"When we would play school, people would get mad when I wouldn't let them use the chalk." Done's grandmother used to say her grandson was a "born pedagogue."

All that practice must have made a difference because Done has proved to be an exceptional teacher. In 1998 he won the Schwab Foundation Distinguished Teacher Award. He also won Teacher of the Year Award in the Sunnyvale School District, and he's been a nominee for Disney Teacher of the Year.

But these days Done is chalking up another kind of work--a book.

After 20 years of teaching elementary school, Done fulfilled a goal of writing a book about his and other teachers' experiences with students.

Conversations among his colleagues at Cumberland Elementary School in Sunnyvale--where he taught for 10 years--triggered the idea.

Done and the staff were sitting around laughing out loud about all the funny things children do and say. He remembers thinking, "someone ought to write a book about this."

Years later he finally put it together.

Done's book, 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny: Life Lessons From Teaching, published by Simon and Schuster, hit bookstores in August.

The first-time author--who also taught five years in Palo Alto and five in Budapest, Hungary--is taking a year off from teaching to promote his book.

It is a collection of short essays about the goings-on in a third-grade classroom. Laugh-out-loud passages are of the ordinary, the rough and the painful times. There are glimpses into his own youth in Sunnyvale where he grew up with a sister and two brothers and where his mother still lives in his childhood home.

One chapter tells the story of Done and his two brothers winning their school carnival pie-eating contest. The boys got ribbons. So did their mother, Mary Done. Hers read: "Mother of the Three Little Pigs."

"I wasn't exactly proud of this," she says, laughing.

In spite of the slight embarrassment she felt back then, she says, "When the personal things are shared in warm-hearted humor, I'm happy to have them written about," she says. "They can see my son's heart in the book."

Done captures the funny things that come out of little mouths, such as when one little boy said Magellan had "circumcised" the world, or the student who wanted to buy his parents a new bed for Christmas. The old one was broken, the student said, "because every night it makes a lot of noise."

Done's last name--pronounced like phone--creates some confusion for students.

"When my kids see 'done' in a text, they read it with a long 'o' because they think it should sound like their teacher's name. So I'm afraid my name messes them up," Done says.

His book is selling well. At a signing at Books, Inc. in Mountain View last week, the store sold out 70 in-stock copies.

Though the concept for the book has on in his mind for years, Done didn't begin writing it until two years ago, when he was teaching at the American International School in Budapest, Hungary.

Shortly after his father's death seven years ago, Done decided he needed a change of scenery and pace. He's always been interested in other cultures, traveling and languages, and he'd subscribed to a newspaper for international teachers. There were many job openings in Europe. He traveled to London for a job fair and came away with seven job offers in various countries. He settled on a job in Budapest.

There, he found himself with more "release time" because, unlike California schools, he did not have to teach every subject himself. Students would leave his room to attend an art, music or physical education session in another classroom. This gave Done more time during the day to complete lesson plans and grade homework and tests, which gave him more time after work to think. He began to write.

He began to keep notes of the amusing and amazing things happening in the classroom. He says he wishes he had done this when he first started teaching.

He also shared his writing experience with his students, reading them chapters that included their antics. He shared his disappointments as he received more than 35 rejection letters from agents.

Mary Done says that in sharing his experience, her son was also a teaching. It taught the children that not everybody gets what they want when they want it. They watched him search for an agent and rejoiced with him when he finally got one.

Done's hiatus from teaching began in Budapest, but his career began in Sunnyvale, where he is still remembered mostly for his "true gift of teaching."

"He was probably one of the most talented teachers I had ever met at Cumberland," says Kathy Blashke, who taught at Cumberland with Done and is still there.

An incident recorded in Done's book sticks in the minds of those who are still at Cumberland--the day his tie got stuck in the laminator and he had to be cut free by a co-worker.

"The laminator? Oh, that's a memory that has hung on here at Cumberland. We were talking about getting a new laminator and saying we should track him down and donate (this one) to him," says Ann McCarty, who also taught at Cumberland with him and is still there.

"That story is not only known at the school but district-wide. After it happened people started sending him ties through interdistrict mail," she says.

Known for a dramatic flair--which colleagues say students adored at story time and theatrical productions--Done put on musical theater camps in Palo Alto for 10 summers. He put his music performance degree to use there and at the schools for various plays, musicals and concerts.

"He helped bring learning to life for a lot of students," McCarty says.

Phillip Done's book is available at the Sunnyvale Public Library, and in bookstores or on-line.