Miss Bennett in the Bay

On the day before Christmas break, my students gave to me…
12 birthday stickers
11 colored pages
10 happy smiles
9 chocolate pieces
8 tiny candles
7 Christmas songs
6 funny snapshots
5 great big hugs
4 silly jokes
3 head aches
2 candle holders
and one giant Toblerone!

I love being a teacher on Christmas. Even though the kids are nuts that day, it’s really fun to see their spontaneous joy. They really get to just be kids that day.

For example, I told my students that Saturday was my birthday. This made them very excited. They started coloring like mad. I now have a huge stack of really nicely colored pictures as birthday presents on my desk. Later in the day, I gave them their presents, which included some holiday foam stickers from the Dollar Store. One of my students gave me one as a birthday present. Pretty soon, all of them joined in on this trend and my shirt was just covered with foam stickers. I looked pretty ridiculous, but I thought it was funny. One of my students looked at me thoughtfully and said, “Ms. Bennett, you’re our Christmas tree!”

During our class party, S, a very outgoing and kind boy asked me if he could sing.
Me: Well, S, I’m not going to put on the music from our holiday program, we already did that last night!
S: No, I mean, just with my mouth! Just sing with my mouth!
Me: Um, ok…
S (waving arms grandly): Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Happy happy happy day!

Believe me, I’m grateful to have 2 weeks off. But I am looking forward to being with my students again in 2009.

This week, we received notice that the superintendent of our district had quit. The report was that she had received almost $300,000 in severance pay- more than she should have gotten according to her contract.

Really? The State of California is going bankrupt and our school district is spending money on someone who doesn’t even want to be here? Did I miss something? How about taking that money and spending it on something actually helpful? For example, toilets that actually flush, so the children aren’t walking through filth in the bathrooms? Call me crazy, but something is seriously wrong here.

Just wait. Karma’s a bitch.