"No Perfect People Allowed"

My sweet friend Elizabeth's Aunt Nancy (her blog here) has this post on her blog right now. Its the title of a series her church is doing right now. Everytime I just think about those 4 words I can't help but laugh a little on the inside.

I want to make this a sign to put on the door of my classroom. Seriously.

Duh. No perfect people allowed.

And, oh, I'm reminded of this everyday. My fifth graders say it like it is. They remind me a minimum of 5 times per day that I'm so far far away from being perfect. (As if I'd actually try...)

"Mrs. G, you spelled that wrong."

"Mrs. you said the wrong page number."

"Mrs. Gentis, you said all the even numbers but you said the answer to number three."

I find that the 'acknowledge, confirm, and move on' method works well.

"Yup. I sure did. I'm glad you caught that mistake."

"Oops. I'm only human."

But, really, I like to think that by not being perfect I take the pressure off of them to be perfect. I hope that at least one of my kiddos leaves my room at the end of the year willing to take risks, willing to try, willing to just be flat out not perfect.

Because those people aren't allowed, anyway.

Visit my un-perfect classroom blog: http://learningspace.nisd.net/gentis and my fun school blog http://learningspace.nisd.net/adventures

(Thanks, Nancy!)