My Name is Not Katie
I guess you know you've made quite an impression on your students when one of them e-mails you and the salutation is this:
Hey Katie this is Roberta I am sorry to write this but I wont be in class tonight.
Now, I don't know what offends my delicate sensibilities the most: Could it be the complete and total lack of punctuation? Or the fact that I have been addressed not as "Hello" or "Dear" but as "Hey"? Or (finally), could it be the fact that my name is not Katie? My name doesn't start with the letter "K." It doesn't rhyme with Katie. It's not Kate or Kathleen or anything even remotely resembling Katie and yet . . . here I am. Teacher Katie.
On a different note, I actually like this student quite a bit. She's funny and entertaining. However, her father is a physician and she wrote to tell me that he has non Hotchkins (spelling is hers, not mine). And, she has also mentioned on more than one occasion that she attended a private, very exclusive boarding school during her high school years. Apparently, they don't teach spelling there. I don't know what you get for your $50,000 a year, but it ain't a dictionary.
Signing off,
Teacher Katie
Hey Katie this is Roberta I am sorry to write this but I wont be in class tonight.
Now, I don't know what offends my delicate sensibilities the most: Could it be the complete and total lack of punctuation? Or the fact that I have been addressed not as "Hello" or "Dear" but as "Hey"? Or (finally), could it be the fact that my name is not Katie? My name doesn't start with the letter "K." It doesn't rhyme with Katie. It's not Kate or Kathleen or anything even remotely resembling Katie and yet . . . here I am. Teacher Katie.
On a different note, I actually like this student quite a bit. She's funny and entertaining. However, her father is a physician and she wrote to tell me that he has non Hotchkins (spelling is hers, not mine). And, she has also mentioned on more than one occasion that she attended a private, very exclusive boarding school during her high school years. Apparently, they don't teach spelling there. I don't know what you get for your $50,000 a year, but it ain't a dictionary.
Signing off,
Teacher Katie
posted by Teacher lady | 10:10 AM
10 Comments:
I TAed once with my friend Lori. The students really seemed to think my name was "Lori-and-Lauren". Sweet Christ on a cracker!
So do they call you by your first name? I'm facing this dilemma for my class this semester. It's so fine-artsy to call your prof by their first name, but I'm not that much older than them. Remain undecided. Hrm.
It seems as though you have made quite an impression. My name starts with a "K" and it is Kathleen and I despise when people as if they can call me Katie or Kathy. I am not a Katie or Kathy and don't you think that I would have introduced myself as one of those if I wanted you to call me that? My name was too long to yell during soccer games so I got dubbed Kat (as you can see) and it is much more fitting.
People who automatically assume they are are on some nickname basis knife at my nerves!
Whenever I had to miss a class, I called my professor so he/she would know that I had a genuine reason and wasn't just playing hooky to catch the sale at The Limited.
Did she even mention why she had to miss class?
Whenever people call me the wrong name it's Michelle. I get that ALL the TIME. I guess you could get "Michelle" from "Nicole" as they both end in "le" but come on, people.
The weird thing is that my mom's other choice for a name for me was...Michelle! AHHHH!!!
*silently sobbing at the thought of 50,000 dollars a year for high school*
First name? Boarding school? No punctuation and crappy spelling?
She may be fun and entertaining, but she certainly doesn't sound like much of a scholar (or even an adult, for that matter).
Teacher Lady and Teacher Katie sound close. Hehehe. I don't suppose that's your real name, though. LOL
With my students, it doesn't matter what they think my name is, they call me "Miss." I haven't been a miss in a LONG time. I think it's a regional thing...just like not knowing punctuation by the time you graduate from high school seems to have become a national thing.
My guess is, you don't even *look* like a Katie. Very weird.
Maybe you should stop giving your email address and encourage them to FedEx or Express Mail you at your office. Perhaps at ten bucks a pop, they'll just come to class.
Yuck! I've recently posted a job opening, and gotten several "dear sir/madam" letters even though it EXPLICITLY states on the job announcement that applications should be sent to me (Dori). One guy got the first name right, but then misspelled my last name. I emailed him to tell him that. I figure, he's not going to get this job, but at least sometime in the future he'll apply for a job and double-check the name of the employer. Similarly, I emailed the woman who sent in a resume with "Massachusetts" spelled three different ways. She should know ...
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