Starfish Files: Well, that’s one way to learn a lesson

In teaching    March 8, 2011      3 Comments

More evidence that 4th graders are hilarious:

Scene: The class is enjoying some silent reading time, and they’re all cute and comfy since they’re wearing their pajamas for a special school-wide reading day. One little dude, I’ll call him Fozzie (yes, because he reminds me of the bear from the Muppets), is sitting near me as I work on something. He begins to chat with me and gets away with it since he’s highly entertaining.

Fozzie: Miss HasBrouck, what’s the worst mistake you ever made?

Me: Oh, gosh. I’m not sure. I’ll have to think about it. Do you know the worst mistake you’ve ever made?

Fozzie: Oh, yeah. For sure.

Me: Do you want to tell me the story?

Fozzie: Umm, well, it’s personal.

Me: You don’t have to tell me. . .

Fozzie: (with a little smile) Well, ok. So, one day my mom sent me upstairs with her key to use the restroom and I tried and tried to get the door unlocked and I just couldn’t. I was turning it and twisting and pushing and, yeah, well. . . I pooped my own pants.

Cue the giggling for both the student and the teacher, who really didn’t see that one coming.

And the conversation could have ended there as a pretty good story. But it kept going and really went for gold.

Me: Wow, that’s a bummer, Fozzie. I, um, don’t even really know what to say. So, what lesson did you learn from that big mistake?

Fozzie: Righty tighty, lefty loosey. My brother taught me afterwards.

Cue the out-right laughter from the teacher that distracted the entire class. Fozzie’s one funny bear.

 

  • This totally seems like a convo that would happen in my class! This is part of the reason our job is really great – you can’t make this stuff up! With your permission, I think I have to share this with friends and colleagues…

  • What a character. Love it. I remember letting my entertaining students get away with a little more sometimes đŸ™‚

  • And here I was so sure that a blog post advertised with “wocka wocka” would involve rock climbing. Oh well, you’re thoughts are never disappointing friend!

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