Classics in the Class Concerns

So today I got ambitious and thought cleaning out my desk at work seemed like a good way to keep me at work until 7 P.M., reminisce, and fill up a garbage can all at the same time. It was.

Two years ago, we had a "Class Concerns" jar that was actively used. The idea was this: students can write about any problem in class to let me know what's going on. No names are involved...of the accused, or the author. Once a week, we gathered at the rug in a sort of roundtable fashion and discussed said concerns. Only the one holding the ball is the one allowed to speak, again no names mentioned, and all are calm and polite. For some reason (can't remember), I don't do this system in my class anymore.

But...don't worry, I have kept the gems of the first year....which I found in an envelope tucked away in the very back of a very messy drawer (messy as in there were 6 boxes of staples people...that equals 30,000 staples. I just ordered more boxes in my supply order last week. It appears I've hit the staple jackpot. Lucky me.)

Some classics that gave a chuckle...no editing involved:

• "we should have more recess" (agreed)
• "I think we ned naps" (agreed)
• "sumwun kald me faaat!!! :( "
• "evrybody bosses pepol around." (welcome to life)
• "sumewun kalld me old lade" (better than faaat, I'd say...)
• "peaple ask others to stop doing stuf but they won't" (again, welcome to life)
  
• "win I be nice he beese mene to me" (sad...)
• "poeple are looking at me!" (um...sorry?)
• "ther is some books on the floor" (time spent writing the class concern = could have picked books up)
• "people are making people talk" (don't you hate it when someone moves your lips and forces words out?!)
• "people are wasting tape by taking like 40 long strips and putting it on their mouths" (where was the teacher?! uh oh...and how big are their mouths?!)
• "people are doing something wrong" (right....we'll need more details about this 'concern' of yours...)
• "peple are doing things when there not sposte to" (getting closer to the details...)
• "are class is rille smart" (I can tell!)
• "pepole are yelling out not riasing there hand!" (the funny part is the girl that wrote this signed her name, even though they're not supposed to...and she's by far the child that just says anything without EVER raising her hand! Hello pot, hello kettle)

And among my personal favorite finds from the bottom of the drawer....a note that I got on my desk one afternoon from a child who had apparently come back to school to tell me he got the incorrect math sheet and needed the correct one:

"Dear Mrs. Cox I'm on x9 math facts (homework paper), not on x9c...so I got a big shit of that."
Took me a few minutes to figure out that "shit" = "sheet"

Love these kids!