March 2018 SOLC–Day 15
A huge thank you to Two Writing Teachers for all that they do to create an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write, learn, share and grow.
http://www.twowritingteachers.org
Don’t you love when something someone says or writes sparks a slice idea? On my recent slice about cleaning to music, Margaret Simon commented that she cleans to show tunes. Although it isn’t my cleaning music of choice, we do love show tunes in my family. Thinking about this tumbled me right down memory lane again.
It was parent-teacher conference time. I sat at the table across from Mrs. Ingalls, the third grade teacher. Before her she had a collection of Addie’s work, including her writing. She pushed one sample toward me.
I read the beginning:
“Once upon a cat, there were 3 fleas.”
Whoa, I thought, what a great lead! We are going to be doing some writing celebration in this conference!
I looked up at her and smiled. She looked at me and then at the paper. I read on.
“One flea liked red wine.”
Uh oh
I continued to read.
“One liked jazz.”
Phew…not so bad!
“And the other one liked likker.”
Oops
I looked up at Mrs. Ingalls, who was not known for her sense of humor and who was regarding me impassively. Do I even want to know what she’s thinking right now? I took a deep breath, trying not to laugh.
“Well,” I said, “the red wine is definitely inspired by me. But the jazz and liquor….well, we’ve been listening to the soundtrack of Chicago a lot lately…” My voice trailed off, then I tried again. “But wasn’t that an awesome lead!”
As I left twenty minutes later, all I could think was that it was a good thing she hadn’t heard Connor, my fifth grader, belting out “Master of the House” from Les Mis (“God knows how I’ve lasted, living with this bastard in the house…”) or Lydia, our first grader, singing large sections from Cell Block Tango (“You been screwin’ the milkman?”). Ok, it’s funny now, but when it happened even I was pretty appalled by that one.
Who knew there was a risk to listening to show tunes?
Nix the comfort zone 
Ha ha, love this! You convey the changing feelings through the conference really well, as you give space on the paper for us to pause and consider what are your thoughts at each moment. Yikes! I’m with you on celebrating the writing, and sorry Mrs. Ingall’s didn’t see the fun!
Laugh-out-loud at the end. Great memory slice.
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I’m so glad I made you laugh. It’s one of our favorite family stories.
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I burst out laughing on the last part! Love her approximations and stealing from mentor texts.
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Songs as mentor texts–there’s a thought! Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
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Ha! Hopefully the teacher had a sense of humor about that! At least your kiddo used those references so creatively! Great job switching from dialogue to your own thinking! It made me laugh!
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Thanks, Cindy!
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OMG! This post is too funny! The kids are always singing inappropriate things thanks to music and hasn’t it always been that way? You need to send this post to Playbill.com, they would get a kick out of the house that sings together!
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We still love to sing together but generally avoid the inappropriate lyrics –of course a lot less is inappropriate now that they’re adults! Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
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Hahaha! I literally laughed out loud at this. Makes my parent-teacher conferences look tame – but oh my gosh, that’s hysterical. And you’re right – it was a great lead!
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I still think that lead is picture book worthy!
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I love laughing first thing in the morning. Am I the only one who thought Little House on the Prairie?
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So funny! It took me forever to figure out what you were talking about with Little House on the Prairie reference. I had NEVER connected this Mrs. Ingalls to the Ingalls family. Glad it made you laugh!
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Oh my gosh, this is the BEST! I love how kids are unfiltered. Too bad all teachers don’t come with a sense of humor because I know I would have been laughing super hard right along with the parent. Great memory for the day your child turns 21 🙂
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She just turned 23 yesterday. I’ll have to remind her of this story!
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Molly,
You are hilarious. How did you compose yourself when sitting in front of the stern Mrs. Ingalls? BTW, is she related to Laura Ingalls?
Keep on sharing the stories and smiles.
Best wishes.
Purviben
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Thanks, Purviben. My children are grown up now so I have to find the funny stories in memories. 🙂
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Hahahahahahaha!! You made me cry! Speaking of music… lyrics, memories, connections… and all. Well, at my father-in-law’s funeral a local male quartet sang a couple hymns, a couple country songs and then they sang “You took a find time to leave me, Lucille.” It brought the place (church) down … it was so him to have requested it.
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Sounds like your father-in-law was quite a guy!
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I just smiled through the reading of this slice. I especially loved Addie’s lead!
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I still think I should steal that lead and write a picture book. Or….maybe encourage her to do so!
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