Professionalism. Not My Cup of Tea.

In attempts to use my time more wisely or just to cut my amount of work into half, I recently wrote a letter to the parents of seniors I have on my caseload.  In this letter I explained that although their precious son/daughters would in fact be graduating in May, there are still some items that needed to addressed.  I wrote in such a manner that the parents should have no questions upon completion of reading, clearly stating the objectives left and what part they would play in achieving the desired results. I ended my letter with this as my last sentence:

"All you need to do it send it back with her and we will be good to go!"

I was as professional as they come.

One of my seniors came into my room today and said: "You know you wrote, we'll be good to go on that letter?"

Me: "Huh?"

Kid: "You wrote, we'll be good to go, at the end of that letter you sent home to my momma!"

Me: "Yeah... What's it to ya?"

Kid: "My momma read it and asked me if that was professional.  We kept saying 'we'll be good to go' all night.  Ha!  We'll be good to go, Ms. Peters!  You wrote 'we'll be good to go!"

Me : "I never claimed to be professional, okay?  I'm not a professional person!  Get off my case!"

Kid: "Yeah, I know that Ms. Peters.  I think that's what makes you so cool."

So in the case of Professionalism vs. Coolness, I roll with Coolness.  And in the case of my job description and what I dreamt about when I thought about being a Special Education teacher was always to be cool and never give off the vibe of professionalism to my students.  I am who I am, always.  No matter the case: interviewing, talking with parents, or in writing a letter there is no alteration to my personality.  If I was to act all professional and not throw in my personality, I would be giving false information!  And I have never been about lying, nor will I ever be about it.  I'm just about being cool.