Honestly, I've been a mix of a depressed funk over the national elections; not so much because of who is our president-elect, but by the sheer number of assholes that are now proud of their behavior and glad to rub it in our faces ( Read more... )

Erika is two months into first grade. We have stopped asking: "What did you learn in school today?" because she ends up shrugging and saying "nothing". So now we ask: "What did your teacher go over in class today?" and she'll recite a list of activities she engaged in. In first grade math, they are working on addition and subtraction. In first ( Read more... )

Below is my current class list of students. I have 74 students (43% females and 57% males) this year. My Olivias and Andrews are all in the same class. Two Catherines are in the same class, and the two Stephanies chose to sit next to each other. Both Shanes and Walters are in the same class. One Walter volunteered to go by his middle name, but that ( Read more... )

On Sunday, I ran the senior awards brunch, a two-hour event where scholarships and awards from various organizations but particularly the PTSA, gives out awards to recognize seniors. I had to emcee the event and keep the pace going; we also do Senior Reminiscences and the first showing of the Senior VIdeo. It all went smoothly. Then as the senior ( Read more... )

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I need your vote on YouTube! All it takes is to hit LIKE on YouTube ( Read more... )

Erika came home from school yesterday and casually mentioned that she made a new friend. Now this is rare, because (1) she's somewhat of a social introvert, even though she is very confident and friendly with adults, and (2) she attends a fairly small elementary school, so at this point, she knows all 60 Kindergarteners that she hangs out with ( Read more... )

Jan 13 - classroom
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Second snow day for the school year. They called it really, really late this time. My alarm went off at 6 AM and I looked outside and it seemed like there was about 2 inches of snow on the ground, maybe less. I went to check my phone and the voicemail said they had called half an hour ago, and that we were following a Delayed Opening schedule. Our ( Read more... )

Only like at least three times a day, when we are out and around town running errands, a stranger will inevitably ask: "so are you excited to get back to school? What grade are you in? Oh, you're starting Kindergarten? HOW EXCITING ( Read more... )