It's very common for (and terribly charming when) students accidentally call their teachers "Mom," but even I was surprised when one of my students called me "Justin Bieber" last week.
My students are writing features, and this student is writing about paparazzi. She said, "Now, Mrs. R., I'm NOT going to write about Justin Bieber"-- (I'd forbidden them, even though they begged me, to write features on Justin Bieber)-- "but recently he's had some run-ins with the paparazzi, so is it OK if I just MENTION him."
Me: "Oh yeah, sure, sure."
Then, I hauled out my fancy new iPad-blue tooth keyboard set up, and the kids got all excited, saying, "What IS that? Is that a tiny laptop?"
And the student writing the paparazzi article craned her neck to get a good look at my iPad setup and said in an jokingly exasperated voice to me, "--Justin Bieber!" and then shook her head in confusion.
Me: "--Did you just call me Justin Bieber?"
Student: "I meant to say Mrs. R.! I was-- never mind!"
So that's the story of how I got called "Justin Bieber." I doubt many people- especially women- can brag about the same! I must admit I found it very flattering.
