Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Excuse Me, But That Book Is MINE!

One very important lesson getting older has taught me is that if you don’t ask for something, you don’t get it…Duh! 

This wisdom has carried over into my classroom in terms of Back-to-School Night Wish Lists.  A few years ago I started hearing about teachers putting up wish lists at Back-to-School Night, but I was always too embarrassed to be that bold.  (I never want to be just one more person asking for one more thing from a parent.)  But…

As I watched other teachers get many of the items they asked for, and as I watched their classrooms fill up with really cool stuff, I thought, ‘Don’t be so stupid, just ask, if they don’t want to get it they won’t, but there’s truly no harm in asking.’  So…

I started asking for book sets to be used for reading groups (this means I need six copies of each book).  Not a small donation, mind you, but not a bank breaker for most folks, either.  What I have found is that many parents want to donate items like this and are glad to have something very specific to look for.  In any given year I might get five families who donate a set of books…over time that adds up, and I now have quite a nice library of reading group books thanks to these generous parents.  Anyway…

One of my dads very happily said he’d donate six copies of a Ready Freddy title I had on my list.  GREAT!  He ordered them, they arrived, and he sent his son to school with them.  His son was beyond thrilled!  In fact, he was so thrilled that he started giving them away!  With sheer pride on his face he said, “Look teacher, here’s the books…and look teacher…I already gave one to Johnny.”  He started looking around like, ‘Who else can I give one to?’  At this point, Johnny had already put the book in his backpack!  And I was left standing there thinking, ‘NO, NO, NO!  Those are MY books!  Somebody stop him!  NOW!’

I look at him with my most charming smile and very gently explain to him that those books are for the class and that they are to be used during reading group time (and that they are mine, mine, mine).  Luckily for me he’s one of those happy go lucky kids…he looked at me like, 'Oh, okay' and marched right back over to Johnny and told him he had to give the book back.  I must say Johnny looked a little stunned, but the most important thing here is that I got MY book back!  Whew!  I was worried I might have to tackle poor Johnny for it!  But…

As the saying goes…all’s well that ends well.

1 comment:

  1. I am glad you are back...I missed your stories!

    ReplyDelete