step into my office

It's that time again: parent-teacher conference time. The kiddos are excited because they get two half-days next week out of the deal. I'm excited because it's always nice to see the parents and, let's face it, something unexpected always comes up, which is fun.

Take my Spring 2010 round of conferences, for example. At the time I had 120+ students, so I had a lot more parents wanting to talk to me than I will this year. As the night wore on, more and more of them seemed to want to just get in and take care of business--until Jorge's mother showed up, that is. She rushed in for her turn, visibly excited about something. I was glad to see her so happy, but must admit, I could not think of a reason related to my class that would explain her emotional state. When she got to my table, however, she proudly presented me with the following booklet:

In case you can't tell, it's a social life magazine produced in Reynosa, a city just across the U.S.-Mexican border from the town we lived in. Ah-ha! So that explains the excitement! On second thought, I was still a little confused...

Seeing the perplexed look on my face, Jorge's mother took the magazine back and quickly flipped to the page she wanted me to see:

Oh. It turns out that a reporter had taken some photographs of a group of my friends when we were out one night celebrating a friend's birthday, and said photos had made it into the magazine.

Can we say awkward?? I'm just glad she was excited about the picture!

I think I'll be safe from this particular surprise at this round of conferences...