Thanks for That!

This morning, the homeroom kids were doing a weekly news quiz. It was the one with a blurred-out graphic for each question, which is revealed along with the answer. 

"The release of which highly anticipated video game has been delayed until May 2026?" read a student from the screen.

"Oh, that's easy!" answered one of her classmates gesturing toward the lilac and black blobs. "It's GTA 6!" He paused and looked around. "Any true gamer knows that instantly. I've actually been waiting for it since I was one."

The other kids raised their eyebrows.

"Five came out for X-box in 2014, and I was born in 2013," he finished proudly.

"You've been playing Grand Theft Auto since you were one?" asked a girl incredulously. "That's not disturbing at all!"

I laughed and jotted down the exchange. Spending time with kids always provides writing material!

Hiatus

Even though I'm only teaching one-tenth of it, I've gotten to experience several pretty big occasions of this school year. Not only have I administered two end-of-year assessments, but I will also be there for the Reading SOL next week. Today, I attended the Spring Music Concert and dealt with the wacky schedule that comes with it, and this week is Teacher Appreciation Week.

I didn't expect much appreciation after only 2 1/2 weeks, so I was pleasantly surprised when one of the kids presented me with a bag of chocolates and a thank-you note. I was also touched when a former student brought me a handmade wooden plaque of appreciation from Tech Ed. My colleagues made sure I got some breakfast from the PTA, too. 

But today, when they gave out the matching staff t-shirts and I didn't have one to wear, it really hit home that I don't entirely belong there anymore. As one of the few adults dressed differently,  I felt a little sad and left out, especially in the assembly. I had worn a t-shirt from last year to show the sixth graders what they could expect to receive at the end-of-the-year activity, and that one bright yellow shirt in a sea of black only made it worse.

Oh, I'll survive. Today on our way to the car, I asked Heidi if she minded if we stopped at the grocery store on the way home. "I know you're busy and tired," I apologized.

"Don't worry," she reassured me. "You'll be retired again soon."

Like Father, Like Son

As I walked through the courtyard toward the stairs to collect the mail, I met my young neighbor, Eamon, and his dad walking toward me to head up the stairs, too. 

"Hello!" Eamon waved. At nearly five, he's pretty adorable and very outgoing. 

"Hello!" I answered with equal cheer as they hit the bottom step. I waited a moment and then followed. "Wasn't that nice of us to say hello to a neighbor?" Eamon asked his dad proudly.

"Yes, it was," his dad agreed.

"It makes your neighbors feel special," I added from behind.

"Well," smiled his dad, turning around. "That's easy when you have such awesome neighbors!"

"I see where Eamon gets his charm," I laughed. "Right back at ya!"

Relatively Speaking

I was sitting at the teacher's desk this morning, checking attendance, when I overheard a sixth grader say, "Back in my day? We used to have Minecraft on this game site."

"When was that?" I asked him.

"Oh!" he scoffed, "Fourth grade."

"That long ago?" I replied.

He didn't detect any irony, and I was glad because I didn't mean to make him feel bad.

"Yep," he said and then shook his head sadly. "Things have really changed since then."

Neglected

I was dismayed to find the top had blown off my little potting shed when I went to the garden yesterday. All the tools and containers in the top compartment were soaking in a half-inch of rainwater, so before I could do anything else, I needed to empty them and clean up the mess. 

By the time I was finished, though, I thought it may have been for the best, since I couldn't remember the last time I had organized that space. (I was still a little regretful that all the gloves were soaked through, especially since that meant weeding barehanded for the rest of the afternoon.) After filling five garden bags full of weeds and whatnot, I felt some fat drops of rain on my face, and I hurried to put away all the things I had drying so that I could replace the lid and secure it with the big rock I usually use to keep it from blowing open. 

Looking for a place to put the gloves so they would continue drying, I opened the right side of the lower cupboard and pulled out some plant saucers. There I saw the mummified remains of a little mouse who had made a cozy home of shredded landscape fabric and wood chips. I shoved my hands into a pair of wet gloves to dispose of the poor fellow and vowed to give that shed a thorough cleaning this summer.

Learn Something New Every Day

I used to think that being in sixth grade for 30+ years familiarized me with the content, not just of my own subject area, but of the other disciplines, too, and so I could basically teach anything. My recent experience in science has shown me that, while I wasn't wrong, I still have some things to learn. 

Oh, I've got the pedagogy down, but to be quite honest, it's been decades since I thought about the weather in more than a how should I dress and will it impact my schedule? kind of a way, and I don't think I've really considered the Earth's atmosphere at all since I learned the basics back in my own middle school science class. That's all changed over the last two weeks, though. 

Preparing for the layers of the atmosphere lesson had me scratching my head wondering where "space" begins and how far Katy Perry actually traveled. As a corollary, I spent some time today reading about those extreme skydivers who actually fell to Earth from the stratosphere, breaking the sound barrier along the way, only to land safely on the ground. Finally, the information that although the temperature in the thermosphere can reach thousands of degrees, it probably doesn't feel hot because the molecules are so far apart completely blew my mind. 

As I write this, there is a gorgeous rainbow right outside the window, reminding me of all I have yet to learn—for example, the unusual weather pattern we are experiencing now, an "omega block" that has two fronts stalled over the U.S. and is delivering rain to about two-thirds of the country. How can anyone not like science?

Marketing

Temporarily back to our pre-retirement routine, we spent a few hours running errands today. One of our stops was Costco, but we drove to a different warehouse than usual to see if they had a pair of pants Heidi admired, which were out in her size at our location. The place was hopping, hardly surprising for a Saturday noon, but we lucked out on parking and found the pants right away. Then, since we were there, we agreed to look around a bit.

Even though we were less than 7 miles from home, some of the inventory was different: this store caters to some clients with larger houses than ours, so they carry some enormous sheds, lots of home pool supplies, and they even have an outdoor plant center. They also offered a lot more sample stations than our Costco, which I welcomed since I hadn't had lunch. 

As I made my way around, I tried stuffed flat bread, a chicken sandwich, chicken taquitos, and some chips and salsa. They were all pretty good, but I was glad for the small portions, because they were kind of salty and I was hungry, so I might have been tempted to eat more than I should have. 

The last thing I tasted was a creamy cilantro sauce that was delicious. "Thanks!" I said to the lady handing out the little paper cups, as I grabbed a bottle. "You just made a sale!"

"You're welcome, Mama," she winked. "Have a good day!"