Coffee, Hot Chocolate and Missiles

Today, in honor of President's Day, I asked my students to draw a picture of what they would do if they were the president.  Several mentioned that they would make gas free, several said they would close all the schools (I get a few of those every year!) and one rather eclectic student said he would lay on the carpet, play darts and paint the walls pink! But the most interesting idea came from one of my students who is usually not prone to inventive or imaginative answers.  He brought me a picture of a machine with three buttons and a stick figure president with his hand near one of the buttons.  When I asked him what the buttons were for he said, " One button is for coffee, one button is for hot chocolate and one button is for the missiles to kill the evil doers and the drug dealers".  Coffee, Hot Chocolate and Missiles.  Works for me.

You Shouldn't Drink and Drive

"You shouldn't drink and drive, Mrs. Riddle.  You could have a wreck"  This is what one of my students told me very earnestly.  I assured him that I would never, ever do that and took advantage of what I saw as a perfect "teachable moment" to do a little mini lesson on the dangers of drinking and driving.  I was quite proud of myself until the student explained why drinking and driving could cause you to have a wreck.  Apparently, his father and another man in the truck next to him were exchanging insults while driving down the road.  The other man then threw his open beer can on the dad's windshield, beer spilled all over the windshield and his dad hit a tree.  And that, my friends is why you should never drink and drive.

Zombies are not real

I teach special education in an elementary school and I love it...  most of the time. I wear many hats and one of them is to take a small, eclectic group of younger students and work with them on reading and math skills. I call them my little bitties. There are 6 of them and I have them the first hour of my day. I never really know what is going to happen each day, and that used to bother me, but as the year has progressed, I've learned to just roll with it. For example, on Monday my lesson plans showed that we would be exploring the wonders of the short o word family, but instead, I spent the morning trying to convince one of my students that zombies were not real. No they are not. I know you saw them last night on tv, but not everything on tv is real. No it's not. Just because your cousin says that a zombie ate his cat does not mean they are real. Zombies are NOT REAL! As I passed his desk, I heard him whisper, "Zombies are real" very, very quietly. Sometimes, you just have to let it go. So if your cat is missing...... maybe the zombies got him!