Gifts and such
It's the most wonderful time of the year! The kids are making ornaments, getting glitter everywhere, and covering everything in chocolate, but it's okay because a mere three weeks stand between the first day after Thanksgiving break and a glorious winter break!
It is around this time of year that I jovially reflect on the strange assortment of gifts I've received from students. I've only been a real teacher for a year, but these are some of the quirky takeaways:
Yes, that's right: a fashionable nutcracker and a grandma mug!
Let me offer up a memory of when I was a student. My mother gave me a package of Ferrero Rocher chocolates to give my first-grade teacher for Christmas. When the glorious moment of me giving them to her arrived, she opened them and exclaimed, "Chocolates!? Now I really won't be able to fit in the door!"
As a child-- and, admittedly, sometimes as an adult-- I didn't process sarcasm, and this woman was deeply caustic. I wilted at the thought that she did not like my gift. Clearly, she thought of it as a ploy to give her coronary artery disease.
So with that memory in mind, I try to flash a huge smile and give each student a big hug when I receive a gift. Even the "I picked these dead flowers for you" gifts. I love every ounce of appreciation from those kiddos.
The kids are the real gift to this profession anyway.
It is around this time of year that I jovially reflect on the strange assortment of gifts I've received from students. I've only been a real teacher for a year, but these are some of the quirky takeaways:
Yes, that's right: a fashionable nutcracker and a grandma mug!
Let me offer up a memory of when I was a student. My mother gave me a package of Ferrero Rocher chocolates to give my first-grade teacher for Christmas. When the glorious moment of me giving them to her arrived, she opened them and exclaimed, "Chocolates!? Now I really won't be able to fit in the door!"
As a child-- and, admittedly, sometimes as an adult-- I didn't process sarcasm, and this woman was deeply caustic. I wilted at the thought that she did not like my gift. Clearly, she thought of it as a ploy to give her coronary artery disease.
So with that memory in mind, I try to flash a huge smile and give each student a big hug when I receive a gift. Even the "I picked these dead flowers for you" gifts. I love every ounce of appreciation from those kiddos.
The kids are the real gift to this profession anyway.
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