Ebjournal Revisited.

Pushover for the little ones… / Updates

Tony| Category: General, School Daze | 1 Comment

What kind of father am I going to make? If teaching is any indication, I sometimes wonder if I’m in trouble. I can be tough in the classroom, no worries about that. I have high standards. I believe in showing students that responsibility is important, and that there are consequences. But when it comes to rewarding them, sometimes I think Mr. Softie is going to win out.

Case in point: My class has finally earned a pizza party lunch (by collecting a bunch of James Brown points… long story, and should probably be it’s own entry.) and I, being the cool teacher, let the kids decide which brand of pizza they wanted, and what toppings. This turned out to be easier than expected, because the kids wanted Domino’s (cack) and they didn’t really want anything but sausage, pepperoni, or cheese on it. So that was easy. Then I asked them what they wanted to drink (knowing full well that I’d be getting them juice boxes, with at least 50% juice, thank you very much). I ruled pop right out. So they came up with the usuals (Lemonade? Fruit Punch? Capri Suns?) I, with my ideas already in my head, said yes to fruit punch, thinking that I’d get Juicy Juice (100% juice) for them. Because I’m trying to be fairly responsible. Or something. Anyway, I got to Jewel (or for those of you stuck in Central IL, “the Jewels”) this morning and promptly caved to the shining bright eyes and voices of the 8 year olds in my head. Capri-Suns for everyone! Three varieties to make their little hearts happy. I also got them popsicles– but they have real fruit juice in them! Too bad the box doesn’t say how much fruit juice, but judging by the lack of vitamin C, I’m guess somewhere in the 3 -5% range. So, I rolled over. They still have to take a math test today, right? Right.
—————-> Justification thread<———————
1. It’s the end of the year, and they’ve been the most wonderful children, possibly ever.
2. This is our first full class lunch party, so it should be special.
3. Have I mentioned that they’re wonderful?

—————————————————————–

8 days left of school. Calendar looks like this:
Today and tomorrow are normal. (Except for the aforementioned pizza party today)
Friday we have our Mexican Fiesta to celebrate Mexico, our last social studies unit of the year. (That’s in the afternoon)
Monday is Memorial Day. (No school)
Tuesday is a teacher work day, which is code for get progress reports done, start cleaning, and meet to discuss next year’s policies.
Wednesday- We have an assembly from 2:00 til 3:30 to watch the fifth grade show.
Thursday– Our second grade picnic, all afternoon.
Friday– Field Day, most of the afternoon.

Monday– Half-day, with an assembly, visits to next year’s grades, and writing a letter to the third grade teachers
Tuesday (June 7th) Last day, we meet for forty-five minutes, where I try to keep it together.
That’s it then. Then I get to pack everything up to move it down the hall to another classroom.

Grad school supposedly starts July 6th. I’ll believe it when my patootie is in a classroom.

Just thought y’all should know my life, since the updates have been few and far between.

From the Mixed-Up Files of the Lovely and Engaging Mrs. K

Tony| Category: General, Music and Movies | 2 Comments

Two quick stories for your entertainment.

At the end of our last trip to California, we were headed back to LAX. As usual, we were taking an early plane to O’Hare because we lose two hours coming back. It was about 7:00 am, and as we got close to the airport, the lovely and engaging Mrs. K starts singing “until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevaaaaaarrrrd!” See, it’s funny because as I looked up, the sun was coming up, and we were at the exit for Santa Monica Boulevard. That’s story number one.

More recently, there has been a really annoying jingle for several different commercials. One is a car commercial where the cars are playing catch with a dodge ball, and the other commercial is for Vonage, a broadband company. (It’s the “whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo, hoo…. whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo-hoo. You know, that really annoying one.) V has been insisting that this song came from a movie that no one else had every heard of, called the Stamp Traveller. It was one of the favorite movies for her and her siblings growing up. So, for the last three or four weeks, Mrs. K has been asking anyone and everyone if they had heard of this movie. No one had, so we ridiculed her mercilessly for inventing a movie. Last weekend, while looking at the Olson’s beautiful new TV, she proved us wrong. Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller is a real movie. Not a particularly good movie, but nevertheless, a movie that exists. Honestly, it was more fun trying to convince her that it wasn’t real. The interesting sidenote to all of this is that Rufus Wainwright has a small part in this movie when he was just a lad. We’re going to see him and Ben Folds this summer.

Coming soon, the review of Fogo de Chao, quite possibly the best meal I’ve had in this decade.