"What's my name?"

Working with preschoolers and having a really long name like Ms. Richardson results in being called some very interesting things...

1. MRS. Richardson...students, parents, coworkers, etc ALWAYS marry me off! The sad thing is, I constantly call myself Mrs. Richardson too.
2. Teacher...to which I respond, "What's my name?"
3. Ms. Witch-ardson...I try not to take this one personally even though I really love Halloween and witches. In my students defense, the beginning sound of "R" is hard to pronounce at their age.
4. Richardson...said by one of my afternoon kids who I've had for 2 years now. And said in a tone that adults use when they might say "damn it" in an angry tone. But he's never angry. EVER! It just comes across that way only when he said my name. And he has NEVER used the Ms. part. It makes me smile inside every time he says it.
5. Mom...they're little kids! Of course they get confused and call me mom in a weak moment. We've all done it at some point during our school years.
6. Aunt Teri...for the past two years I've had two of my nieces in my class who call me Aunt Teri. They called me that at school too, which I let them get away with because to them, that is who I am. The funny thing is, both years there was a few girls in the class who tried to call me Aunt Teri too. One of the girls happens to be a girl who's family I have been babysitting for since before she was even born. She seemed to think she would get away with it because she was aware that we had a special connection too unlike the rest of the kids. I definitely didn't let that fly.

There's more, but these are the classics, and the only ones I can think of at the moment.

You Get What You Get...

There's a saying in preschool that goes "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit". We use it most when students say things like "But I want pink" or "I don't like this one"....
My afternoon class is a little crazy, mainly because I'm by myself with 11 preschoolers who are either full of energy or want to just fall asleep (and to be honest, all I want to do is fall asleep too). Yesterday was crazier than normal in a lot of ways. Two seconds before the clean up bell was going to ring, I spotted a boy who had gone potty in his pants for the second time in a week. I sent him into the bathroom, had my snack helper ring the clean up bell, dashed out to the boy's bucket to get his change of clothes, tossed the clothes into the bathroom in hopes that maybe this time he could change all by himself, rallied the rest of the class to clean up every inch of the carpet area they had been playing on, all while trying to throw snack out on the tables because right after clean up is snack. If you're not one step ahead of preschoolers, you've lost them for the day. At this moment I was no where near one step ahead which resulted in all my students (minus the one in the bathroom still standing there in his wet underwear and pants) sitting at the tables with a cup of water and a napkin in front of them wondering where the rest of their snack was. This is where I lost them. 10 kids sitting there acting and sounding like wild animals while I try to pass out bananas. Chris is loudly saying "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah..."which can be heard over all the other ciaos. As his neighbor Nate shouts out "I don't like bananas. I don't want one!" I think in my head "I need to tell Chris to Shhhhh!!!!" but realized I needed to address the "I don't like bananas" issue first and then tell Chris to "Shhhh!!!" So I turn to Nate and start to say "You get what you get and you don't throw a....". In the back of my head I'm still thinking "Shhhhhh Chris". So what ends up coming out of my mouth is "You get what you get and you don't throw a sh*t"....because what happens when you combine the words "fit" and "shhh"?....yes, "sh*t"! I said sh*t in preschool!! Fortunately it either went right over the kids head OR they didn't hear it because they were making so much noise. As I'm literally doubled over laughing at what I just said I hear Chris start to repeat the saying and start to panic that he is going to repeat exactly what I just said. Thankfully, he said it the right way and then shut himself up.
Ooops, Ms. Richardson lost her brain for a second! That was a close call.

The sweetest story

The first story I have to share is a sweet story rather than a funny. A few days before preschool started my cousin and her daughters made a surprise visit to my classroom. I had Grace in my class 2 years ago and Ruby last year. This will be the first year without seeing my love bugs EVERY DAY for two years. It really does make my heart sad. Anyways, Katie and I were chatting as the girls patiently stood and had a look around the room. After a few minutes, Grace interrupts our conversation by randomly blurting out to no one in particular, "It's like your dreams came true." Katie asked her what she meant and she responded, "Aunt Teri! It's like her dreams came true!" Katie and I both looked at her puzzled and asked again what she meant. Grace explained to me, "I remember you told me a long time ago you dreamed of becoming a teacher and now you have your own classroom. It's like your dreams came true." She said it so sweet and innocently, with so much thought, care and excitement. She realized something that had never even occurred to me. This is why I love her more than I could ever explain...Yes Grace, this has been a dream of mine and it has come true!

Funnies

I decided I needed to start a blog to keep track of all my work stories. Almost daily something happens that makes me think "I gotta remember that" and I never do remember it. Now that I have my very own classroom, why not have my very own blog to keep track of all the "funnies" that happen. With 45 students, there's bound to be a lot of funnies. But in order to keep things confidential, I'll change the names of the students in my stories.

funnies = funny stories