The Meanest Teacher In the World
- By Laura Phillips
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- 15 Jan, 2014
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It was my first year teaching, and we had just finished eating cupcakes outside. It was at the end of the day so I was going to let the students play outside. However, we needed to come inside and clean up our faces before parents came to pick up. I told the students to line up and one of them said, “I don’t want to go inside!” I didn’t respond and told the class to walk inside. As we are making our way down the hallway the same student yells very loudly, “You’re the meanest teacher in the world!” The yelling was also accompanied with some feet stomping. I told the students to go to the classroom and sit down and that I would be right back. I turned quickly and began to smile.
You might be wondering why I smiled…Well… it didn’t make me mad; it actually made me very happy. While I was in college, preparing to become a teacher, one of my professors said that it is a great honor to be the “meanest teacher”. It means you are doing your job and that your students will thank you for it in the long run.
So after I took a minute to collect myself, I went back to the class and we proceeded to go outside. The student apologized and we moved on with the remainder of our day.
I am a mean teacher!
A MEAN teacher insists that students hand in their assignments on time and takes off points for late assignments.
A MEAN teacher does not accept incomplete assignments.
A MEAN teacher requires each student to think carefully and to make her/his own decisions.
A MEAN teacher holds each student responsible for her/his own behavior.
A MEAN teacher makes students keep the classroom, themselves, and their belongings neat and clean.
A MEAN teacher does not allow free time in class until all class-work is done.
A MEAN teacher gives homework regularly, sometimes even on weekends.
A MEAN teacher calls on students who don’t raise their hands to answer questions.
A MEAN teacher requires all students to treat each other with respect.
A MEAN teacher makes life miserable for students by insisting that they always tell the truth.
A MEAN teacher produces students who are respectful, responsible, and successful.
THE WORLD NEEDS MORE MEAN* TEACHERS!
*(MEAN = Making Excellence A Necessity)
Media Mentions
Our Book Fair is March 9-13. We look forward to visiting the “jungle” to search for some great books!
February top readers are as follows:
Kindergarten: Allison McElvy and Phoebe Benson (11 points)
1st Grade: Rowan Benson (21 points)
2nd Grade: Yates Lashley (20 points)
3rd Grade: Layton Caldwell (22 points)
4th Grade: William Lashley (29 points)
5th Grade: Beth Landrum (10 points)
These students will enjoy lunch off campus!
My seventh grade science class has been doing some labs this week. We grew bacteria that was collected from different items in an incubator. They got to see how much bacteria is lurking and what it actually looks like. They compared bacteria and fungus. They also used the scientific method in performing this experiment and discussed independent and dependent variables. This was a nice break from note taking!!!
Hello Everyone
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! We hope you all had a GREAT winter break. We are happy to be back in class. First grade has been working hard in January. We celebrated our 100th day of school. We are working on the first story of our fourth reading unit. This school year is flying by. We are all working hard to reach our goals for AR quizzes. First graders ARE SMITTEN with books. Our top AR reader in January is Rowan. Keep up the good work First Grade.
We are looking forward to February; we will be doing a “Tell me something good” project for Valentine’s Day. We will write a nice comment about each student in the class on hearts. The ground hog did not see his shadow so we hope we can start enjoying the warmer weather of spring. We had a great time doing an experiment to see if we could blow up a balloon inside a bottle. Thank you to Mrs. Flanary and everyone else who helped us conduct our experiment. Do you think you can do it? Give it a try! Well that is all the news for now. Have a Wonderful February!
January was a busy time in 4th Grade! In Reading, we read stories about puzzles and mysteries. We focused on literary elements and plot/theme. In Alabama History, we started discussing Alabama’s Early Statehood – specifically the first 5 capitals. In Science, we talked about Earth’s Changes like erosion. We did our first Weird Science Wednesday and completed an Ice Castle STEM Challenge. WOW – it is hard to believe how quickly the year is passing!
Our
great year continues!
January has been a busy month in the library! We’ve gotten back in the groove after the break, and we’ve enjoyed making books of our own, and performing Readers Theater scripts!
Our Spring Book Fair is coming up! It will be held during the week of March 9-13. We will be open from 7:30-2:30 Monday-Thursday, and 7:30-11:00 on Friday. “ Finger Foods with Families ” will be held Monday morning from 7:30-8:00. Please come and join us for shopping and snacks. Grandparent luncheons will be held on Tuesday, March 10 for grades K-3, and Wednesday, March 11 for grades 4-6. More information will come home with students soon.
Top AR readers for this month are:
K: Phoebe Benson- 10 points
1st: Rowan Benson- 30.3 points
2nd: Yates Lashley- 34.4 points
3rd: Layton Caldwell- 18.3 points
4th: Eben Sasser- 14.4 points
5th: Beth Landrum- 36.5 points
6th: Easton Janowiecki- 18 points
Congratulations to these students!
The second graders are learning a new way to write ----- cursive!
Cohen had a tooth pulled and has now joined our Tooth Club. We have 6 members now!
Harleen guessed the closest number of triangles in the Triangle Tree! She guessed 32.
The first week after Christmas break was “Frog and Toad Week!” We listened to 4 books about two very good friends, wrote about our favorite Frog and Toad story, and practiced letter writing by writing 3 Frog and Toad letters. We read “A Lost Button” and did an activity with that story with K-5.
We continued our letter writing the next week by writing 2 letters to our classmates and mailing them via Class Mail. After reading “Flat Stanley,” we mailed Flat Fred/Freida letters to someone who does not live with us! After visiting for a week, they wrote back telling us what Flat Fred/Freida did and saw. We are sharing our letters with our classmates as soon as the letters come in.
January 27th was our 100th Day of School! We celebrated with activities, refreshments, and goody bags! Many thanks to Mrs. Dianne Lee for baking our cake. We ate every bit of it! For several years, Lowe’s Pharmacy has blown up 100 balloons for us! The children enjoyed weaving through all the ribbons in our hallway!
We have had a great month! The students are making great progress learning sight words and sounding out simple words. We made Christmas ornaments and decorated our tree.
