Be Careful What You Tell Children

Teachers hear all kinds of things, some can be so off the wall that you just nod your head or sometimes I respond by saying,
I'm not sure your family member wanted you to share that." I however have learned that children will share everything, so people should be really careful what they tell their child. Today was one of those days where I should have taken my own advice.

Today was picture day, so naturally I went through some rules for pictures in the morning.

Rule #1: Do not be like one of my classmates, who in the fourth grade stuck the little black comb in his mouth for the class picture. When everyone received their class picture the child's mouth was black. I must say back in fourth grade this was hysterical, but I do remember the teacher not being pleased.

Rule #2: After pictures do not play with the comb and remember that it is not a curling iron. My first year teaching fourth grade I had a child who tried to curl her hair with the comb. I spent a half hour trying to get her hair out before sending her to someone else. I thought we were going to have to cut it out of her hair.

Rule #3: When the photographer tells you to say stinky cheese, stinky feet, monkey, money, etc. do not get really excited and just say it a little. Last year, one of my darling students got very excited by this and her picture came back with her mouth wide open and eyebrows raised. I told the students our goal is to have beautiful pictures.

When it was time for pictures, everything was going smoothly. That is until it was Daniel's turn. The photographer tells Daniel to say, "money." Daniel says absolutely nothing, the photographer doesn't take a picture, but says, "Oh, you don't want to say money?" Daniel replies, "My teacher told us not to say money." The photographer looks at me, then asks Daniel to say stinky feet. Daniel again doesn't say anything and says, "Actually, she doesn't want us to say any of your words."

Oops, I don't know what I was thinking. I ended up telling the photographer that I had the child last year with the raised eyebrows and open mouth whose parents sent the photos back saying unacceptable. I didn't want this year's students to have open mouth pictures, so I asked them not to really say the words allowed. I must say it was rather an awkward moment.

Name Changes

This week in reading, we have been reading the story, "My Name is Maria Isabel." It is a cute story about a little girl who would like to be called by her name, but with two Marias already in her class, her teacher decides to call her Mary. This morning, I gave the children a journal question, "Why do you believe Maria Isabel wanted to be called by her name?" The kids came up with several answers and used the story to help guide their answers. One of the children said that they heard that you can change your name. I told them this was true, that some people do change their name. They asked why, so I said maybe they didn't like their name. Thankfully, many of the children do not feel the same way about their name and do not wish to ever change their names. However, I did have one. One of my many animal lovers spoke up and said that she would like to change her name to Catherine, so everyone can call her Cat. She will now forever be named Catherine in my blog. :)