The Letter of the Day is..Q!

I'm kind of tripping this year off of the names some of my students. I love these girls to death, but some of the names...

The last two years, the popular name was Sierra. But it can't just be Sierra...it has to be Cierra or Ciera or Ciara or even Serra. Oh yes, F.Y.I., S-E-R-R-A spells "Sierra" now. Wait - and when I read the name off of the roll for the first time and pronounced "Serra" phonetically as "Seh-rah", the child snapped at me and said, "NO - it's SEE-AIR-RAH!!!!"

**insert lip smack and eye roll here**

I resisted the urge to say, "No...actually, S-E-R-R-A spells SEH-RAH...clearly your people are not 'Hooked on Phonics'..."

Because, of course, I can't say that.

Today in 6th period. a student remarked, "Every girl in this classroom has a name that ends with the sound 'ah'". Donkoria. Shatasia. Kierra. Tierra. Katerria. Cierra. Sierra. Kiana. Nurashah. I could keep going. There was actually one name that did not end in 'ah'...Shantesis. But then I thought, shoot, my name ends in "a" too - Deanna...LOL.

But what prompted this blog was my new student's name. I realized after about a week of school that I have 5 students whose names start with the letter "Q". That's just odd to me. Quadirah, Quenshondra, Quennisha, Queenishah, and Qualondria. Then my new student comes in...I look at the schedule and try to wrap my brain around her name...how am I supposed to pronounce THIS name... What the heck is this? I mean, 'Hooked on Phonics' worked for me in the past, but this one threw me: "Qu'Nik". I'm looking at the paper, like, um...err...clearly I'm confused. She is accustomed to this reaction...she smiles at me and says, "It's Que-nique". It rhymes with "unique", just in case you didn't catch that. I replied, Oh...okay...welcome to math class, Qu'Nik.

She was so proud to tell me the correct pronunciation of her name. Then I realized how much I love my name - Deanna. Honestly, it's one of my favorite words, LOL. When I was young, I would get angry when I couldn't find a keychain or coffee mug with my name plastered across the surface, but as I've grown older, I love having a name that you don't see every day.

I guess you have to love your name...even when it's as unique as "Qu'Nik".

And now I have 6 students whose names begin with the letter "Q".