Off Brand

Perhaps it was the way Milo cries pitifully at the door, but only when Lucy is outside, that on a whim we decided to order tiny harnesses for our cats. When they arrived today, I eagerly pulled them from the box, but then stood there dumbly with a tangle of colorful nylon straps hanging from my hand: the engineering was a mystery to me. Fortunately, they included directions, and when I lifted those from the bottom of the package I read the brand name of our new merchandise: come with me kitty and laughed out loud.

Because that's not creepy at all.

I Know How She Feels

"Do we have any classwork today?" read the message in my inbox this morning. I frowned and checked the timestamp. It had been sent a few minutes earlier.

"Nope!" I replied. "Because it's Sunday!"

"Thanks," she responded. "I was confused when I woke up this morning."

Just one more week.

She Would Have Approved

We stopped by my brother's on the way home from the farmer's market this morning. It is my mom's birthday, and I wanted to spend a little time. 

He wasn't home though, so Heidi and I chatted with Victor and Emily, admiring the garden and letting the dogs play a little. We were just heading home when Bill got back. "We're having fried chicken and chocolate cake for dinner tonight," I told him.

"I'll be there at five," he joked.

"Make it 6:30!" I said.

And so it was.

Happy Birthday, Ma.

End of the Year Review

When I read the proposals, it was a little hard not to be offended. Two students wanted to teach their classmates a lesson on Haiku, which I had just taught not six weeks ago! Did they think they could do a better job or had they forgotten that I had taught it? Either way, it was a wee bit insulting. 

But reason prevailed-- who could argue with kids getting a fresh spin on a topic that is actually one of the power standards for our grade's state test? 

Haiku? Have at it!

How You See It

"You know what I don't get?" a student asked in class yesterday. "How complicated math will ever help us in real life." He was working on his 6th Grade from A-Z project and reflecting on what he had learned this year. "I can see how I might use adding and subtracting, maybe multiplying and percents, but what else is math good for?"

"If you need to buy a new rug," one of the other kids suggested helpfully. 

"Can't you just get someone to come do that?" he shrugged.

I thought of him today when another student came into my class brandishing a torn slip of paper covered in numbers. "This is a magic piece of paper!" he announced. "I used it to finally figure out that 3 small pizzas are actually less pizza than 1 medium and 1 large. BUT," he paused dramatically, "they cost the same!"

Now that's useful!

Those Who Can't

We had our first two teacher-for-a-day lessons today, and they were both done virtually. Despite planning requirements and direct advice from me, the first lesson was just a talking head-- one guy discussing beyblade battle strategy. Sure, he waved some beyblades around, assembling and disassembling them all the while pontificating about contact points and spin-stealing. 

The next lesson was on WWII-- it began with a 6 1/2 minute video which led into the teacher reading all the text from a set of black and white slides. The whole thing ended with a five question quiz, which I scored a 0 on. That't right-- I didn't get a single question correct.

To be fair, social skills are not a strength for either of these kids, and the other students were generally kind, and even appreciative, but it made me a little sad that they think that's what teaching is.

Minding What Matters

At 8 AM my students were quietly typing away at their daily writing when one of them snapped his iPad closed with a satisfied, "Finished!"

"That's great!" I told him.

"Yeah," he shrugged. "Don't mind my grammar, though."

My eyebrows hit my hairline. "What!" I laughed. "Of course I'm going to mind your grammar. I'm your English teacher kid." I shook my head.

"Well, okay," he allowed. "Maybe no one else will mind it then."