No, tell me what you REALLY think!

Right before Christmas the family and I went to a large department store so I could buy 2 more of those blasted Webkinz to put in Will and Robby's stockings. I don't actually dislike the Webkinz, I think they are cute and the games are great, I dislike the $15 a pop price tag! But, I digress from the point of my story.

Hubs distracted the boys by dragging off to look at shoes with him, while I quietly slipped to the opposite side of the store where the Webkinz could be found. I looked over the rather sparse selections, picked 2 I thought they would like, and got in line to pay. There was 1 person in front of me, an average looking woman, and I thought to myself "Score! I'll be in and out before the boys even notice I'm missing!"

While we were waiting for the cashier to return from helping a customer on the floor the woman's tweenage daughter came out of the dressing room. She was wearing a white button up long sleeved blouse, a gray high waisted skirt with a skinny belt, and black flats. A conservative look for today's tweens, but still very cute and fashionable. The mother wrinkled her nose and said "Absolutely NOT, you look like a school teacher! Go take it off!" I know, no comment was required of me at this point, but the imp on my shoulder prompted me to say mildly "There's nothing wrong with being a school teacher." The woman whipped around, laughed, and said in a scornful tone "Well, I CERTAINLY hope she does more than THAT with her life!" Now, where I come from, them's fightin' words! I fixed her with my best teacher glare and said "Gee, THANKS!' She looked at me uncertainly, then with dawning dismay as I continued "I've only been a public school teacher for 13 years. Nice to know that my contribution to society is so valued!" The woman had the grace to blush and then stammered "Um.... well..... I mean..... it just isn't a job that pays very well, that's all I meant." Holding her in my icy stare I snapped "You don't do it for the PAY. You do it for the KIDS. I've taught over 150 children to read, what have you accomplished in your life?" Face absolutely scarlet, the woman whipped around to face the counter, completely disengaging from my confrontation. A moment later two cashiers came over and one waved me around to the other side of the counter. Where, as I completed my transaction, I have to admit I continued to glare at Mrs. Foot-in-Mouth on the opposite side, who was desperately looking anywhere but at me.

I related this story to Hubs as we went back out of the store and he was absolutely livid with me. He HATES it when I call people on their ignorance in public and tells me routinely that my mouth is going to get my ass kicked one of these days. My standard retort is that some people clearly don't understand exactly how offensive and narrow minded they sound and they need a wake up call.

So, the morale of today's story - never insult a profession unless you know who you are talking to!

The Return of Toddler Girl

Due to a sudden blast of winter weather, we actually missed school on Monday and Tuesday this week. When we arrived on Wednesday the class was chomping at the bit to see Toddler Girl. Unfortunately, for unexplained reasons, she missed school that day. But Thursday morning she was shepherded into my room by our guidance counselor, wide eyed and stone faced - clearly overwhelmed by the squeals of joy to greeted her appearance in our doorway.

Luckily for her, I am very much a set-in-my-ways, dependable as clockwork, orderly sort of teacher so very little in our room or routine had changed in her month away from us. That first morning was spent in a state of shocked disbelief, but by lunchtime I noticed some signs of thawing and by afternoon it was almost like she had never been gone. She slipped right back into our classroom, filling that Toddler Girl sized hole we had in our midst. We were all delighted to have her back, even Thing One and Van Gogh.

Thursday afternoon the head of the SPED dept. came down to visit with me. She wanted to assure me that Toddler Girl's SPED paperwork was all signed and in order and to fill me in on a few comments Toddler Mom had made while they were going over the papers. In the interest of not totally violating her right to privacy, suffice it to say that there is good cause to believe many of Toddler Girl's issues are directly related to her home environment and the sort of care she got as a baby and toddler. It was heartbreaking to hear all that she has been through in her 5 short years and I have a whole new level of patience with her. I may be the only person in the world who actually gives a damn about her and her development, if everything Mom said to SPED Head is true! I thought I had finally developed that crusty shell that older teachers have, that allows you to love the kids without breaking your heart over them. Toddler Girl has found a crack in my crust and is quickly worming her way in next to my heart.

I can't wait to see what the new year brings for my little classroom family!

And the cycle spins

I haven't felt like writing recently. There has been a lot of stress in my life the last couple of weeks, most of it related to a huge financial snafu that totally wasn't my fault. Without going into the entire story, suffice it to say Discover SUCKS and their customer service line couldn't be less interested in helping when the huge whopping mistake is undeniably THEIR FAULT! *deep cleansing breath*

Anyway, on Friday, as I was helping my kiddos do a really fun measuring worksheet that involves running madly around the classroom and measuring various objects with your hands or feet - what? I have to teach nonstandard measurement, I might was well make it fun! - one of the speech pathologists slipped quietly into my room. She walked over and whispered in my ear "Guess who is up in the office RIGHT NOW?" I thought for a second, then a bubble of glee spread through me as I breathed "Toddler Girl?" with great hope. The speech path nodded and grinned and I burst into a spontaneous ear to ear smile of utter delight. I know, I complained about her when she was here before, but I have worried and thought about her every day that she was gone and honestly, I am tickled pink to have her back. It was nearly lunchtime, so I hustled my class through tidying up and getting hands washed, in the hopes I would be able to catch Toddler Girl in the office while Toddler Mom was still filling out paperwork and give her a welcome back hug. No luck, I missed them by minutes. But the secretary assured me that Toddler Girl will be rejoining my class on Monday!

I tracked down Mrs. SPED to let her know that Toddler Girl was back, and unfortunately she wasn't nearly as thrilled by that news as I was. Her response was an eye roll, a huge sigh, and "GREAT!" in a sarcastic tone. She cheered up a bit when we discovered that the other school had indeed succeeded in getting Toddler Mom to sign the SPED paperwork, so Toddler Girl is ready to start SPED after winter break. Yes, I agreed to keep her in the regular classroom for this last week before winter break - we aren't doing anything THAT academic that she will be too much of a pain in the neck and the kids will be so thrilled to see her that I don't want to take her away from them immediately. I told the class right before we left on Friday that Toddler Girl would be back on Monday and the overwhelming reaction was joy, which was heart warming to say the least. I worked so hard to get them to love and accept her for who she was and what she could do and the fact that they greeted the news of her return with clapping and yells of happiness made me feel like I had succeeded.

So my little classroom family will be complete again. This has been an unusually stable year - Toddler Girl is the only one who has moved out and she is back, we've only had 1 other student move in (Southern Belle) and she has been with us long enough that she no longer feels like "the new girl". I love stable years, they really let the class build tight bonds of friendship and give me a chance to utterly fall in love with my kids!