Do you looooooooove your teacher?

Mr. Destructo is such a boy. He never wants to admit that he loves anyone or anything -- except Mom! He could be watching his favorite cartoon and if I ask, "Who's your favorite character? Do you looooooove him," Mr. Destructo will get all riled up and vehemently deny loving the characters, the cartoon, everything.

This year Mr. Destructo's teacher, Ms. P, is new to the school and also very new to teaching. She graduated from college a year ago, spent a year subbing, and is now in her first long-term classroom. Last year's K teacher was a pushover. Everyone who behaved during the week got to select a reward from the treasure box. This year, Ms. P will only open the treasure box for the one table in the class whose occupants have behaved the best as a group each week. Mr. Destructo told me his table won the honors this week. That's a relief because if he had been among the non-winners, I would have expected him to shed some ugly tears. He selected one of those wooden paddle toys that has a rubber ball attached with elastic. He demonstrated it for me and almost took out his eye.

I asked Mr. Destructo if it upset the other kids that they did not get a crack at the treasure box. He explained that they didn't have to be sad because you can also earn tickets individually to buy something out of the treasure box. Ten tickets gets you a treasure box reward. What else can you buy with these wonderful tickets? Extra 5 minutes of a video at snack time (5 tickets), bring your stuffed animal to school for the day (30 tickets), and lunch with the teacher (20 tickets). 

Mr. Destructo told me that he is going to save his tickets until he has 25. What is he saving them for? He wants to have lunch with Ms. P. 

Me.:  Why do you want to have lunch with your teacher?

Mr. D:  So we can talk.

Me:  But you can talk to your friends at lunch.

Mr. D:  But you can't talk for the first 10 minutes. (This is true. They have silent lunch for 10 minutes to try to get all the kids to finish eating during the lunch period.)

Me:  What would you talk about?

Mr. D: Facts.

Me:  Facts? About what?

Mr. D:  About orcas, animals . . . you know.

Me:  So will your teacher sit with you at lunch in the cafeteria?

Mr. D:  No, you get to have lunch and talk in the nice quiet classroom.

Me:  Oh, okay. Do you looooooooove your teacher?

Mr. D:  NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I think he loves her.