Just call me 'Miss...'

I'm starting to think that my first name is actually "Miss." Students are supposed to call me "Miss Elizabeth, but they constantly shorten it to plain old "Miss." Only in most of their languages, it comes out like "Mees." I'm told that in Greek it's the sound they make to call a cat: "Misss-miss-miss". It must be hard for the Greek-speaking teachers to accept this.



Miss, I have an old aunt who has a face very much like you.  She even wears glasses!
--a Chinese student

My jaw drops in feigned horror.
Well! Are you trying to tell me something about my face, X?
Chinese student giggles hysterically.



Foreign accents are a beautiful thing, and one of my favorite parts of school is hearing the different languages on the playground. Of course, this means every so often a pesky English word comes up that someone hasn't seen before:

Miss, what are Broosel Sproots?

Two of my students in particular are quite attuned to the presence of beauty. First thing every day they come to compliment me and the other teachers on what we are wearing: "Miss, I like your sweater." "Miss those are pretty earrings." "Miss, you look stylish."  I take it as high praise, considering that they both embellish their homework with colorful cursive headings and create the most elaborate illustrations for class projects.

For whatever reason students in the U.S. don't shorten the teachers' name to "Miss." This is the first and probably last time I will ever have this title. I'm getting quite comfortable with it. It will be sad to say 'good-bye' to them in a couple weeks (before our 2-week break) and hear them say "bye Miss!"