You Know You're a Missionary Teacher When...

·         You thought you knew the alphabet, then your kids informed you differently—H is not H, it’s pronounced hay-ch, and Z is zed

·         The power goes on and off randomly throughout the day; you (and your students) hardly even notice anymore

·         Telling a child that they have to wear shoes at recess induces ridiculous amounts of whining and complaining

o   Example: when picking up my first graders for ESL after school, I noticed one of my students putting her shoes in her backpack. When I asked her what she was doing, she said she was going to walk to class barefoot. I told her that she had to wear her shoes to class, and then could take them off once we were inside—you would have thought the world was going to end soon by her expression!

·         The big attraction at recess is the enormous toad on the playground

·         Before returning to class, most of the kids stop at the outdoor faucet to wash the mud off their feet and legs

·         Tennis balls are hot commodities—used to play four-square every day, at every recess (personally I don’t understand why swatting a tennis ball around for a couple minutes and then getting out and standing in line to wait for another turn to play is so much fun…but the kids sure love it!)


One of my second graders drew this for me
on their last day of class;
I'm touched...but I think we need to work on spelling next year...