Getting to Know You ~ A Fun Guest Post

I'm happy to present a guest post from my good friend, Darlene.  It's always fun to hear her recollections and see what's happening in her part of the world.

Today's walk down memory lane had me thinking about saddle shoes and school lunches, as well as a fun twist on the dreaded back-to-school-what-did-you-do-over-the-summer story.  I'm sure you'll agree this is a much better idea!

My Life in 30 Words

The mysterious group, They (no one really know who they are, but they know everything about everything), say that the olfactory sense has the longest, strongest memory. I believe it. 

When I think back to the school I attended for six years as a kid, I remember several things. 

1)    The smell of new leather. Did we all wear shoes instead of sneakers back then? I guess so. I’ll have to ask “them” to confirm. 

2)     The smell of beef stew from the cafeteria permeated every nook and cranny in the building. Even the books in Mrs. Levin’s library smelled like beef and onions. It must have been served every single day for lunch. I wouldn’t know, because I brought my lunch on account of the scary lunch lady who looked like Nanny McPhee before she got pretty and acted like the Trunchbull before Matilda took care of her. 

3)     The “What You Did Last Summer” essay. We wrote that baby every year, as the smell of beef and onions wafted around us. That essay served one purpose and one purpose only. It reminded me of how boring my summers were. Even the best writer can make “swam in the pool and bugged my sister” only marginally interesting.

I knew I would never make my students suffer the same way. My first year teaching, I brought in lots of air fresheners, lest the cafeteria’s specialty is beef and onions. And I always find a fun writing exercise to get to know them. 

This year, I used a great writing resource I picked up at Addie Williams’ TpT store. It’s called “My Life in 30 Words.” I learned a lot about the kids and they loved it. As if that isn’t good enough, now I have a terrific looking bulletin board display! I knoooow! Take a look!

 I just wish we had “smellability” enabled on Blogspot, so you could tell that my room doesn’t smell anything like beef stew.

Thanks for letting me visit, Pam!

Darlene Anne

Darlene (& Addie!), what a great way to find out about your students while making them practice some serious editing skills!  If I was still in the classroom, I would soooooo own this resource!  

Regarding the lack of beef stew smell, we'll have to take your word for it.  And just to put things into perspective... I was a bonafide member of the saddle shoe era which morphed into penny loafers, complete with pennies, when I finally got a say in what I wore!  

Thanks for sharing this fun idea!

"Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light." Helen Keller