Yet another absurdly long post.
Massive storm system heading my way. Guess I'd better do the daily post while I still have electricity! (Just looked at my archive and saw that this is my 890th consecutive day of posting at least once. That probably says a lot about me, though I'm not sure whether it's good or bad.) One of these days, I'll be as prolific about replying to friends' posts; I'm lucky to manage one or two replies daily. For someone who talks so damn much, I'm strangely shy. Go figure.
I go back to work tomorrow. *deep, long-suffering sigh* Yeah, I know I shouldn't complain; teachers get tons of holidays, but I still love having time off. Technically, I started back on Friday, since we had to attend an all-day seminar. Now I'm about to haul out my school laptop and get started on lesson plans. Such fun. At least we have MLK Day off a week from Monday. I need to ease back into the routine. The NY Times is starting a three-part series on the evolution of the Middle School Concept. I really don't know what to think. The research does show that changes are necessary, but I'm NOT in favor of 6-8 into either elementary or high school. I've taught all three grade levels, and middle schoolers would not fit well in those environments. I want to believe the stories that K-8 schools are wonderful oasises (oases?) of multi-level learning, but those would seem to work best in, well, higher-income communities where families stay in the neighborhood. Only a third of our 8th graders were at my school back in 6th grade, which negates the idea of a K-8 school creating a "family". But who knows? Maybe I should do more research, rather than just going with my own preconceptions.
Given how I always carry around a clipboard at school, I must remember this line from Scrubs: "That answer was either very sarcastic or very stupid. Either way, I'm whacking you with my clipboard. Brace yourself." This season has been a letdown, but I liked last week's episode just for how they addressed that Perry Cox is totally Gregory House. I've been saying that since the third episode of House. ;)
Some links:
-- Slate talks about their love-hate relationship with Whole Foods supermarkets.
-- The NY Times profiles Kate Winslet. They also spend 36 hours in Atlanta. Yay!
-- McSweeney's imagines rejected submissions for Seventeen Magazine's "Daily Traumarama".
-- Mental_Floss reveals a shocking secret about the author of Goodnight Moon! ;)
-- Time explains how $10 could help save the lives of African children with malaria.
I *love* harpsichords. I went through a classical music phase in high school (ironically, just when grunge was sweeping the land), and my favorite part of Before Sunrise is that simple scene where they walk past a man playing a harpsichord in the early morning light. The harpsichord is wildly underused in pop music. Let's spread the baroque love! Here are two songs featuring 'em: "Half a World Away" by R.E.M. (my current "Unfinished Business" theme song), and "Clover Over Dover" by Blur (the cheeriest song ever written about suicide.) If you actually have any songs featuring harpsichords, please share them!
And finally... I happened across a cool bit in Pop Candy's Friday Q&A that would make an excellent meme. Here's the whole thing:
My sister's friend recently got hit on in what I thought was a novel way. She was sitting on a bus when a guy comes up and takes off her headphones, and puts his on her and plays her a song from his iPod. What the song was has been lost to the ages, but my question is this: If you were ever to do that, what song would you play? And what song would you have wanted to hear if it happened to you?
So, which song would you play if you wanted to pick up a cute stranger on the bus? I'd probably go with "Lady Godiva and Me" by Grant Lee Buffalo, just to see if his interpretation is the same as mine. That, or "Late in the Day" by Supergrass, because it's lovely and long. ;)
I go back to work tomorrow. *deep, long-suffering sigh* Yeah, I know I shouldn't complain; teachers get tons of holidays, but I still love having time off. Technically, I started back on Friday, since we had to attend an all-day seminar. Now I'm about to haul out my school laptop and get started on lesson plans. Such fun. At least we have MLK Day off a week from Monday. I need to ease back into the routine. The NY Times is starting a three-part series on the evolution of the Middle School Concept. I really don't know what to think. The research does show that changes are necessary, but I'm NOT in favor of 6-8 into either elementary or high school. I've taught all three grade levels, and middle schoolers would not fit well in those environments. I want to believe the stories that K-8 schools are wonderful oasises (oases?) of multi-level learning, but those would seem to work best in, well, higher-income communities where families stay in the neighborhood. Only a third of our 8th graders were at my school back in 6th grade, which negates the idea of a K-8 school creating a "family". But who knows? Maybe I should do more research, rather than just going with my own preconceptions.
Given how I always carry around a clipboard at school, I must remember this line from Scrubs: "That answer was either very sarcastic or very stupid. Either way, I'm whacking you with my clipboard. Brace yourself." This season has been a letdown, but I liked last week's episode just for how they addressed that Perry Cox is totally Gregory House. I've been saying that since the third episode of House. ;)
Some links:
-- Slate talks about their love-hate relationship with Whole Foods supermarkets.
-- The NY Times profiles Kate Winslet. They also spend 36 hours in Atlanta. Yay!
-- McSweeney's imagines rejected submissions for Seventeen Magazine's "Daily Traumarama".
-- Mental_Floss reveals a shocking secret about the author of Goodnight Moon! ;)
-- Time explains how $10 could help save the lives of African children with malaria.
I *love* harpsichords. I went through a classical music phase in high school (ironically, just when grunge was sweeping the land), and my favorite part of Before Sunrise is that simple scene where they walk past a man playing a harpsichord in the early morning light. The harpsichord is wildly underused in pop music. Let's spread the baroque love! Here are two songs featuring 'em: "Half a World Away" by R.E.M. (my current "Unfinished Business" theme song), and "Clover Over Dover" by Blur (the cheeriest song ever written about suicide.) If you actually have any songs featuring harpsichords, please share them!
And finally... I happened across a cool bit in Pop Candy's Friday Q&A that would make an excellent meme. Here's the whole thing:
My sister's friend recently got hit on in what I thought was a novel way. She was sitting on a bus when a guy comes up and takes off her headphones, and puts his on her and plays her a song from his iPod. What the song was has been lost to the ages, but my question is this: If you were ever to do that, what song would you play? And what song would you have wanted to hear if it happened to you?
So, which song would you play if you wanted to pick up a cute stranger on the bus? I'd probably go with "Lady Godiva and Me" by Grant Lee Buffalo, just to see if his interpretation is the same as mine. That, or "Late in the Day" by Supergrass, because it's lovely and long. ;)