On a pedestal

All of my childhood teachers were different. Some were strict, some were funny, some were old...-er than some other people, some were young and apparently just out of college, some were pretty, some were loud, some were soft-spoken. I could go on and on, as I'm sure you could as well about the myriad of teachers you've had throughout the years. But one thing was the same about all of them...I placed them on a pedestal. I loved my teachers. I pretty much wanted to be just like my teachers when I grew up.

And now that I'm a teacher, I have to wonder if I have that same type of appeal, that same type of magic that my teachers seemed to have. I almost want to go to my kids and say,

"You have no idea how I act when I'm not around you. I curse, I make raunchy jokes, I watch TV shows that would make your grandparents blush (well, my grandparents anyway....most of their grandparents are in their 40s and probably watching the exact same shows), I say mean things, and I pretty much do almost everything I tell you NOT to do in my classroom. So don't aspire to me like me. I'm not as amazing as you want me to be."

But I digress...

SIDENOTE: For a few years, I had been growing my hair out to give away to Locks of Love. Suffice to say, my hair was pretty long. I'd start off the day with my hair down, but it would almost always end up in a ponytail. And in that ponytail went at least one pen. And when I needed something to write with, I would reach up, and I would have my pen. Reflecting on this, I suppose it was pretty gross, but at least it was convenient. When my hair finally grew to the Locks of Love length of ten inches, I cut it. I loved my new, short 'do. But I didn't even THINK about the fact that I now would not have a new place to put my pen. So I had to made do with what I had...and I started hanging my pen on my name tag lanyard. Necessity is the mother of invention I suppose, as I actually found this to be a more convenient (and less gross) place to carry my pen.

In my school, everyone is required to wear a name tag...for safety reasons. But we were never given means for which students could wear their name tags. No clips, no lanyards, no necklaces. We were told we would receive something, and I've been holding out as long as I could for clips. But finally, I just couldn't wait anymore; I decided to go all ghetto and use yarn to make name tag necklaces. Yarn is fairly effective, though it gives my kids something else to play with while I'm teaching. However, now almost all of my kids have name tag necklaces, just like me (and I say almost all, because some have lost the privilege of wearing their name tags in the classroom because they use them as noisemakers, chew toys, or a device in which they try to strangle themselves). And last week, I saw one of my students had brought in a pen...and was wearing it on her name tag necklace....just like I do! And the next day, another student brought in a pen, and she was also wearing it on her name tag necklace.

I have to say...I was pretty flattered. Because somewhere along the line, I must have picked up that magic that all of my old teachers seemed to have.