Morning Thoughts

Well, this is the day where I go to teach a third grade how to say "My name is…" in Italian.

I will be SO glad when this lesson is over. I seem to have done nothing except obsess over it for days. Last night  quite late before I went to sleep, I started getting confused about was it "mi chiamO" or ‘mi ChiamA?" And, of course, in Italian, it does make a difference. I looked it up this morning and it is "mi chiamO!"  Which, of course, I actually knew all along! {But I am still making myself cards as aide memoires!}

I decided that if there was no Italian equivalent for the child’s name, I would find out what the name meant and give them a name that meant the same thing. I am giving each child a card folded over to put on his or her desk with their name in English on one side and in Italian on the other. I will ask them to put the one they want me to use facing me. One small problem I have is that I don’t know whether someone named "Arden" is a boy or a girl so I prepared two cards! {Most girls’ names end with -a and boys’ names end with -o.}

I am all dressed up which actually means I am not wearing jeans! In the school district where I taught there was a dress code for teachers as well as students. For teachers, no jeans of any color, no walking/athletic-type shoes and no shirts with slogans. The only exception was on the last Friday of each month when we could wear jeans and the school t-shirts or sweatshirts. For students, no shirts with offensive {think alcohol or sexual} slogans or pictures, no midriff showing for either sex and, for boys,  no loose baggy pants worn without a belt. Hmmm, what else…ok, no flipflops {those things are dangerous!}, no IPods or similar electronic toys. I don’t remember cell phones being a problem back then. {That would be the Dark Ages when middle schoolers didn’t come with a cell phone growing from their ears} No chains dangling from the waist {remember that fashion?} no gang insignia of any kind. Oh, and positively NO hats in the classroom. {I was a fanatical  enforcer of that one.}

I am actually in favor of school uniforms although I do remember hating mine. But back in my school then the summer uniform for girls was a dress in yellow checks! Who would choose to look like a walking picnic table? Before I left teaching, the city schools {I taught in the county} went to school uniforms and I remember my friend Teresa who taught eighth graders pointing out to me the way the students tried to get around it. They were not supposed to wear jeans of any kind. They were to wear pants {or skirts} in beige/khaki instead, Well, of course, out came the beige jeans and the innocent looks! What made me really think positively about uniforms was that in the second grade {we are talking seven-year-olds here} my son and his best friend would telephone each other in the mornings to say, "I’ll wear my cowboy boots if you wear yours! " And I remember when my older son was in high school and there was this big craze for used camouflaged coats. He left his in the gym and when he went back for it ten minutes later, it was stolen. And, no, *I* didn’t buy him another one. He saved his money and bought it himself.

I remember one time when my classes were learning to write persuasive paragraphs. The assignment was to write in favor of or against the wearing of school uniforms. Well, of course at the beginning of the discussion it was all no school uniforms because "I don’t want to dress like everyone else."  I asked them to observe their classmates… Everyone in the class was wearing blue jeans. Almost everyone was wearing the latest style in tshirts. Almost universally, they were wearing the latest craze in shoes… Individuals? Ha! I told them of my experience with uniforms. No being concerned about what I was going to be wearing the next day. No being worried about being in style –we all looked like walking picnic tableclothes.  No worrying about having our clothes stolen… It was interesting that after the preliminary list-writing and discussion, about half the class came out in favor of uniforms…

Ok, time for me to stop lolly-gagging around and get some things done befor I leave for the class this afternoon.

Until later….