Liar, liar, pants on fire…

So someone is lying to me. I’m not entirely sure who it is yet, but I have my suspicions. And believe me, you are NOT going to be happy when I find you…and the longer it takes and the more time I waste…the LESS happy you are going to be.

Oh my, that sounds down right threatening.

Well, IT’S SUPPOSED TO!!!!

Let me just throw down the big disclaimer and remind you that I absolutely love my class this year. Seriously. Love love love them. I honestly look forward to the day more than I have in a long time. I have some fabulously quirky kids (which is how I like ‘em) and we just have this thing going. Like Curly said, “We have an understanding.”

With that in mind, imagine how I felt when one of my girls showed me the word wall table tent at her table. (You all have to try word wall table tents for Writer’s by the by. Just take a manilla folder, paste a sheet with half the alphabet on one side and half on the other and add the words as you go. I heart them.)

In fairly large letters it says “Foke you.”

“Foke you”????

Yea, it means what you think.

We had to leave for lunch right away so I kept it private at first. But I had several immediate thoughts as I brought my friends downstairs to the cafeteria.

Thought #1:
Whoever it was spelled the “F word” with a sneaky e!!! I mean, do you hear the long o sound in “f*ck” friends? No, you do not. And we have been talking about long and short vowels for the last few weeks. WTF??? (And I would spell it correctly…so there!). I was seriously disappointed…how screwed up is that?

Thought #2:
I am so annoyed that this is what I have to deal with this afternoon because we are having a great day. I hate those moments when I have to choose the battle and deal…

Thought #3:
Or, maybe I can relish the gnarly guilt trip I’m about to lay on them….hmmm…this could get juicy.

Thought #4:
You know what? Foke you too. Those table tents took a long time for me to make.

So they get back from lunch and we have our emergency class meeting. I lay it on thick. It was genius. The TONY people totally should have been there. It went a little something like this.

Me: (blah blah blah, this is what happened, I am so disappointed, blah blah blah…). I know who did this (I totally don’t). And I could just punish that person. But I want them to learn something about responsibility. We are all responsible for making this classroom a place we all look forward coming to. Today someone decided not to hold up their end of the deal and did not take care of us. I’m going to give everyone a slip of paper. If you have a clear heart and conscience, you can just write me a quick hello on your paper. If you have a sad heart and know you need to be a responsible citizen of our class, you can privately tell me what you’ve done.

No one fessed up. FOKE!!!

It was worth a try. I’m not done yet either. A note went home to all the parents and I’m expecting a tearful confession in the a.m.

Hopefully this is the last time my mystery friend will foke around in class!