The other day, I took my kids to see "Ice Age 3" @ Garden State Plaza.
We were buying popcorn when a huge screech exploded in my ear. It came from a young girl, perhaps nine years old, who was talking to her mom on her cell phone.
"Oh, my God!" she yelled. "I got Mrs. Excellento!"
The other girl she was with--seemingly her BFF--looked anxious, to which the screamer asserted, "You have to call your mom and find out who you got!"
The girl complied, and when she heard the name of her teacher, she smiled and said, "Oh, I'm so happy! I love Ms. Goodnough!" She wasn't screeching, but she was well pleased.
A few days later, we got our teacher assignments. My son, doing his best Tween impersonation, shrugged and said, "Oh."
My daughter said, "Okay, mom. Great. What color playdough should I use for the fairy's hair?"
It's not that my kids dislike their upcoming teachers. My daughter knows her kindergarten teacher because my son had her and because she ran a sweet little day camp my girl attended over two summers. As for the third grade teachers, we don't know them all that well, but hear they are "good." Mostly, I think my son is just (I hate to admit it) a typical guy. He deals with things when he has to. Or something to that effect.
A few days have passed, and I've gotten assorted emails and heard in person who got whom and what parents think about it. But everyone around here seems, well, so subdued. This applies not just to kids/parents who attend our school, but others. I'm in no way convinced that it's a bad thing, but it does strike me as interesting somehow...
One friend emailed me just now when I asked how she felt about the teacher her son was assigned, the same one her daughter struggled with a couple of years ago.
"I'm okay with it," was her reply, "It'll teach him that life isn't perfect."
Soooooo, do YOU know any kids who've waxed rhapsodic in the past week upon hearing about their teachers? Or is that sort of over-the-top hilarity more about spin or personality (or something in the drinking water in Bergen county) than a reflection of what actually makes a good teacher?
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We don't go to your school, but my kids' reactions were pretty much exactly like yours. I remember being in school and being totatlly psyched up to hear who I got, andmostly being real happy with whomever i got! at least in elementry school. after that, it wasn't cool to act too excited (about anything)but i did CARE. a teacher i didn't "like" was usually one i didn't know so well, and sometimes it ended up okay. sometimes they were the most challengeing in a GOOD way.
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