Principal Moment
All teachers have those days when we think the cashier’s position at any store is looking pretty good. But then just when we’re about to lose our minds, a student does or says something that reminds us of why we went into this profession in the first place.
Principal Moment
This week is Riverview Teacher Appreciation Week. I truly appreciate our teachers!
Our teachers take slivers out of fingers and bad sports out of kick ball. They know when a child has gum in his mouth even when he is not chewing. They have sung “Happy Birthday” 657 times.
They hand over scissors with the handles up. They can listen to one child talk about his birthday party and another talk about her sleepover and another talk about getting stitches last night-all at the same time.
Principal Moment
There are certain things that a teacher must never do: Never pour Plaster of Paris down the sink. Never stand on a bathroom scale when teaching your students about pounds and ounces. Never throw a wilted flower away in front of the child who gave it to you no matter how droopy it is. And never forget to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day.
Principal Moment
I don’t know why, but kids like to talk about their parents’ ages. It is a predictable subject of conversation. Every year, at some time, I will hear one student ask another, “How old is your mom?”
I remember when I first heard the question. I was twenty-two years old, fresh out of college and newly married.
When I heard students announce their parents age as thirty-five; I thought, wow, their parents are old!
Principal Moment
As a very young child I was invited to sing at church groups and community meetings. What I lacked in tone, I made up for in volume. Whenever retirement homes, civic meetings or ladies church groups had a problem, I was invited to sing. I think I helped them realize that my voice was a lot worse than their problem.
Principal Moment
Over the years, I have read countless picture books and I always return to the fairy tales. When I was a classroom teacher, my class would compare and contrast fairy tales. When discussing their similarities, the children mentioned the existence of magic, witches, castles, elves, spells, curses, which one is a Disney movie, and so forth. But they always left out one very important commonality – food.
Principal Moment
Did you ever wonder where the Boy Who Cried Wolf went to school? About ten years ago, he was in my first grade class. He usually talked with his fingers crossed behind his back. About once a week, he would walk up to me and point to the sky, or my shoes, or my hair and scream, “Mrs. Killian, look!” I would look and he would shout, “You looked!” And laugh. It was the highlight of his day.
Some days, I would refuse to look and this would drive him crazy.
Principal Moment
To celebrate the hundredth day of school, young children all over the country sing songs, shout cheers, read books, count numbers, chant poems, make murals, and string Froot Loop necklaces. When I was a kid, no one celebrated 100th Day. Now it’s huge.
Principal Moment
Principal Moment
Over the years teachers get quite good at telling when a child will be sick. You see, germs are sequential. They tend to travel side to side. Seldom do they jump to the student behind or in front. And rarely do they skip rows.
If Ronny sits next to Emily, and Emily sits next to Anthony, and Ronny gets sick; teachers know that Emily will be sick in a day or two. And when Emily is out, they know that soon Anthony will be watching cartoons and eating popsicles at home.