Barking Dogs in the Email

　　One of the best examples of her personality happened around Christmas time. The teachers each had a computer in their class. Most of them had and still have no idea how to use the darn things in the least.

　　In an effort to bring "technologysintoseducation" the state board outfits all the schools with shiny new Macintoshes and they slap a label "high technology" on their school descriptions.

　　Well, I'm not complaining, but some training or something should come along with the computers. Most of the teachers just grabbed a student when they needed something done on their computers.

　　One day Mrs. Abrams grabbed me and told me to help her get her email. She said that Mr. Nadler had sent something very important to her.

　　Mr. Nadler was one of the school's math teachers. He's a really great guy, he was my teacher in 7th grade and he was always kidding around with the students. I guess students weren't the only ones he kidded around with but Mrs. Abrams as well, because he had told her that there was a "really important" email from him. Thinking it was really important, Mrs. Abrams stayed behind and grabbed me as I was going to tennis to show her how to get the email. Of course, wherever you work, you never want to stay behind unless it is something extremely important right?

　　So I say, "Sure, I'll help" and started to fidget around with the Mac.

　　If I haven't mentioned it already, I have a knack for computers. The word "knack" doesn't really do me justice. I can honestly say that with the exclusion of one person (a friend of our family who works for a computer company, my dad has dubbed him as my "shi fu"), I know more about computers than anyone I have ever met in real life or online. I am not bragging, it just seems this way to me. I am often surprised how much I know compared to other people. Though I have never touched a Mac for more than 3 or 4 minutes straight, I always have the innate ability to sit down at any computer mess around for a bit and immediately understand what is wrong and how to fix it. It's almost as if the computer speaks to me when I am using it, guiding me to how to fix it. I sort of got off topic, but what I was trying to say is that both of us (Mrs. Abrams and I) really knew nothing about Macs.

　　So I sat there for a couple minutes tinkering with it until I got it to work. By then Mrs. Abrams was had already stayed after for a good fifteen minutes and was patiently waiting. She said to me, "This better be good…or Mr. Nadler will be in BIG trouble." I just laughed along as I started to get a grip of how to work the stupid Macintosh.

　　I finally got the email to work and I got the email. It was from Mr. Nadler. And boy were we both surprised. As soon as I opened it up, the speakers started roaring with what seemed to be the song Jingle Bells. But instead of people singing it, it was a bunch of dogs barking it. In the message Mr. Nadler wrote, "Have a DOGgon Merry Christmas! Sincerely, Santa Claus."

　　The word "doggon" can be used in many different ways. It is English slang for two main meanings, good or bad. When you say something is "doggon good", it means that it was really good.

　　Now sit back and consider what just happened. Pretend that one day one of your co workers or your boss tells you to stay behind because of something important. You take time out of your day which you are supposed to use for yourself, because your work day is over, to do this "important thing" and you find out that your time was wasted. How would you feel?

　　Here's Mrs. Abrams' reaction.

　　"Ohh…. Now he's gonna get it. Kuan, you knowswheresto get one of those sounds? Can you find me a cow?"

　　I eventually found a cow noise and she replied it back to Mr. Nadler happily despiteshavingsto stay after. She said, "That'll teach him!"

　　Mrs. Abrams let me go back to tennis and she left for home happy as ever. By this time, the front doors were locked and the building was empty. For this little trick from Mr. Nadler, both of us wasted 30 minutes of our time.

　　If you are thinking of becoming a teacher, or have been a teacher, let me tell you this little piece of advice. Assess yourself, temper wise. Can you take a lot of insult or do you have a problem it? Now if you are either, how do you deal with the insults and how do you deal with getting mad?

　　Two perfect examples. Ms. S seeing that her own students were upstaging her class, decided that it was right to try and make them as uncomfortable as possible. Then there is Mrs. Abrams, who, by never getting mad and always being happy, made her students not want to make her mad and thus no trouble was ever caused in her class. So take some time and look at yourself and try to think of what kind of persona you want to throw out there for your students to pick up. Believe me, it does make a world of difference.