How to decide if you want to be a teacher

Yesterday I had recess duty and it was cold and intermittently snowing and raining and I would just like May to know that I expect better of her.

A third grader (not one of mine) kicked a stray soccer ball way harder than he needed to return it to the game and it hit a kid.  I told him he should apologize.  He sneered at me and said, "I didn't do it on purpose."

(What can I say?  Some of them are very...charming.)

I said, "It's the right thing to do to apologize when you hurt someone even if it was an accident."  He looked unconvinced so I added, "It's what grown-ups do."

He said, "Well I don't even want to be a teacher, so there."

To my credit I didn't say what I was thinking, that school children everywhere would thank him.

At lunch time, the administrators gave us lemonade in fancy cups with paper umbrellas in honor of teacher appreciation week.  My students were very impressed.  They wanted to know where I got the cup and did I want to keep it.  I said yes I want to keep it, mostly because I didn't want them arguing over who got it.

I told them that it was for teacher appreciation week.

One of the girls said to the other, "I'm going to be a teacher!"

She replied, "Me too!"

So when deciding on your future career kids, teachers get fancy cups, but the downside is that they have to have basic manners.

I guess decide if it's worth it....