Pop Quiz: Did you bring enough for the whole class?
So if the Pop Quiz is late again that’s because it’s my BIIIIIIRTHDAY! I even got a cake! In a meeting!
Having a summer birthday, I never really got to celebrate my loops around the Sun in the classroom. The thing to do back then was for the parent of the kid whose birthday it was to bring a whole lot of donut holes, enough for the whole class. Nowadays, with so many dietary restrictions and childhood allergies, I can’t imagine that is always allowed. And you have to be sure to be fair to all the kids, which our parents usually did, and bring enough for the whole class. Then what about the summer birthdays! The weekend kids! Is it fair to them to not celebrate? Do they get a special donut day?
Do you have birthdays in your classroom? What were classroom birthdays like in your classes when you were a kid? How do you celebrate when you have to be at work nowadays?
The Pop Quiz is a question posed to you, the Scholars of Doubt. Look for it to appear Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 3pm ET. ish.
Nowadays my birthday nearly always coincides with my discipline’s largest annual conference. While this has occasionally been fun (birthday dinner with friends and colleagues! bring on the wine!), more often it just means I don’t get to celebrate with my closest friends and family. I actually rather envy your summer birthday–at least for those of us on an academic schedule, that virtually guarantees the day off and increases the chances that friends and family will also be on vacation and/or otherwise available.
Happy Birthday, Nicole! It’s my birthday today, too, so I know how you feel. It was always hard to get kids to come over due to vacations, camps, etc. On top of that, I had an older brother whose birthday was only 4 days later and so my parents always combined birthday parties and even presents. It was the worst. Now that I’m older, working full time, and a bit of an introvert, I do not really like to do anything special for my birthday. I don’t even post the date on my social media sites so I don’t get flooded with comments.
My kids, however, have birthdays during the school year and their school still allows the kids to bring in something. We usually make cupcakes for everyone in the class as we have found it to be a fun project for kids to get involved in how to cook.
When I was a kid, we used to take a bag full of lollipops or other sweets and offer it to our class mates.
At my daughter’s school, each teacher has his own policy; most of them prefer to celebrate 1 day per month, all the birthdays of that month; the kids celebrating birthday that month join together and make a cake, making sure that ingredients are suitable for everybody. I find this is a very good way to do so.
At work, I always take 2 or 3 cakes, home made by myself, to be shared with everybody.
Then you could also have an extra-big party on the last day of school for the summer birthdays!