Mrs. Pajak

David is a new kindergartner at our school this year. He was adopted from China and is doing a great job learning our language. He's still learning though.

I recently walked by his table at lunch last week only to have the following conversation.

David: Mrs. Pajak! Mrs. Pajak! Come here! Mrs. Pajak!
Me: David, I'm a Mister.
David: (short pause) Mr. Piersak! (our gym teacher)
Me: No, David. I'm Mr. Pajak.
David: Mrs. Pajak? Mrs. Pajak!
Me: Mister. Mister. Mr. Pajak
David: Mr. Piersa...
Me: David. Slow down. Start with Mr.
David: Mr.......
Me: Now say Pajak.
David: Pajak.
Me: Mr. Pajak.
David: Miissterr Paaajaaak.
Me. There we go! So what's up?
David: Mrs. Pajak, Connor ate his corn dog!

We had almost the exact same conversation yesterday.

Triangles. There's More Than One?

We are in a heavy geometry section in my 6th grade math class. A recent lesson focused on 6 types of triangles. Those classified by angle: acute, right, and obtuse. And those classified by length of sides: equilateral, isosceles, and scalene.

Pop quiz answers:

1. Right triangle 

2. Obtuse triangle

3. Equilateral triangle

4. Scalene triangle

5. Isosceles triangle

6th grade answers:

Pretty sure risosily is not a word.

Math. Not social studies.

Spelling was a bit inventive for #5.

Math. Not science.

Quadtrangle.

Lunchroom Conversations

One of my (super fun) duties as assistant principal is to monitor the lunch room each day. I try to walk around and have conversations with the kids to try and take my mind off the low roar that will be sure to turn into at least a slight headache. As it turns out, these little conversations are the things that can make a mediocre day a little brighter. Here are a few of the highlights from the year so far:

Connor, a 2nd grader, is frantically waving his hand at me from across the lunchroom. When I arrive he asks, "Mr. Pajak, can you bring me some napkins?"
Me: Sure, what do you....oh. Is it for the pasta sauce that's in your hair?
Connor: Yeah.
Me: How did that happen?
Connor: I'm not really sure.

4th grader: Mr. Pajak, how old are you?
Me: How old do you think I am?
4th grader: Well.....my dad is 50. So you must be....53? (I'm 31)

Passing by a first grader trying to eat honeydew melon I overhear her mumble in frustration: "Uhhh. It's really hard to eat melon without front teeth."

Michael, a 4th grader, was telling me about one of his classmates. I didn't know who the boy was so I asked him to point him out. He pointed across a few tables and said, "He's the one in the red shirt."
Me: Michael, all the boys have red shirts. That's part of your uniform.

The kindergarten group is always good for a laugh. I was just saying hello as I walked by one of the tables when Braden stopped me.
Mr. Pajak, don't believe David that we took a trip across the ocean to see his family.
Me: Um....
Braden: (Dead serious) It's not true.

I always enjoy talking with Caroline a first grader. I happened to walk over by her on a day the lunch room was serving pancakes. She had syrup ALL over her shirt. So I asked, "Caroline, why on earth is there syrup all over your shirt?"
Caroline: I don't really like the pancakes, so I tried to drink the syrup. I think I need a rag.

As Timothy, a 1st grader, was leaving the lunchroom to go out for recess he said, matter-of-factly, "Mr. Pajak, it's been 2 months and.....(definitively) 25 days since my birthday." Then without waiting for a response, he continued walking down the hallway and out to recess.

I'll leave you with a piece of advice I've discovered during my time in the lunchroom.
Please. Please! If you have a child who is under the age of 12, do not pack their lunch with "yogurt tubes." I have had to open more of these than I can count. Only 10% of kids under 12 are able to open these. Do your lunchroom pals a favor and skip the yogurt!

Save Our People!

Recently we had a winter clothing drive at our school. The goal was to collect coats and other outerwear to give to a local charity that distributes them to people in need. We've done this for quite a few years and have always managed to bring in a decent amount of clothing. This year to help promote the winter clothing drive the fourth grade students created signs to hang around the school. Here are a few of the signs.

Not bad.  A bit short on information, but with the other signs it wasn't really needed.

Another good one. Nothing like making people feel guilty!

This one was right by the main school entrance. 

Slap Happy

It's been a while since I've written a post, but it's been a busy few months for me. Here's a little update. At the end of the previous school year the assistant principal job became available. After much thought I decided to apply for the job. I was fortunate enough to get the position, and luckily I am still teaching as well! I teach a section each of 6th and 7th grade math.

I was worried I wouldn't have enough funny stories to continue the blog, but I was wrong! Unfortunately, the first month and a half of a new job along with way too many fall weddings left me with little time. Now that things have calmed down a bit, I can get back to sharing some of the stories that keep me (and hopefully you) smiling.

Part of my job involves talking to those kids that get sent to the principal's office. Which makes sense because I am a principal... So far, this part of my job is definitely my least favorite. Today's experience wasn't fun, but it did have a moment that I couldn't help but smile about.

Tommy's teacher asked me to talk to Tommy about his behavior at recess. The previous day a recess supervisor had to ask Tommy, a 4th grader, to stop going up to girls and spanking them. Apparently this hadn't been the first time Tommy had to be asked to stop spanking his classmates.

When Tommy first got to my office we went through why he needed to see me. I explained to him that while he may have thought it was funny to spank the girls, it was an inappropriate thing to do. He expressed that he knew what he did was wrong and that he wouldn't do it anymore.

So I asked him: 'So you realize what you did was wrong?'
'Yes, I know it was wrong. I won't do it ever again.'
'Do you know why it was wrong?'
'Yes, because it was inappropriate.'
'Why was it inappropriate?'
'Because I will get in really big trouble if I do it again.'
'Yes Tommy, we talked about you having consequences if you do it again, but why will you get in trouble?'
'Cause it was inappropriate.'
'(Sigh) Yes, what causes it to be inappropriate?'
'Well, you get in trouble. Big trouble.'
'Tommy. Why is it wrong?'
'(After a slight hesitation) cause it's inappropriate?'

The circular conversation continued for a bit long before I finally explained not only why spanking is inappropriate, but what the word inappropriate means.

It's Honestly Not that Bad

Tonight I finished correcting all the students' state reports. It's a sure sign that summer vacation is almost here! There were definitely some reports that were put together at the last minute, a ton that were just amazing, several with some plagiarism, and few here and there that made me laugh.

Apparently, Claire has been to Alaska...

Who wouldn't want to live in a place with a cool name?

So lovely. I remember like it was yesterday!

Don't quote me on that.

This one is not part of the state project, but from a weekly reading log from my co-worker. We make sure the 4th graders put the title of the book and the author. Sometimes it's hard to find the author.

Rumblings and Musings

It's a busy time of year with field trips, big projects, and kids who can't sit still because the sun is out. I've been jotting a few things down over the past few weeks and finally have a little time to sit down and write. So without further ado...Deep thoughts. By fourth graders.

We were lining up for recess. I had on a black windbreaker. It looks nothing like leather. I had been wearing this jacket for about two weeks.
Luke: "Mr. Pajak, is that leather?"
"No Luke, I'm not sure what it is. I know it's not leather though."
Luke: "It looks like leather. Are you a biker?"

The students need to write a paragraph for the state project about their state's agricultural products. It took a little explaining to make sure everyone was on the same page with what 'agricultural products' are. After the long discussion, Josh had a question. "Why do they call them soybeans?"

After giving her state report to the class on Iowa, Becca asked Erin, "If you could live in your state, where would you live?" Erin's no-nonsense response: "I would not want to live in Iowa."

Natalie asked me during recess one day if I thought she talked a lot. She does. So I said yes. She responded with "My dad thinks I'm like my dad's mom, her name is Grandma Ann, she talks a lot too. He won't even talk to her on the phone."


And finally here is Samantha's latest spelling test. The parentheses are hers...Apparently she didn't even want to attempt number 11.