Old Maid Teacher Jennifer

So today in class we were making up sentences using the verb “is” in my kindergarten class… One student says, “My teacher is very pretty”….then Alex (my very precocious student) says “My chinese teacher iss…isss. very young” “Really Alex…how do you know? …My Chinese teacher is a thirty eight year old..very young”. “Alex…do you know [...]

Read Full Post »

The babies on the bus go wah-wah-wah

Those who know me, know I don’t “do” crying. I am not a fan of crying in public, other people crying, or me crying. Generally sniffling and sobbing makes me intensely uncomfortable. Today 5 separate students of mine cried. Fuck. The extent of my reaction is to hand them a tissue, beg them to stop, [...]

Read Full Post »

Face diamonds

In class today we were learning shapes. Yesterday I did the easy ones: circle, square, triangle. Today I thought we’d mix it up a bit: heart, oval, diamond.When I get to diamond and start drawing it, Thomas stops and says, “Teacher…diamond on your face.” I stop, and think what?….Then I realize. The nose ring. I [...]

Read Full Post »

Learning Curve

So my learning curve for classrooms I’ve decided is three days. It took 3 days to master the pre-K class and since today was the first day of teaching kindergarten as well as second grade, neither was mastered, maybe awkwardly handled, and finally completed. Managed to pretend I wasn’t sick all day. That and talking [...]

Read Full Post »

Poetry oh-noetry

Vacation Trip Jennifer is Sick Hides inside Drinks some wine First day of school… I thought I was done with this crap? Maybe that doesn’t rhyme, but then again poetry was never my thing, my thing was Victorian Literature, and all things written  by dead old white men. As Pat knows about my diatribes against [...]

Read Full Post »