Man, no wonder I don't know what 9 x 9 is!

 Yesterday I went to Trader Joe's after school to pick up a few things for my Connections party on Friday.  I decided to name my quarterly gathering I have with my teacher friends Connections because it needed a name and I want to stay connected to them.

The guy at the check stand said, "Third grade teacher?"

Pointing to my Third Grade Crew t-shirt, I said, "How did you know?"

He said, "Lucky guess."

Then, like people often tell me, he said, "I remember my 3rd grade teacher."

I was prepared to hear some warm and cozy memory and he said, "She was pregnant and we had subs all the time.  All we did was watch movies.  It seems like we watched movies every day."

I said, "That's terrible!"

He said, "Yeah, I loved it at the time, but now I think, 'Man, no wonder I don't know what 9 X 9 is!'"

I don't show my students movies every day, but sadly some of them might emerge not knowing what 9 X 9 is.

Yesterday I had a little knot of students playing with something under their desks.

I said, "Put whatever you are playing with on my desk."

One of them sheepishly asked, "All of them?"

I said, "Yes."

Why they had four of these pens between them under the desks is beyond me.

At recess, I broke up the band.  I moved desks, like I do.

They had been in class a full 30 minutes when one of the chatty kids almost fell off her chair, because she was so startled by the quiet girl sitting next to her.

"How long has she been there?!?" she gasped.

"Since recess," I said.  "I moved desks."

It made me feel better about them not always picking up what I'm setting down.  I'm trying. 

It isn't always a me problem....

(And I need about twelve more quiet girls to slip next to students.)