Big Fish

How fitting that when we called the restaurant to order a gift certificate for Heidi's dad that they told us he had just left. Happy Birthday, Gar! Enjoy the next few fish fries on us!

Bon Mot

I have a student this year who is super intelligent and very hard-working. She is in all the advanced classes we offer at sixth grade and has been on the honor roll every quarter. And yet, I know from working with her, that there are some gaps and glitches in how her brain works.

For example, she is a native English speaker but she often must grasp for even common words in both speaking and writing. The way she asks is very round-about, too. "What do they call that thing?" is how she usually starts, and then she laughs, sheepishly acknowledging her vagueness.

Today she asked that question twice as she composed a quick 150 word personal narrative. The first time she described a "glass box for snakes or turtles."

"An aquarium?" I tried, but she looked doubtful. "A tank?"

"Yes!" She went back to writing.

A little while later, she asked about an object that "You use it when you're, y'know, and it looks like this..." Here she paused and drew a quick sketch of a rectangular shape with what might have been a handle. "The floor..." She trailed off, but one of her classmates came to her rescue.

"A dust pan?"

"Yes!" she said.

At the end of the lesson she volunteered to read her piece, and it was a really, really good story about how she and her mom and sisters rescued a bird from their cat (using a dust pan) and then nursed it (in an aquarium), until one day it was able to fly away on its own.

I did have to laugh a little at how it started, though: We were cleaning the house, and my mom was brooming.

Off-duty

My mom's in town for my nephew's graduation and after visiting Monticello on Saturday, we decided to head down to Mount Vernon today.

How strange it was to be in a historic place on a beautiful Monday in May surrounded by school children on a field trip and yet responsible for none of them.

Not the girl shouting, "Look! Real sheep! I saw that one breathe!" Not the boy stuffing a whole cup of fountain soda in his pocket. Not the kids trying to huff the special effects fog in the movie, nor their class mates who caught the soap flake "snow" on their tongues, and definitely not the boy with the electronic transmitter on his ankle.

Is this what retirement will be like?

Exceptional

As a rule? I don't really like graduations. I've personally walked twice, in high school and then in college, but I've skipped the last two. Maybe it's my own feelings about change and transition or even my own feelings about pomp and ceremony, but either way, I don't like 'em.

BUT, when my nephew or niece should call, nothing seems out of the question, and so when the first member of our next generation graduated (Phi Beta Kappa, with highest honors) from UVa, I was right there.

And, oh what a spectacle it was! Over 4,000 grads and perhaps 10,000 spectators gathered on an emerald lawn under a deep blue sky this morning. Sunny, 70 degrees, and no shortage of balloons, this ceremony was marked by the obvious affection that the elders in attendance-- president, professors, parents, and other supporters-- had for these graduates.

On such a day, it was impossible to find fault in anything, and so I didn't.

You Don't Say

It's not that I don't learn new things every day--  as an educator, especially, I delight in those daily discoveries. Whether it's the unfolding of a news story or seeing a side of a student I never imagined,  I know that liife is full of new information and insights. 

It is rare, though, that my mind is blown by what I learn; usually it's more of an aha or even an oh right moment. That's why my jaw dropped in stunned silence today when I heard that ABBA's hit Dancin Queen was actually written for the current queen of Sweden on the occasion of her marriage to the king. What?!  

I know the band, and I know the song (who doesn't?),  but even after hearing it hundreds of times in the last 38 years,  I had no idea about its back story. 

That surprised me.

Bank Error in your Favor

I literally guffawed yesterday when a colleague showed me her reimbursement check for buying some paper. Each teacher at our school is allotted $43.07 in discretionary funds per school year. Her check was made out for $43,070.00! Of course she turned it in right away (not before pointing out that it would buy a very nice car), but when I asked her what she would have done with one more zero?

That she had to think about.

To Tell the Truth

I forgive the three eighth grade girls who came to writing club today for doing more talking than writing. They are practically founding members of the group, and their middle school days are dwindling, probably inversely to the speed in which they converse is accelerating. I had an interview activity in mind, but they just kind of used it as a spring board to chatter.

Somehow the whole meeting devolved into a few rounds of truth or dare after one of them asked the group, What's your secret best strategy for playing any game? as her interview question. They've dropped the silent 'e' from dare, though, in one of those relentless ribbings you give your friends over little things like a typo in an onscreen chat, so we played truth or dar. 

Mary took truth-- What character from a book you've read would you most like to marry?-- but she never did decide. (How about Atticus Finch?)

I took dare-- Do an aggressive chicken dance at the first teachers to walk in the door-- and the darlin' darer was kind enough to call a couple of my colleagues in from the hall so I could do it. To tell the truth? I kind of enjoyed viciously snapping the beaks of my two hands at them. 

All too soon our meeting was over, when through the window we saw a bus carrying some of their friends roll up. When they asked if they could go out to meet it, we were all too happy to give them our permission.