It is Friday

I feel so lucky to be a teacher. Each day is a gift to learn and teach. My students are 12 years old and they have their lives ahead of them. They see the world differently and they allow me glimpses. We were having a discussion about casual talk, professional talk and academic talk. They were not getting it. So, I copied their words and phrases and gave them directions in "cool kid speak." They all laughed . . . hard. I think they got the point. One of them wants me to say "are you finished" instead of "are you done" because done sounds too much like the word dumb. I told her I would never say "are you dumb."  But she was pretty emphatic about it. It made me think and I did use the word finish a couple of times for her benefit. But seriously, is this something they deal with?  Do people really say to them "are you dumb" often enough that the word done needs to be removed from my phrasing in class. That kind of makes me sad. 

Well I survived the first full week of school and all is well in my world. I look forward to tackling vocabulary, idioms and character next week.