Commonly Misspelled Words

There are some words that people consistently have a hard time spelling. Like calendar, separate, column, correspondence, and vacuum.

Or Yakima. Not Yacama (please refer to my previous post).

Which is why when my Teacher Assistant, Beth, Googled for "Yacama," although I think she spelled it even differently than I thought it might be spelled, there was not a result. However Yakima is a city. In Washington. Near Seattle. And apparently, iCarly is set there. Thank you to Amy Hopper, researcher extraordinaire :)

So I stand wholly corrected.

Well, not totally, because I was right in telling my class that it is not a state or country. And it's also not in the desert.
I stand partially corrected. Okay, fine. I should have done a little more research before lecturing the kids on fiction versus reality. Jumped the gun on that one.

Now the real question is...should I tell the kids? Because here's the deal, I know what most of you are probably thinking. That kids should see adults make and admit mistakes gracefully and graciously. I believe in this too, I really do. There's nothing worse than a person who can't admit a mistake.

Here's what you might not know if you haven't been in a classroom of 20 eight-year-olds recently: If you (the authority) make and admit mistakes (which I do frequently) they will try to "catch" you making other mistakes and point them out incessantly until I use my mean voice and let them know that they are being rude.

Mrs. Taylor, did you mean to make your "a" that way?
Mrs. Taylor, did you mean to write "30" instead of "31"?
Mrs. Taylor, did you forget to give us our snack?
Mrs. Taylor, did you forget to properly enunciate the last consonant digraph in the word "four hundredth"?

It does not cease. And it typically gets a little attitude added in. Like a "too many kids too big for their britches" type of attitude.

But still. This mistake has a geographical (and potentially a spelling) lesson attached to it. I'll be gracious; I'll be graceful. I can admit when I'm wrong.

I'll just to need to brace myself for the interruptions that only twenty self-assured children can bring.