If She Only Knew Me

Every year I ask my students to write a letter to me so that I can get to know them better. I ask them to tell me anything they want me to know about themselves. Last year I was introduced to a good book called If She Only Knew Me that tells the story of a little boy going through a rough time at home that, in turn, affects him at school. I read this to get the students inspired to write.

Well, I didn't get anything super serious this year but I did get some really funny ones.

Dear Mrs. Clark,
I'm very lucky to be getting very nice teachers five years straight. If you want to know a little about me, I've got a small temper. I play baseball, basketball, and football. My favorite subject is math. I don't know how to end this so I guess I wil ask you a question. How do yo manage to stay so calm with little kids asking you questions all the time?


And another.

Dear Mrs. Clark,
I imagined you were going to be nice after somebody told me you were. Now you really are nice because you let us sit on our desks and all that. Here's an image I wanted you to be like. In my image, you were good at video games and computer games and skateboarding so I thought you were going to be like that. Anyway, it's not too relevant.


Hmmmm. Not sure what to think of those.

One more funny: I had the students work with their tables to come up with a list of rules they thought would be good for independent reading. I looked at table 2's list and they had "Don't scratch each others' backs" as the top rule. So, next time you are at the library or Barnes and Noble, please resist the urge to scratch the back of your closest neighbor. Maybe 9 year olds do know best.