individually, I had a lot of time to stand there and pretend that I wasn't eavesdropping on this girl and her mom. Since I missed the 1st half of the conversation all I could gather was that the mom wasn't going to let the daughter go and do something that was totally awesome and the mom was now totally lame and a jerk for not understanding her daughters need for doing said awesome thing and for "ruining her life forever". As the conversation continued the girl got more whiny, more mouthy, more disrespectful and I really did think that her eyes were going to get stuck in the back of her head for all the eye rolling she was doing.
As I stood there for what seemed like hours, I remembered that not that long ago, I was the whiny, mouthy, disrespectful daughter. I was the one with the bad attitude and the over exaggerated eye roll. I wanted to tell this girl that it wasn't worth it. Whatever totally awesome thing she wasn't being allowed to do was not worth it. It was not worth the distance it would put on her relationship with her mom. It was not worth hurting her mom's feelings. It was just not worth it. One day she is going to wake up and realize just how much she needs her mom and hopefully the distance and hurt feelings and pain won't be too much to overcome. I was lucky enough to have such a mom. The mom that forgave the attitude and the garbage and managed to love me anyways. The mom that is now one of my very best friends. I wanted to help the girl realize what I had to learn the hard way. I wanted to tell her what a good thing she has going and that one day she will regret this. I didn't tell her. Foam lady had finally finished and the checker was waiting impatiently for me to move my things forward. So hopefully she will realize it on her own.

Student-isms...

Students did a writing sample today. Here are some of their thoughts.

I'm going to chase butterflies and bee's, but don't worry I will let them all go.

I have a cunfy bed. It is cunfy. My blanket is cunfy. My pillow is cunfy. Everything on my bed is cunfy. (cunfy = comfy. Maybe we'll start learning some more synonyms)

I like to go swimming at the 'bich'
(took me a second...and a sigh of relief to realize he meant beach. Note to self: Don't just pick out single words. Read in context.)

I have a rooster. It pecked my hand. I do not like my rooster.

I am going to play my 'pee S pee'
(PlayStation Portable aka PSP. Note to self: Next week's lesson. Acronyms.)


One of my students informed me today that he could not go outside for recess. When I asked him why, he said that when the trees looked like wipers on the car from the wind, then he had asthma and couldn't play outside. I said that was fine and he continued to tell me that he learned that from his doctor and that his doctor also told him that he needs to watch his fats. Trying my hardest to hold in my laughter ( I didn't realize I was a teacher to a 50 year old man) I asked what he meant by that and he said that if you look at nutrition there are fats and he needs to watch them and eat healthy. I told him that yes, eating healthy was very important...then I walked into the next room and burst out laughing.