"This boy, BRUCE BOGTROTTER..."

Do you not recognize the stud to my left? Let me give you a hint. He's a disgusting criminal! He slithered like a serpent into the school kitchen and ate Mrs. Trunchbull's personal snack in the 1996 hit "Matilda". As Bruce was interrogated about the chocolate cake he downed gladly, the students stared on in panic as the Principal of "Crunch-em Hall" questioned the vicious sneak thief. Why, might you ask, did I decide to dedicate this blog to little Brucey? Well because I can see something like this happening at my new student teaching placement.

Today I started student teaching at a new elementary school. I entered feeling the 3 C's (cool, crazy, and chic), but above all, completely confident that I'm bound to win the "Student Teacher of the Year" award for New York State.* Sadly, I've come to realize in day one that the teacher I'm with is nothing like me! The cherry on top of my day was that one of the periods was becoming a bit chatty. Go figure, they're in third grade. Well, she tells them they are now going to sit in silence for 5 minutes. And she pulls out one of those little dinner timers! I kid you not, pals. So they sat. They sat and shot the shit for a bit and then when they got chatty again it happened. Words so surprising I almost chuckled. 

"IF YOU CANNOT BE QUIET, MAYBE YOU WILL COPY FROM THE DICTIONARY AGAIN!"

Now, let me break this down for you. The essence of this sentence lies not only in the fact that she resembles Mrs. Trunchbull at this point, but that she HAS DONE IT BEFORE! Her students have PREVIOUSLY COPIED from the DICTIONAIRE (excuse my french!) Really? This can't be true. Well, I wander around the room and find a clipboard that looks .. well.. as follows:

Lucas,

A Day, Period 3

silence (noun) complete absence of sound, the fact or state of abstaining from sound.

SHE HAS HER KIDS COPY THE DEFINITION OF SILENCE FROM THE DICTIONARY IF THEY ARE BEING TOO LOUD. I hope the quote above enough does it justice, but if you have no idea what I'm talking about then click the link below and prepare to shit your pants whilst imagining me student teaching in a school like Crunch-Em Hall Elementary. 

"You wanted cake, you GOT cake, now EAT IT."

-Courtney

*There's no such thing as the student teacher of the year award. But if there was one, yours truly would be the victor of such. 

*The photo of Bruce Bogtrotter, aka "Jim Karz" is from his myspace page from the album from his birthright trip to Israel (a trip all jewish born men and women are allowed to go on all expenses paid!) This trip, sadly enough, will not happen any time soon for my dear Jewish friend Carly thanks to Bernie Madoff stealing all the $ under the sun, thus causing many Jewish organizations to cut back on the amount of people allowed per trip. Ouch Bernie. But, "GO BRUCE!"