Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Names

My students do not know my name, and I am not doing much better. Top contenders of the last few days:
"Miss Always" (OK, fair)
"Miss Hallway" (never heard that before)
"Hey music teacher lady!" (hey now.)
"Mr. Alway" (my personal favorite)

Meanwhile, I have 450 names to learn and I'm not making much progress. 450 is a lot of kids! I think I pretty much win the "oooh I have soooo many students" game, all the time. The sheer number of sweet (ish) innocent (ish) little (ish) children is complicated by the fact that they have extremely unusual names, Mississippi accents, and squeaky little voices. Also sometimes they lisp. And they mumble. Is it any wonder, then, that I can't tell Quadarrius from Quintarrius?

Still, though, life is good. I have been, variously:
  • amazed that at least 60% of my fifth and sixth graders could identify a recording as B.B. King (who was born right down the road in Indianola, you see)
  • appalled that no one in a fourth grade class could recognize the national anthem
  • quite pleased when those same fourth graders COULD in fact recognize it today, retaining the knowledge that I taught them last week
  • surprised that, when I put on the recording I was going to use to work with my fifth graders on clapping a steady beat, they spontaneously began clapping on beats 2 and 4, with no prompting from me. Seeing my surprised look: "Oh, Miss, we be clappin' like that in church!" Aaaaah. Awesome!
Also, today was an especially good day because I did not have to mop up urine (which I did yesterday, with my foot and some paper towels, whilst continuing to explain what a composer was AND comforting the crying source of said urine, all at the same time. Let no one say that teachers don't have to multitask). My life is silly.
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6 comments:

  1. RosaAugust 19, 2009 at 12:07 AM

    Aww. That's super cute (except for the peeing part) Ms. Music Teacher Lady.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ThanhAugust 19, 2009 at 3:40 AM

    Oh my God, teaching sounds TERRIFYING. Keep blogging please

    <3

    ReplyDelete
  3. DianaAugust 19, 2009 at 10:04 AM

    I get "yes, sir" all the time in TKD. It's a little weird. But 450 kids???

    ReplyDelete
  4. SteveAugust 19, 2009 at 9:04 PM

    You have much to learn about the South.

    ReplyDelete
  5. RebeccaAugust 19, 2009 at 10:12 PM

    Wow, I only get called "teacher." I wish my students could come up with more original names.

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownAugust 22, 2009 at 4:07 PM

    Dear Mr. Hallways,

    I have a nephew named "Anfernee," and I know how mad he gets when I call him "Anthony." Almost as mad as I get when I think about the fact that my sister named him "Anfernee."

    I have a mission for you! At the stroke of midnight, you need to walk down to the windswept crossroads at the junction of Highways 61 and 49 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Then, you should recite an ancient incantation, calling upon Satan himself to rise from the fires of Hell and tune your guitar. At this point, the Devil is going to take your immortal soul, but, more importantly, you'll have unearthly guitar skillz.

    ReplyDelete

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