*See that hot mess of bananas and whipped cream and huge hunks of peanut butter cup? Doesn’t it look AMAZING? Well, it was. And yes, this is the second time I’ve cleaned the sink in a month. When you’ve gotta celebrate, you’ve gotta go to Angie’s. It’s the local rule.
*Can I postulate a hypothesis that 7th graders are among the top 3 funniest age groups to teach? I mean, some people would find the following examples just plain annoying, but I think they’re hilarious:
-During class on Friday, I spent about ten minutes explaining the rules behind the personal reading books that the students needed to find for this month. These rules included: the book must have a minimum of 200 pages, the book needed to fall in the genre of realistic fiction, and the book could not have been made into a movie. Fast forward to today’s class, when we’re in the library checking out books. Each class, I inevitably had at least 5 students who came up to me (after I’d just re-explained what constituted a realistic fiction novel): “Does this count as realistic fiction?” And then the book they held in their hand would have a dragon on the cover. Or a vampire. Or a talking dog.
-Another ten students or so would ask that same question, and the book would be only about 140 pages.
-And then another group would come up and hold up The Hunger Games or Holes or The Diary of a Wimpy Kid and ask me if they could read it. When I asked them if they’d seen the movie, they would answer yes. And then I would just smile.
-In our advisory class today, I was going over the rules for using the school computers. I mentioned that all the social networking sites had been blocked by the district, including YouTube. One girl in the back raised her hand and asked, “If you know how to get past the district’s firewall and into the site anyway, should you?” Oh, I just die.
-Last teaching story from the day (maybe): So I’m sitting in the faculty room with the 7th grade science teacher who shares all of my same students. She mentions that her son is in my class (and consequently in her class as well) and that after the first day of school, he said to her, “Mom, I’m sorry, but you’re not my favorite teacher–Mrs. Meidell is.” When pressed as to why, he told her, “Because she lets me sit next to all my friends.” When his mother remarked that she was sure that would only be temporary and that I was just doing that to see who was friends with whom so I could separate them, he said, “Oh no. She wouldn’t do that.” Fast forward to Friday. His mom asks him if I’ve changed the seating chart. The student then replies, “Yeah, I can’t believe it! I’m in one corner, Jonnie [not his real name] is in another corner, and so-and-so is in the back.” Ha ha. I’m so sneaky.
*Yesterday we spent Labor Day as it was always meant to be spent–eating a free breakfast courtesy of the restaurant up the street (Herm’s Inn), checking out the local fair that was a block away from our house, buying four new movies (we seriously have a problem), and learning a new game over at our friends’ house (Small World Underground). The only not-perfect part? Getting to bed at 9:30 because I had to wake up the next morning just after 5.
*See the beautiful young lady in the middle of that picture up there? That’s Milly. She’s the one lone young woman in our ward (for now, at least), and the reason we all went to go celebrate with massively unhealthy amounts of ice cream was because she finished up all her personal progress (a time-intensive program for personal growth sponsored by our church). What makes this even more awesome? The fact that her last project as part of the program was to teach me some guitar techniques I didn’t know and then perform with me. Pretty sweet, eh?
*Guess where Matt and I get to go this weekend? To Lagoon. It’s where fun is, people. PLUS, Matt and I have never been to an amusement park together, so double fun. Soft-serve cones, churros, and a little romantic snuggling on the haunted houses, here we come!
*Can I just say how totally awesome it was to get my first paycheck last Friday? I mean, after a whole summer of not working, it was so great to finally have some financial breathing room again.
*Can I also say how totally not awesome it is that I have to wake up every morning at 5:30 (or earlier)? I do just fine if it’s 6:30 (even better if it’s past 7), but 5:30 is just pushing it, and I mean really pushing it…
*I’ve been trying to do push-ups every day for the past week or so to make myself feel better about not getting my usual amount of exercise (I blame the new job). You want to know what made me decide to take this drastic step? No, not the two extra pounds I put on due to the cruise (which are now gone, thankyouverymuch). No, the thing that made me decide to do it was that every time I do a fist pump (my “signal” for the students that means I want them to be quiet–I make them do it too, just because it’s totally hilarious to see them all silently fist pumping in unison), the backs of my arms jiggle. Yeesh. Not cool.
*If it wasn’t against the rules, I would totally take a video of my class fist-pumping and post it, just because it really is that funny.
*And lastly, I had a student today tell me while we were walking admidst a large crowd (due to a fire drill) that she couldn’t find me because I look just like a student. A TWELVE-YEAR-OLD student. Hmph. But I also had another student who told me my twin was Zooey Deschanel, so…I guess it was a pretty good day after all.
*Who have you been told that you look like lately?
