A Bunch of Tidbits

Of course, in list form.

1. I have to make my own coffee tomorrow and pack my own lunch. I have to get myself out of bed on my own. I'm just so not good at these things.

2. Tomorrow one of my pictures, along with a prompt, will be at this site for creative writing. I'm excited and nervous. I don't even know what picture it will be! I will check it in the morning to see if I can use it with my students. You can check it too :)

3. I am knee deep in writing a book, and loving every minute of it. I love my characters, I love the story. It's why I have been so "absent" from here lately.

4. I am teaching about poetry to my students. I am tired of hearing about puppies and rainbows. They (not the puppies, the students) are banned from writing acrostic poems. I told them that poems didn't have to be "pretty." They could be ugly, painful, and nasty. One of the kids pipes up, "Can we say blood?" I said, "No" and someone cut me off, saying, "It still has to be appropriate." And I continued, "Yes, appropriate." Another little guy, Mr. Perfect Student, adds, "Yeah, you just can't use the s word or the f word." Well, what do I say to that???? I just said, "Yes. Right."

So, in honor of my Mr. Perfect Student, I will write a poem about what I HOPE doesn't happen tomorrow morning.

S word! No alarm?
It was set. On.
AM? PM! F WORD!
S word of a B word -
Run. Faster. Yep, clean there, move on.
A 3 car accident? I'll never make it.
F wording S word! Where's my F wording coffee?
I'm guessing that isn't blood running down the windshield.

Are You Ready? Are You Set? Are You GO!

Look out folks. With me now being officially off for ten days, the posts are liable to come fast and furious :)

The title is how I used to start races when I was little.

So if you will remember the other day when I was complaining about the wind, you can also notice the photo. THAT happened that day. That is the neighbor's fence on the top of my waterfall. Hubby also saw a large tree in the woods twist off and fall (and yes, he heard it). He also saw a tractor trailer that was used for advertising turned over on its side. And we had a few tornados in the area, but nothing too close.

Today was "the movie." Puberty in its finest for all the girls and boys. They are separated of course, into two class rooms. Mine wasn't used (thank you!). The nurse showed the girls pads and tampons. They passed them around. They asked questions.

They boys watched their movie and went out to recess.

We then all came back to our classrooms. 15 minutes later, my teammate comes running in my room with a story.

It seems that one of her boys had walked up to her desk with the "show off pad" stuck to his finger, dangling, and said, "Someone left something on my desk."

Clearly he didn't know what it was but was quite upset that "something" was on his desk. My teammate was so shocked. She looked around and no one else seemed to have noticed. She said, "I'll take that" and threw it in her desk. Me, personally? I would put it in my "Funny Folder." I was laughing so hard I was crying.

Then of course there was me today. Butt cheeks tucked tight, I scurried back to my desk as students were packing up. It was noisy. They wouldn't hear. And so IT came out. And I immediately hear, "Mrs. ______" right behind me. Geez. Glad we had that talk about gas at the beginning of the year.

And then at the end of the day, I got news that one of my students has finally been diagnosed. It isn't good. He has a severe disease. He probably won't live very long.

I'm glad he is in my room. He makes us laugh. He brings me an apple almost every day. I know for a fact that most teachers wouldn't want him in their room, as he comes with "issues." But he has really helped our class become a kind community.

Spring break is great, but I will miss the kids over the next 10 days.