Thankful

Thanks to my week-long Thanksgiving Break, I was able to attend my daughter's Thanksgiving feast at her preschool today. After watching an hour of her class, I am thankful for so many things:
I'm thankful my students can put their own clothes on.
I'm thankful my students can take care of their own potty needs.
I'm thankful I don't have to do playground duty when it's cold and damp outside.
I'm thankful that snack time doesn't automatically equal vacuum time in my room.
I'm thankful that I don't have the opportunity to laugh at something these small kids say and damage their self-esteem forever.

However, I'm also thankful that I got the opportunity to watch my daughter play with her friends.
I'm thankful that several of the children shared the process of making their projects with me.
I'm thankful that my daughter has really good table manners.
I'm thankful that my daughter gets a fantastic education from some of the best preschool teachers on the planet.

Finally, I'm thankful I get a week to recharge my batteries before the push to Christmas Break. I so needed this.

Murderous Rage

There's a business not too far from my house with a banner outside. The banner reads:

We will beat
all competitors
tire prices

This banner brings out a murderous rage that only a fellow English/Language Arts teacher would understand. We try and we try and we try, but in the end, it doesn't always matter. Somehow, someway, that one kid who slipped through the apostrophe crack managed to get whatever position at this company that's in charge of getting banners to display out front. I should mention that this is a national company with numerous stores, not some mom-and-pop set up at the corner of Isolated and Nowhere.And this banner is HUGE.

What I want to do is sneak out there in the middle of the night with a ladder and a can of paint. There are two things stopping me: 1) I would get caught because my mama didn't raise me to be a vandal and 2) I'm really, really lazy and don't like staying up late or getting up early.

For now, I will give this business the evil eye each time I go by. I will also, now and forever, believe that these people are idiots who are killing the English language one left-out apostrophe at a time. (This might be a mean statement, but they are advertising themselves as such with that giant, idiotic banner. Really, people, grammar-check your orders!)

A Note to a Student

Dear student-

Just a tip: when you copy and paste your essay from the internet, you should remove the web page information. I promise you I'll still catch you, but it'll make my job just a smidgen more difficult. Plus, it gives me greater satisfaction when I track your source down. Right now, I'm only slightly proud of myself. I mean, really, it was beyond easy to find "your" essay on the Internet.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Edwards