Bunny tales: 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny

Nov 24 2008

Published by Anne-Marie at 7:17 pm under Books,School

Don’t forget you have until midnight (MT) on November 26, 2008 to enter my contest to win 12 cartons of Blue Bunny ice cream!

There’s all sorts of classic children’s books that feature bunnies:

But this sort of bunny tale is about a third grade teacher, Mr. Done, who has 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny.

He writes:

I fix staplers that won’t staple and zippers that won’t zip, and I poke pins in the orange caps of glue bottles that will not pour. I hand out papers and pencils and stickers and envelopes for newly pulled teeth. I know the difference between Austria and Australia.

I plan lessons while shaving, showering, driving, eating, and sleeping. I plan lessons five minutes before the bell rings. I know what time it is when the big hand is on the twelve and the little hand is on the nine. I say the r in library. I do not say the w in sword.

I put on Band-Aids and winter coats and school plays. I know they will not understand the difference between your and you’re. I know they will write to when it should be too. I say “Cover your mouth,” after they have coughed on me.

I am a teacher.

Makes a great teacher gift!

32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny: Life Lessons from Teaching is a wonderful book for any parent of a third-grader, a former third-grader, or a potential third-grader. (That’s most of us!) It’s also a terrific book any teacher who can commiserate with the misery and joys that Phillip Done faces during the school year. You may want to buy a copy for your favorite teacher or someone who is going to school for their teaching credential.

I’m about halfway through the book and am enjoying every page of it. It’s very well written – he’s obviously been teaching many third graders how to write essays and book reports. It’s funny and touching, too.

The book makes you realize that no matter how backwards your school board is, how obnoxious your principal acts, and how run down your school may be, it’s the teachers that make school the wonderful place it should be.

Phillip Done, who has taught elementary school for over 30 years – he also won the Schwab Foundation Distinguished Teacher Award – is one of those special teachers. I’m glad he’s written 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny: Life Lessons from Teaching to share his wisdom and humor.

Now if he can only tell me how to get my third grader to write neatly enough so I can read it. Then again, Done’s a teacher, not a magician.