Friday, February 22, 2008

A Kindergartener Heard Me POOT!

I looked at her. She looked at me. She said, "It wasn't me!" Everyone screamed!

ALLRIGHT--EVERYBODY FREEZE!!!!! Yes, it was me who pooted. I'm sorry. Right now I think the smell is behind me and I don't smell it yet. If everyone will just HOLD STILL I don't think the smell will move. If everyone starts moving around a breeze will start up and the smell will travel.

I still don't smell it, I think this is working. Does anyone smell it yet? (They are still holding still, but their little noses start wiggling) "No", they say. OK, then I think the smell is gone. Let's get back to work.

Monday, February 18, 2008

It's That Time

On February 14th, Jonathan came up to me and handed me this HUGE Snickers bar--which happens to be my favorite candy bar:

JONATHAN: Here Mr. Bowers, this is for your violence times.
MR. BOWERS: Huh?
JONATHAN: You know, for your violence times.
MR. BOWERS: Oh, you mean when I get mad at the kids, this will calm me down?
JONATHAN: No! You know, for violence times day--here is your violence times gift.
MR. BOWERS: Ohhh, Valentines--OK, thanks. Happy Violence Times Day to you Jonathan.

Bow to the Queen

Jada was being disrespectful to her teacher. I caught wind of the situation and decided to lend a hand:

Jada, I know you are a princess, right? I know that this is your kingdom and the rest of us are just living here, but you are forgetting one thing. You may be the princess, but your teacher is the Queen. No matter how big the princess gets, she still has to bow to the Queen. Whatever the Queen says, the princess does it. You got that?

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Know Your Audience

Seiei is a third grader. His name is pronounced like "Say-Yay". He is from Korea and he has this innocence that comes across as immaturity--but his classmates love him and don't make fun of him at all. Even if they were to make fun of him, I don't think he would even know they were doing it.

Yesterday, we were creating scenes in Drama where kids were playing baseball and they break an old man’s window. In Seiei's group, he was playing the part of the "old man". They came to the part where his window got broken and he comes running out saying, "Whoever broke my window--I'm gonna hug and kiss you!"

At first I thought I misunderstood or something. Then he says, "If you break my window again, I’m gonna hug and kiss you!" Then he starts chasing the kids around the room like he is gonna do it! The kids were rolling with laughter.

When the scene finished, I decided to ask Seiei about what he said. I thought the other kids must have put him up to it. I said, "Seiei, why did you say that if they did it again, you were gonna hug and kiss them?" Seiei said, "It's because I wanted the scene to be funny."

He was right, it was funny.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

True Dat

On the same weekend that the vandals broke into the school, the water pipes busted in one of the bathrooms and flooded the library, teacher workroom and a couple of classrooms. For the last couple of weeks, these rooms have been "out of order" as the repairs take place. In other words, the kids have not been to the library in quite a while.

So, the other day I was having a conversation with a new student:

MR. BOWERS: So, what do you think of our school so far?
KENYANIQUE: It's OK, my old school was better.
MR. BOWERS: Oh really? How was the Drama department at your school? Did you have a really cool Drama teacher?
KENYANIQUE: We didn't have Drama at our school.
MR. BOWERS: What? No Drama! How can your old school be better than this one if you didn't have Drama?
KENYANIQUE: You know, we just had better stuff, you know, like we had a better library and stuff.
MR. BOWERS: Hey, our school has a great library!
PERRY (who was eavesdropping): NOT NO MO WE DON'T!