Just put yourself ahead in time, HD, pretend that it’s next month already, and imagine that the past 4 or so weeks just totally rocked. Every hope you now possess for the coming weeks has manifested. Every challenge was breezed through. Every cool person stayed cool, every trickster became an ally, there were happy surprises … More Baker’s dozen
I should really be putting the finishing touches on a poetry test and making sure I know what the hell I’m teaching in less than an hour, but I promised a report on Friday’s “good thing,” and besides, I’d rather talk to the internet than work anyway. On Friday after dinner I filled up the bathtub, … More T-minus 14
Not counting today there are 15 school days remaining on my work calendar. I tried to post a nifty little ticker to commemorate the countdown, but it didn’t go over so well. So I thought I’d try something a little different. My mantra has always been a combination of “I can do anything for a … More Fifteen Beautiful Things, or “Please, please help me.”
Teacher: We need bees to pollinate flowers–if not for the bees we’d have a shortage of plant life. Student: Why do we need flowers anyway? We don’t eat them. Teacher: Most fruits and vegetables start out as flowers. If there were no flowers we’d have no fruit. Student: I don’t eat fruit. I eat meat. Teacher: What about grass? … More Overheard in biology class
In response to my request for blogging material, Lo suggested more battle stories like the one about the girl plucking her facial hair and the kids playing poker in the class I had to cover on Monday. Unfortunately, there are so many such stories in a day that I try to deprogram my brain on the way home every … More Girl in the war
If you go back and read my May entries from 2005 and 2006 you’ll notice a pattern. It’s quite similar to the one that is developing for May 2007. I don’t blog much in May. Not only is it a–how shall I say nicely?–trying time in the public schools, but it’s also the time of year when … More Same story, different year
1. Today a kid asked, out loud, during class time, “Why do we have so many principals around here?” I started to tell him (one, because one of our assistants spends half the day here and half the day at our other sites, and two, the new principal for next year is going to be … More Why I need to get out of the classroom: an ongoing list (edited already!)
I’ve been taking a young adult literature class for my master’s degree. We’ve read a little of everything–problem novels, poetry, historical fiction, mystery and horror, romance, adventure. My current required reading list includes a graphic novel of my choice. I don’t like graphic novels. They are too busy for me, too much on the page, and … More Things and stuff
I drove by the site of my former workplace yesterday. It’s REALLY gone now. Nothing there but a concrete foundation and a flagpole. If I hadn’t known were I was, I wouldn’t have known where I was. It was eerie, but completely unemotional. I think knowing that my stuff is no longer accessible is actually … More Assorted
Can anyone tell me the part of speech of the word “yo”? As in, “Get up off my ass, yo!” or “Yo, what is this shit?” Because the next time I hear it, I’m thinking of making the offending speaker define it, provide its etymology, write and diagram 10 sentences containing it, and then swear on … More Word of the day
one small corner of the universe 