Knowing the Drill

We had a fire drill during homeroom this morning, and my class had a little trouble staying together. In their defense, there is a bit of a bottleneck at our designated exit. The students evacuating from our area must merge with students coming up a narrow stairway and pass through two doors into the main vestibule where they can finally exit the building. By the time we were outside, my class was scattered, and it took a minute for me to gather them all up.

When we returned to the room, I told them I knew it could be challenging, but if they all stuck close to the classmate in front of them, then no one would be separated from the group. "Sometimes you just have to wait patiently before you try to go out," I advised them.

One little girl raised her hand. "But what if it was a real fire?" she said. Wouldn't we want to push our way out and run from the building as soon as we could?"

Talisman

Fifteen years ago we spent election night at my brother and sister-in-law's house. It was Heidi's birthday and we were celebrating. Riley was 8, and Treat was 5 and I brought along a little craft project I was going to do with my students the next day. After dinner, we all moved to the living room to watch the election returns and put together dream catcher kits for my class. Emily's parents, Vic and Judy, were there, too, and we all expected to sing happy birthday and go home secure in the knowledge of who our next president would be. Of course that didn't happen: it would be several weeks before the Supreme Court would rule in Bush v. Gore. I thought of that evening today when I caught site of the red, white, and blue dream catcher fashioned out of pipe cleaners, yarn, plastic beads and feathers with a now vintage I Voted sticker affixed in the center. It still hangs on the wall behind my desk. When I made it, I joked that it would be a good filter for political nightmares but frankly? I have never found it very effective.

Checks and Balances

"Will you give me candy if I get a perfect score on this reading log?" a student asked today.

I glanced at his log and shook my head. "You won't get a perfect score," I told him, "because you didn't capitalize the titles of the books you read."

My intention was for him to correct his error, but that didn't happen. "I'm going to get someone else to check it," he said.

"It will still be incorrect," I replied.

"He won't see it," he assured me.

"But, I know it's wrong," I reminded him. "Remember me? The one who records the grades?"

"So no candy?" he asked rhetorically.

I nodded. "And capitalize those titles, would ya?" 

EST to the Rescue

I frowned when I saw that it was raining this morning when I got up; there would probably be no walking to the farmers market in such weather. The rest of our group rose a bit later, but the day was still wet and blustery. At last, a little before noon, the sun came out and blue skies prevailed-- our trip to the market was a go after all!

But it wouldn't have been if not for the turn of the clock last night, for the farmers market closes at 1, which was one hour later today.

They Have Some Splainin to Do

While I was out on Friday, and my class was being supervised by a substitute, I received the following messages:

Student 1: SHE SPIT ON THE FLOOR WHILE SHE LICKED MY SCREEN Tongue out. SHE DID NOT SPIT IN HER HAIR OK DONT BELIVE HER! I AM NOT LYEING

Student 2: What!!!!!!!!!!Yell

Student 3: i did not lick his screen i pretended to the i laughed and drooled and it got in my hair and fell on the ground. after that i cleaned it up.

Sigh. Won't that be a fun conversation on Monday.

Ms. Brightsides

As I mentioned yesterday, Heidi's parents are in town and the main activity on the agenda is shopping, both for Heidi's birthday and some early Christmas gift buying as well. Usually, I excuse myself from a day at the mall, but this time, I really couldn't say no and so here we are, entering hour 5. Best to look at the bright side, I think-- I got my 10,000 steps 2 hours ago!

We'll See

I'm going to be out of school tomorrow because Heidi's folks are coming into town-- in fact they are stuck in our infamous rush hour traffic even now. It's usually kind of a chore to make sub plans, but today I told my students I would be out and instructed them to keep going on the stuff they are working on. They seemed to really embrace the idea, and when I told them that I was trusting them to be responsible, they practically cheered: "We can do it!"