A few weeks ago our school held it's annual Grandparent's Day celebration.
Yes, I know Grandparent's Day is officially in the fall, but our school has it in the spring.
Don't ask me why, I don't really know.
And if you ask anyone of importance why, you'll probably get the go-to answer...
"That's how it's always been done."
I bet you've never heard that one before. We hear it a lot!
Although next year we'll have a new principal so maybe we won't hear it anymore unless of course they hire someone who has been around long enough to know that's how it's always been done.
Anyway, I'm getting off topic.
So after the big hoopla we do as a whole school, everyone goes back to their respective classrooms. The kids give the nanas and pop-pops a tour of their room, read them a book, have a cookie and introduce them to their teachers.
It's a time for chit chat, small talk, lots of smiling and the like. Generally, a time to pretend you are a politician. Shake hands. Kiss a few babies.
And hope you don't have a kid who stands up on a chair and acts like a goober while the grandparents laugh, clap, and videotape the whole thing.
Anyway, I'm chatting with this one grandfather who looks me in the eye and says, "You've got a really nice classroom. Did you decorate it yourself?"
I know my jaw dropped slightly...and my eyes blinked a number of times before I responded in true politician form, "Why yes, yes, I did as a matter of fact."
"Really?" he replies, "You did a nice job. I really like it. Do you do it every year?"
"Yep, I sure do, although every year I change a few things, rearrange a few things." I smile and say.
Then I walk away to shake someone else's
baby hand and kiss someone else's
hand baby because I'm quite frankly dumbfounded.
Are there schools out there where they have decorators on staff and/or don't have to tear the whole room down at the end of the year and resurrect it again a couple of months later? Do parents/grandparents think we teachers show up on the first day of school to a perfect ready room?
I don't know about you but I spend at
least two three weeks decorating, preparing things, etc. before school starts.
Does anyone else out there think this was a bizarre question? Have you been asked an equally odd question by a parent/grandparent?
