Jama-Lama Ding Dong

Teachers start work a few weeks before the students actually come back to school. New teachers begin work even earlier, because they have to spend a few days in workshops to find out why we are teachers (because I didn't know), how to operate a computer (because we don't live in the twenty first century where infants are born with iPods in their clenched fists), and how to manage a classroom (because apparently you can't use whips and cattle prods--who knew?).

On the first day, I am in this staff development with seven other brand new hires in our school district. The first thing we do is go around the room and tell "a little bit about ourselves." Every single person in there starts out, "Well, I am married and have 2.5 kids (I'm averaging)..." so when it comes to me, I say, "Well, I am not married and have 13 children: Jon, Josh, Jeremy, Jack, Jessica, Jennifer, Jocelyn, Jalapeno, Jeff, Jamie, Jill, Jumpin Jehosephat, and Jama-Lama Ding Dong." Judging from the looks I got, I think I will fit in nicely.