Dynamo

Being a substitute in Natalie's school means I get to see her often in the halls, but a school rule prohibits me from ever subbing in her class.  Perhaps it's because the principal fears a parent might give their own child an unfair allotment of attention or maybe the child would be distracted by having their parent be the teacher?  Whatever the reason, in Nat's case, it's probably for the best.

One day, I was a substitute for another second grade teacher who happens to be Natalie's walk-to-read teacher.  So, for a short 45 minute period, I got to teach my own daughter reading.  After school, I asked her what she thought of having me as her teacher.

"Well, it's OK," she said unenthusiastically.  "But you're just a little too...what's the word?...dynamo."

"Dynamo?  What do you mean?"

"It was our word of the day once.  It means...oh let me think...it means...well, it's the opposite of monotone."

"I'm too dynamo?  Isn't dynamo a good thing?  Monotone would be boring."

"Well, yeah, it's a good thing.  You're just a tiny bit too dynamo."

Shoot.  I thought she was going to say I was the best teacher she'd ever had.  Instead, she was quite possibly embarrassed by me.

Well, it turns out she just might have inherited some of my dynamo-ness.  She recently brought home a book her classmates wrote the week she was the class VIP.

Look what some of them said about her:

Like mother, like daughter.  

Being dynamo isn't a bad thing, is it?