At the start of the school year in August one of our fifth grade teachers (we have 6!) was pregnant and on bed rest. (She had miscarried twice before and we knew she was pregnant when school was out in May but we did not know the bed rest was coming.)
So,we hired a long time substitute for her the day before school was starting. The sub we had hired quit the day before school started because she got a contract job, it was stressful. Anyway, this long term sub was so great. It was all the 5th graders knew cause they had never met the real teacher and they voted her for teacher of the month!
We have a parent volunteer who makes a really cute ballot box every month and the children come down and vote for teacher of the month. The parent volunteer comes and decorates the doors of the teacher of the month after she has counted the votes. The children have to write a sentence why they are choosing this teacher and our principal reads them in the mornings. 3 teachers get chosen each month.
This long term teacher got chosen as teacher of the month last month. When asked, the kids in her class said it's the cute hair. I was puzzled. It's not that she does not have cute hair but she just has hair. I found out that when she teaches she always makes a stick figure on the white board and then she says lets give her some cute hair and the kids loved that.
As 5th graders they also go to Clear Creek an overnight camp out. She had gone with them and they really like her. She got her door decorated with her picture blown up and to decorate around that the parent who does the decorating gave her cute yarn hair. It's really a cute door decoration.
Tuesday was the last day of her substituting long term and the regular teacher came back on Wednesday. It is a transition for these students as they have only known the first teacher. We used her as a sub at our school Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On Friday as she was checking out of the office 3 of her girls ran in and hugged her and were all smiley with her and it was cute. We will continue to use her for a sub when we can. We have a drama teacher who is having a baby at Christmas time and we are using her for her recovery weeks. As a drama teacher they see all the kids on a rotating schedule and I hope she has her old class while she is there!