There are so many reasons I love my job. One of them is that I work with the most awesome people, including our newest addition, Robin. Robin is a super-experienced teacher with tons of cool ideas. Lucky for me, it's my job to plan and strategize with her on a regular basis. Over lunch on Friday, I shared a challenge I'm experiencing: one of my 7th graders has really bad b.o. This has to be addressed.
"I'm going to have a girl-to-girl chat with her, and just give her some deodorant tips," I said.
"Oh," said Robin, "I don't like dealing with that one-on-one, so I usually just take out some deodorant from my desk drawer and put in on in front of the class."
"WHAT?!" I said.
"Yeah," she said. "I just say, 'Oh, my! I've gotten so sweaty today, I really feel like I need to reapply my deodorant.'"
I was stunned. "You put your deodorant on in FRONT OF THE CLASS?"
"Oh yeah," she said simply. "Then I say something like, 'You've probably noticed that as you're growing up, you start to smell a lot more easily. You'll probably want to keep some deodorant in your locker and just put it on from time to time.'"
"But what if the kids see your BRA?!" My mouth was hanging open at this point, I'm fairly sure.
"Oh, I just go under the shirt," Robin said, simply. "Too much?"
4 comments:
I like Robin's way. I may do this next year when/if I teach the smelly 6ers.
I love it. Show and tell, don't embarrassed the stinky ones! Wear a short-sleeved shirt that day!
KC. I love reading your blog. It makes me smile every time. Miss you. -Heddi
This made me so happy. I never realized until I started coaching that you sometimes have to publicly embarrass yourself to get kids to pay any attention whatsoever. Robin sounds awesome.
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