JOD - Field Trips

What could possibly be smarter than having a field trip the last day before spring break - oh, telling the teachers Monday night that students will be missing Thursday - I mean really, it isn't common to give tests this week.

Student Response

"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." - Anne Frank

Part of a student's response: My personal opinion is that "good" and "evil" are not real. They are only what we think when we reflect on our values and beliefs.

March 3, 2010 - I ITCH

The craziness began 5th hour when one of my students was pulled out of class. I didn’t find out to lunch what it was about – even though I had my suspicions, and automatically started to feel itchy. LICE! It seems like lice might be going around. Every time I think about lice I think about my sister driving my mom crazy.

My mom is a totally freaked out about lice. I don’t quite know why it scares her so badly. But the story goes that there were lice at my sister’s school when she was in kindergarten. My sister brought home a note from the school talking about how some students had lice and how parents should check for certain signs like itching the head. Well, as soon as my sister heard the word “itching” and “head,” she did what any kindergartener would do, she started scratching her head and my mother started freaking out. She didn’t have lice, but my mom was so paranoid that it didn’t really matter.

The investigation continued and in my 7th hour class, the 8th grade students were taken out one at a time to check. Only Ben got a pass since he has recently sheared off all of his hair. It is funny to see how quickly news spreads in a school. I didn’t say anything about checking for lice when the first few students left, but within seconds of coming back, it was like the whole class knew. It amazes me how quickly they figured out what was going on. How can they pass info like that so quickly?

Scratching our heads and talking about lice has become a fun way to terrorize my mother. I actually can’t wait till I go over to my parents tonight and start scratching my head. I guarantee you that when I tell her that we had lice checks and she sees me scratching my head, she will say to me, “Allison, that is not funny.” I’ll get a good laugh. Right after I take a shower – I seem to be itching everywhere! Maybe the school secretary should check me for lice.

JOD - Exams

Next week is exams. Unfortunately, I really don't know how many students could tell you when they are. This is all because it doesn't seem important to tell students or teachers when the exams are.

Monday morning I inquired about the exam schedule - I figured someone should finally ask the question we were all wondering. My principal told me that she saw the schedule the previous week, which is fine, except that information wasn't communicated to the teaching staff or the students.

So, on Monday I got the exam schedule. In the brilliance of planning we have an exam scheduled on next Friday. This may not seem like an issue, except for the fact that students have the day off on next Friday.

The memo was dated on the 4th, we got it on the 11th. This is problematic in so many ways, especially since all of our exams and study guides are to be turned in (if possible) by the 13th.

Here comes the conundrum: Do I turn them in on the 13th since I started working on them last week knowing that exams would come eventually or do I turn them in according to how long it would actually have taken me to if I first started planning on the 11th? I see pros and cons to both course of action, but can't quite decide which one I should pursue. What do you think?

Daddy and Me

My mom is out of town visiting my sister. So, it is my dad and me. This is always interesting as my dad left to his own devices can sometimes really worry me.

Every Sunday afternoon involves Packer games and sub sandwiches. My dad called me this morning asking for my order. Now, my order is sometimes a little bit involved: my mom though has it down. So, when my dad called, I decided to get something different than usual so that it would be easier and I would get the right sub. After I gave him my order, he asked me the sweetest question: No mayo right?

Okay, this may seem like no big deal, but I hate mayo and I ordered a sandwich that didn't contain mayo so that it would be easier for my dad. And it just seemed like the sweetest thing in the world for him to remember my pickiness in my order.

JOD - Communication

Yesterday we sent a letter home to the parents about the upcoming trip for students. On the note, it said there was a meeting that night at the school to discuss the trip. The kicker, the letter had the previous day's date.

Quote of the day:

Miss Isler: (to student sitting on the ground reading her book in the bathroom) Kab, what are you doing?

Kab: My partner is peeing.

This is what happens when you have to go to the bathroom with a partner.

Yesterday's quote of the day:

Girl Student: Miss Isler are your eyelashes real?

A Quick Break from Lesson Planning

In the midst of planning for my next week (how will I endure a five-day week?!?), I started looking for a George Orwell quote that I recalled about being enslaved to enslaving others. So I headed to the internet and was sidetracked instead by his other quotes:

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.

Comments? I am just laughing at how true these are.