Teacher's loot

By the time students reach middle school, they have begun to be independent and their parents are a little worn out. Kids are focussed on peer relationships; parents aren't necessarily in the loop as far as who all of the teachers are and what they do. Students are embarrassed to show signs of endearment towards teachers, and mostly they care about one another. This is different from elementary school, where little ones bond with their teachers, and parents hover, wanting to stay attached and to know what is going on at all times; sometimes they shower teachers with tokens of thanks. At Christmas...oops let's call it Winter Break...this all becomes evident in the Teacher's Loot. When I taught elementary art I used to get a lot more Stuff, usually adorable hand-made cards but also Christmas mugs that I still use. My sister-in-law, who is a 5th grade classroom teacher at an affluent school in Wisconsin, receives lovely items of clothing this time of year. ( I was shocked by this! Really?)

Now I'm at a middle school, where it's a bit unusual to get gifts from kids. I'm an electives teacher, a second-tier person, who sees kids for small parts of their day. This year I forgot my packet of hand-painted thank you notes; but dang it I wished I'd taken them. Amidst my Loot yesterday was a package of what I thought was peanut brittle, only to be corrected by the child, who pointed out that it was Southern Pecan Pralines in that bag: yummm! And from another little girl (who sometimes comes to school in a kimono, sometimes dressed like a gypsy, and who was Holly Golightly for Halloween) I received hand-made purple candles: egads, how cool is that? And then there are the cards they give me, which I adore.

Scotch taped to this card was a chocolate candy but I couldn't photograph it because I already ate it. Well that was sweet, kids; I will bring you thank you notes in January.