A Tall Order

Last Friday I wasn't feeling well. My throat hurt. But it was the last Friday before winter break, and we had a holiday breakfast at school that morning, so I went. As the day wore on, my stomach began to hurt.

After the kids came back in from lunch recess, I wondered if I was going to make it through the rest of the day without puking. I made it through the 35 minutes until it was time to go to the library.

While at the library, I just sat at a table. Our Instructional Coach came out of her office, and asked me if I was ok. I said I felt pretty bad. Thinking about our afternoon, I realized that at 2:08 my kids went to music for 45 minutes, and then most of the kids would be helping to set up for the band and orchestra concert at 3 pm. Really, after 2:08, there wasn't much to do. I only needed class coverage for the dismissal time at the end of the day.

So I asked our coach what she was doing at 3:30. She said she could cover my class so that I could just go home at 2:08. Thank goodness.

When library was over, we returned to class. The first thing I did was to tell my students that I just felt really sick to my stomach, and that once they went to music, I was going to go home.

Leo then said, with anguish in his voice, "But who will take care of us?"

Isn't that sweet? "...take care of us..." was the way he put it. Not who will be our sub, or who will excuse us to go home, or who will teach us...But who will take care of us. That shows their idea of me-not just a teacher. I take care of them. Pretty tall order, I'd say. I'll do my best.

The Real Reason for the Season

I have an advent "tree" that I put out every year. It is a wooden, free-standing tree on a base with 24 drawers. I put a little decoration into each drawer. Each day, then, the kids get to open a numbered drawer and take out a decoration, and hang it on the tree. Behind drawer 24 is the wooden star for the top. That means Santa comes that night when the star goes up! I got this tree when Emily was 2 yrs old, so that means I've used it every year now for 12 years.

The decorations are all cute and all different. Of course, one is baby Jesus, and babies are cute, so it's fun for the kids to get him. Not being very religious, though, makes it less of a big deal. I usually say something tongue in cheek about the "reason for the season."

So today, Emily got the Santa decoration. I happen to like that cute little Santa, and laughed, saying that Santa was the "real" reason for the season.

Stella then said, "No-the reason for the season is that the earth is tilted on it's axis..."

She's got a point. No argument there.

Love That Technology!

My fifth graders are currently in the midst of a fairly large unit on explorers. They each have been assigned an explorer to research, and have a variety of activities to complete. The last activity they had to do was to create a "Help Wanted" poster that their explorer might have put up to get men to go on his expedition. It was to be a persuasive poster.

The other day I decided it was time to explain about the poster. I talked about the purpose of this poster, and together we brainstormed information that should go on the poster. I then told the students that they were to complete a rough draft sketch of their poster on notebook paper before doing the real poster on the nicer, larger paper I had available.

The kids got right to work. About five minutes later I had some kids showing me their poorly-designed rough sketch. They obviously didn't know what a "Help Wanted" poster should look like, I thought. They need to see some examples, I thought further. So I stopped the class.

"I think you all need to see some examples of help wanted posters," I told them. I turned on the document camera so that I could show some examples up large on the Smart Board for all to see. Then I went to Google and typed in "Help Wanted Posters." A list of links came up.

I clicked on the first link, which was for an all-posters websight. It brought me to a page with thumbnail examples of a variety of posters. I was focused; looking for the words "Help Wanted" at the top of thumbnails. Suddenly, I heard a commotion in the room, and some whispering.

I focused in, then, on one of the thumbnail posters. I had noticed it, and thought it was a poster showing stick figures in wrestling moves. But it wasn't wrestling moves. It was sex positions. It was like the Kama Sutra for stick figures.

Now, in our district, we have a filter system. I cannot even show Utube videos. And many times when I've been searchiing for websites, I get a screen that forbids me from opening a particular site. But it didn't catch this one. And unfortunately, a few of the kids did catch it. And knew what it was about (my sweet little kids?).

I closed out the windows as fast as I could, and then just sat there stunned. It was time to excuse them for music, and not knowing what else to do, I excused them. I know that not everyone saw-most kids did not, like me, focus in on it. But a few did. I saw Leo go over to some other boys, whispering, "Did you see that?"

But I did go to both our Curriculum Coach and to our Principal to let them know what had happened, just in case. The verdict was: we have a good filter system but it doesn't catch everything. My principal said if the kids came back from music still talking about it, that I should just explain what happened. Luckily, it seemed like they weren't talking about it anymore.

The next day I was talking with one of the teachers, and told him what had happened. He showed me how I can push a button on my remote that will freeze whatever is on the screen, and can then continue to search for posters (or whatever) without it showing on the screen until I want it to.

But it would have been just my luck to have "frozen" the screen right when the Kama Sutra stick figures were there.

Grammar Problem

I received this email from the National Education Association, and one of the very first sentences bothered me-not that anyone seems to actually read my blog and could agree or disagree with me, but there you have it. It bothers me, and I must put it in writing.

Here's the paragraph: "As we reported last week, Congress is considering a second economic recovery package, focused on job creation. A bill could be taken up in the House of Representatives as early as next week. Critical to such a package is the inclusion of an Education Jobs Fund to help save and create jobs that help students achieve, run our schools, and strengthen the middle class."

Read that last sentence in that paragraph. The way that sentence is written, it sounds as if this bill will help students "achieve, run our schools, and strengthem the middle class."

Wow. Can students really do all that? And do I want them to? Do I want to work in a school run by students? Are they really going to be capable of strengthening the middle class?

See what I mean? I think someone should have proofread more carefully.

Proud Momma

The other day my older daughter came home, and told me that she had taken a survey in her honor's social studies class. It was a political survey, and her answers scored points that placed her into a political party that most fit her ideals. I'm so very proud to say that my daughter is a Liberal Democrat!

Later, both of my girls were watching "Fiddler on the Roof" On Demand. The part came where the one daughter marries the Catholic, and her father claims she is dead to him. This bothered my girls, and they wondered aloud if we'd ever do that if they were to marry out of our faith. My husband said, "It would be more like if you married into a faith..."

Haha. Then my daughters thought. And they said, "No, it would be more like if we married a Republican!"

You got that right, girls! But they'd never do that.