Me No Wants to Dreamz about STARz

I had my usual strange dreams this weekend. The worst one was about the state-mandated testing (Standardized Testing and Reporting) which start this morning.

Saturday night I was troubled by dreams of one of our most challenging second graders: He is smart and articulate, but he is also the most argumentative, interruptive, disruptive...you get my drift? He'll probably grow up to be a lawyer? Politician? CEO? But right now? He's my nightmare.

In my dream, he had scribbled over the entire test packet, both in a black marker and a pink highligher. And he had gone ahead, far far ahead of the stop signs. Is this a premonition of the week to come? Save me...

(Update: I'm assigned to the other classroom for the testing so I don't even have to worry about this little dude!)

Reasonable Precautions

I'm not wearing a mask or anything, but I do work in a school full of little Petri dishes children.

I take reasonable precautions...like handwashing whenever I can.

Today I saw young Master C stick his right index finger up his nose, probe around, and then put the finger in his mouth. And presumably whatever came out of his nose went into his mouth, too. Eeew, a bugger eater! And he was just about to be called to use the classroom computer.! "C!" I cried, interrupting the teacher's conversation with the ELD teacher. "Go wash your hands." She gave me a mental high five. And less than 5 minutes later, there was young Master P with his fingers in his mouth...both hands. And he was about to hand a paper to the teacher. "P! Go wash your hands." And the teacher said "I don't even want to touch that paper." And I agreed.

And this is not some knee-jerk reaction to the H1N1 (Hiney is my word) flu virus....we've been dealing with this for the whole school year.

And I'm guilty of the fingers in my mouth thing...I bite my nails. But I try not to do it in public, and I wash my hands. Again and again and again.... And again and again and again. I think they are getting chapped.

But Holy Moly, today I saw a child eat his bugger. I am SO glad it is the weekend.

i think...therefore i blog....

I've done a couple posts on the economy's effect on our lives. I want to thank you all for your positive and insightful comments. We're fine, really.

I always got top marks on performance reviews for being "flexible," and I am being that now. Yes, I am quite prideful on my flexibility. I even told the school I would be willing to work with kindergarteners. (Ulterior motive...Mr. Thomas will be in K next fall!!!!!!)

So here are my most recent thoughts...

I think the HH's company will get some sales soon and we will get that deferred salary back in the future. This company has honest owners. How many people can say that about their employers?

I think the school will need at least one more aide and I am the first one that will be hired back. I think there will be several teachers that will want me back.

I think I need to take some meds for my PMS.

I think I have good friends. Friends from the present, friends from the blog...and friends from way back....

I think that the universe totally shifted in some strange way because Frank took out his garbage without being asked. (We watched an alien movie last night: The Day the Earth Stood Still -- Keanu Reeves was a nice alien --- did he leave an aura around Frank's garbage???)

And in my microuniverse, that last thing???? Was the most meaningful. Sad to say, the highlight of my day was that Frank took out his garbage.

But small things are building blocks.

It's Like...Um

Ernest's writing class presented their dream career reports orally. For fun, they counted the number of times the presenter said "like." And the results are um... like this:



The most prolific user of "like" was a girl with 48. Ernest was 3rd from the bottom, with 9. (He said 4 of them were legitimate uses.) The lowest use was 4.



They also counted "ums" but he didn't give me the data on that.

Crises Averted

First one: Yesterday afternoon Ernest realized he had a paper due Monday. Today, not next week. He needed a book as a reference, in addition to the internet. Guess what: our library is not open on Sundays. What to do? Fortunately, our Beloved Niece works at the local bookstore. She was able to point him to an appropriate book. The topic of the paper is "your dream career" and his is to be an architect. The book, On Architecture, looks interesting so I'll probably read it when or if I get through my massive stack of library books.

Second one: the refrigerator started heating up again, right before bedtime. We have no idea why. I unplugged it for a while...that seemed to restart it OK and it was fine this morning.

So how was your Sunday?

Strands of DNA

Ernest is building a model of DNA for a science project, due Friday. We had a short discussion about the material. I vetoed the use of candy. Sticks, styrofoam, Lego? What's available in the house? Because there's no crafts store within 30 miles. Then we remembered the box of Zoob in the closet.

Ernest created his own design. He still has to build a stand.

These two share some good hair DNA.

They get it from their dad.

The Ubiquitous First Day of School Post

u·biq·ui·tous adjective
existing or being everywhere

Smalltown Mom: I ping-ponged between my two 2nd grade classrooms today. I know all the 2nd graders except for a couple new students. Whoo-hoo! No issues at recess or lunch, so I was a happy camper. It was gratifying to walk in the office and have people hug me and say, "I'm glad you are back!" And I would say, "I'm glad you are, too!" We have a great staff this year.

Ernest: He has Mrs. Gray for Algebra! (Frank loved her sense of humor.) He gets two electives! He's signing up for Advanced Band and Vocal/Guitar. Vocal? Good for him!!!! (I'm surprised he didn't sign up for Drama, because he talked about that this weekend.) But the lure of guitar and rock band was too strong. I don't mind. I can pick him up at the band room every day and gaze from afar at the cute band teacher!

Frank: He was somewhat communicative when he got home. (For those of you who know Frank personally, you know that he doesn't talk that much.) His first two classes at City College (Chemistry and English) were fine. Small, about 30 people. He ran into 5 high school classmates there. He was able to go to work in the 5 hour interval between the 2 classes. Tomorrow he has 2 music classes back to back, then he'll work for a while in the afternoon. Some of the classmates are commuting together but Frank maturely said, "I can't, I have to get to work afterwards." Yay to earning some money!

I was a really kind mom today and washed Frank's dishes. I couldn't control myself. I dropped off something else in his "apartment" and the dirty dishes were there, and I remembered my mother who used to come to our house while we were working and wash our dishes.

She thought it was funny! (She didn't have a whole lot to do. And I didn't have a working dishwasher.) I would come home and marvel, "The Dish Fairy was here!"

Since today was Frank's first day combining work and school, I thought it would be nice to carry on the "Dish Fairy" tradition. My ulterior motive was that I also retrieved the dishes that belonged in my kitchen!

SO, one day done. 179 to go.