Notes From My Class

I am a packrat. I save everything! So, as I was looking for some pictures of Alan and I, I came across some of the papers I had saved from my teaching years. LOL I always keep things that make me smile.

Since I taught English, I usually made my students write an essay for anything they got in trouble for. For instance, using offensive language:

If you can't read it, it says (with corrected spelling):

It is not appropriate to say "eat me" because it is not kind to say that because I guess it means something that offends Mr. Bevans so I guess I should stop saying it. Sorry

I should explain that Mr. Bevans refers to my dad. I always shared with my students the words like "dork" that I used to get in trouble for saying because they offended my dad. So, "eat me" must have fallen into that category. Most likely because my student didn't know what it meant in slang, and I didn't want to explain...so I blamed its obscenity on my upbringing :)

Another offender had to write an essay about getting caught cheating.
It says:

Mine and Debbie's paper were the same cause I did the definitions but I forgot we had to do the sentences. So I asked if I could use hers. If you are going to give any one a 0 give it to me not her. It's not her fault it's mine. I'll just fail this class again! My dad will kill me but that's my problem not yours. So you can give me a 0 if u want.

I love the guilt trip. Mind you this was an "A" student until she discovered boys. It always amazed me that my students didn't think I was going to notice if assignments or reports were word for word the same. I guess there must be teachers out there who do not look at homework or something. But really, don't you think it would take just as much time to write your own sentence using a vocabulary word as it would to copy someone else's?

I sometimes wonder what kind of a teacher I was. I have notes from kids who loved me and notes from kids who hated me. (I told you I keep everything!) There was a girl in our ward named Mary Newton, who I think also lived in 3rd ward for a while and now lives in Portland. I was actually her junior high teacher in Utah. (Which is so sad because it makes me feel so old! But I was a young teacher) What a small world! I asked her if I was a horrid teacher to have, and she said she actually liked my class...but what else would you say to someone asking you that question years later at Enrichment ? LOL I guess I'll never know.