Serendipity...

Today was a different type of day...

I had taken the day off today to work on National Boards and got it completed YIPPEE!!!! But I also had a bunch of errands to run...

I got my car inspected and an oil change, mailed my National Board box...but also went to my favorite hairdressor to get a trim and my eyebrows wax...(exciting, I know)....so I call my salon and ask if my stylist, Angela, has any appointments. I'm in luck and get a 3:15.

It may be a source of vanity...but if you know me, you know I've been trying to grow my hair long so I can donate it and every other stylist I've gone to cuts 4+ inches when I ask for 1/4 of an inch...So, I go to Angela.

Angela tells me today that it is changing salons and that today is her last day. She was happy I came in because she didn't have my number or address so she could notify me of the change...

I usually get my haircut maybe 3 times a year...I LOATHE it...so the fact that I took off today from school, got boards done and mailed, got the car inspected and oil changed, and got a salon appointment with Angie on her last day is definately serendipitous!

Out of the mouth of babes...

Ok, so like usual its 10pm and I'm in the supermarket trying to get groceries. There are few other people in the market with me, but of those in attendence are a mother, father and their daughter (about age 10) and one of her friends. The girls are screaming at the top of their lungs and running around the store. ((((CRINGE))))). I am doing my shopping and trying to stay away from them. As I'm walking down the canned veggie aisle, I slip slightly on some sort of yellow substance on the floor. (EW) and when I get to the end of the asile by the registers I tell the cashier that there was something on the floor. This was shortly followed by "Code Yellow...aisle 8, Code Yellow aisle 8" being projected across the PA system.

I continue on my way and run into the mother of the children and mention to her that their is a spill on the next aisle over and that her girls should be careful, lest they slip... At that time, the girls come running over to the cart talking about "touching the pee" on the floor... (double, no triple EW ICK YUCK!) At this point the father comes over and says...

"At least they have a good sale going on now...almost everything is buy one, get one pee..."

To which the daughter looks at him...completely deadpan and says..."That isn't funny!"

The rest of us started cracking up...It was the funniest thing I heard in about a month...

Out of the mouth of babes...

Lessons....

OK...so as many of you know, I have undertook a rather large and looming project that is due on the 31st...besides having to appear on camera (ICK!) I also have to type approximately 100 pages of support about how "wonderful" I am as a teacher. Well, I don't know how wonderful I am, but I try hard to do my best...

In order to accomplish my goal of putting my box of stuff in the mail by my deadline we (candidates) are given 4 professional development days... Thinking ahead, I chose tomorrow (Friday) and Tuesday as 2 of my days...why not Monday? well, it was already a workday as it was the end of the marking period so I already had it off to complete my grades.

Unlike other jobs where if I wouldn't report to work the work would sit nicely on my desk and await my return...when I don't go to school I still have 105+ students show up looking to be educated....so, if I take a day off, for whatever reason I need to leave them something to do...

We have been studying India for the past few weeks and are in the process of wrapping it up, so I had some choices for my lessons that I was going to leave:
1) Book work
2) Video
3) art project
4) Test
5) Group work
6) Worksheets
7) Test skills
8) Start new content

There are problems with each of these ideas has problems...
1) book work is boring and some will refuse to do it, therefore creating "idle hands"
2) the only video I could find was a travel video on India...would be engaging, especially the carvings of Karma Sutra.... ;-)
3) This particular group does NOT like to draw...and actually enjoys throwing art supplies around the room and chasing each other with open markers
4) Friday especially this would be a problem as they are already spending the morning in testing in preparation for the end of grade tests...
5) Would work in keeping them occupied - but no content would be done...SOCIAL studies, however, would prevail...
6) rather boring and repititious...
7) Same as #4 with the added bonus of being multiple choice and therefore suseptible to "connect the dots" and "I'm done..."
8) Not sure I want to start new content as I don't feel comfortable having them do work on Ancient China and then going back to India on Wednesday to talk about Gandhi and/or Mother Theresa...

So, what to do???

This is what I decided...
Friday - Use an Indian version of Cinderella and create a character sheet....then read a Western version of Cinderella and complete a Venn Diagram (compare/contrast) exercise.

Tuesday - Openbook/open note test using chapter review questions from text book...

that will still keep us in India (sort of) and I still do the lessons on Gandhi and M.T with out them being out of place...


So...now that the kiddies are taken care of .... I will see them NEXT WEDNESDAY!!!! (Boy, am I looking forward to this nice long break...even if I DO get to spend most of it looking at my computer screen....)

Wish me luck!

History...

One of the reasons I became a history teacher was because I was good at history in school. Yes, I know it sounds a little geekish, but it came easy to me. I was always good at memorizing and found the people and events I was learning about fascinating. It hasn't been until much more recently that I have begun to really understand the impact of all the events on the future.

Unfortnuately (or not) this seems to be lost on the upcoming generations. Much of the wonder is gone from these children who live in the age of instant gratification and a never ending stream of information. Why should they care about what happened 15, 30, 50, 150 years ago? What difference does it make in there life? How do you explain the Age of Discovery, for example, to young people who haven't left their home town, let alone their state?

What does the future hold?

Okay, so here it goes. I've thought about blogging for a while, but am not really sure what I would write...so I decided to try it and see what happens...

Today made me really wonder what I was doing in front of a room full of children. I take out the overhead (I know, ancient technology) and a marker and ask the kids to take out a sheet of paper and copy what I put on the screen. I wanted to show them outlining skills and give them the last little bit of information for their upcoming test. So I am going through the material, showing the students how to structure an outline and I am almost done with a page of notes...when off to the side, one of my students says, "Oh, are we supposed to be writing this down?" (SIGH) Makes me wonder...