The teacher meet & greet

Friday we went to the school to meet & greet Ashlyn and Haley's new teachers for this year. There was a lot of anxiety leading up to this visit, as Ashlyn was worried she would get "Mrs. Miller the Killer" and she really really wanted "Mrs. Glover the Lover"...

Ashlyn: Mom! I just can't have Mrs. Miller the Killer. I just can't!

Me: Ashlyn, I'm sure that's just a joke. She's probably not that bad.

Ashlyn: MOM! She actually killed a kid in her class once!

I swear, kids will believe anything you tell them. This is good in some ways, like how I can tell them that even though I have had 4 kids I have no earthly idea how babies are born because I'm not a doctor. However, in this instance it's a little annoying. All summer we've had to have this conversation. I'm happy to report that Ashlyn was put in Mrs. Wallace's room, who is a new teacher at Glenmore this year, but who has over 20 years teaching experience. Mrs. Wallace is short; she comes up to about my shoulder, making her shorter than Nana. She is very loud though, extremely loud, so loud that when she talked I immediately started getting a headache. I feel sorry for Ashlyn.

At the meet & greet Ashlyn had to fill out a form saying what college she wanted to go to, what she wanted to major in, and what she wanted her job to be after college, because Mrs. Wallace thinks it's never too early to start planning for college. So they are going to start planning this year, in 3rd grade. Whatever. Anyway, Ashlyn immediately wrote that she wanted to be a photographer and she wanted to go to the University of Georgia. Mrs. Wallace asked if she wanted to go to that school because they had a good photography department (because Ashlyn, at 8 years old, is very knowledgable about the courses of studies offered at UGA) and Ashlyn said she wasn't sure, but she had picked that school because Pops told her if she went there he would pay for it. Pops is going to regret he ever told my kids that in my presence. Because he promised.

Haley got Mrs. Owens, who we had requested, who is just the greatest. Ashlyn had her for 1st grade and we loved her then and we love her now. I cannot begin to say how happy I am Haley is in her class. We got to her classroom right after the rainbow threw up all over the walls, leaving them so bright that the colors burned into your corneas so even with your eyes closed you could still see them. Just going into that room makes me nauseous and dizzy. Haley, of course, took one look around and said "ooooh, pretty!" which ought to give you a little idea of what it actually looked like because when Haley says that it's perfectly okay not to look, but to just know it your heart it's really "ooooh, overwhelming!" She is upset though about Christopher being in her class as he was mean to her last year in kindergarten. Really he was mean to everyone, and Mrs. Owens assured me she already knows that, she has already been warned about it from the kindergarten teacher, and she is not having any of that nonsense in her classroom. See? Mrs. Owens is truly wonderful, and when she talks to you little hearts full of love radiate off her and envelope you and make you feel all happy and safe in 1st grade. I on the other hand had Mrs. Johnson, a mean mean lady who was like 70 for a 1st grade teacher.

So we're happy with the teachers we got (Ashlyn actually physically shuddered when we passed by Mrs. Miller's classroom) and this should be a good year. I am also happy that the few school supplies that were ruined in the Great House Flood 2007 did not include the notebooks that MUST NOT HAVE PERFORATED EDGES as I don't know if the BX has any more. Turns out it was just a regular spiral notebook that Haley needed but that Mrs. Owens told me not to worry about replacing, she'd take care of it since we've been having such a bad week due to the Great House Flood 2007. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy Mrs. Owens?