an absence

No excuses for the long time in between updates; I was gone and now I'm back. :)

Life updates, part 1.

School.  I'm currently on spring break and loving the life of a teacher when we get week-long vacations.  It came at a much-needed time; I think every teacher and student was desperate for the time off.  In early April, our 3rd through 8th graders had state testing.  What does that mean for first graders?  Well, we were effectively banished from the school building and went on field trips every day.  The park, the zoo, the insectarium, the Rural Life Museum in Baton Rouge, and the movies to see Hop.  If that sounds like an easy week to you, you clearly don't work with children.  ;)  It was a fun week and soooo nice to have a break from the typical week of planning lessons and saying things like, "Sit down," "Pay attention," "I'm up here!" and "Seriously, your pencil broke again?"  Buuuuut it was definitely thoroughly exhausting- constantly counting children to make sure no one jumped in with the lions, trying to maintain the reputation that McDonogh 32 does have decently behaved children, being in the sun, and convincing children that is only 9:30, and while yes, they brought their lunch, that no, it is not yet lunch time.

My amusing story of the week centers around a little girl we'll just call M.  M absolutely cracks me up; she's the youngest in her family and also the only girl, and she's adorable... and knows it.  Earlier in the week, she heard Cori on the phone with his mom, telling her he loved her, and she was ready to pick a fight with him, thinking he was talking to another girl.  She's got Miss Taylor's back. ;)  So here we are, Thursday morning, over halfway through our week of field trips.  I'm rushing around before school starts, making sure lunches and buses and money are all ready for the hour drive to Baton Rouge, when I see M... with a rabbit.  She insists that it is a fake rabbit... and that the poop coming out of it is 'fake poo.'  I almost believe her- because really, what child, even at age 6, brings a bunny to school?  I pick it up, and discover that it is, indeed, a live bunny.  I carry it out into the breezeway, absolutely befuddled over the fact that a student actually brought an animal to school, and wondering what the heck we do with it while the rest of the school is taking their most important tests of the year and we prepare to go on a bus trip.  M spends a few minutes denying that it's her bunny, but finally gives in, insisting that it 'accidently hopped into her lunchbox' and that she 'didn't know' until she got to school.  Please note that this lunchbox is a small tin box with a latch... so M evidently has a very talented bunny.

I know this should have been the moment for a stern lecture, but really, the situation was just too comical.  We arranged for the bunny to stay in a teacher's classroom for the day, and I called M's mom so that she wouldn't worry if she noticed that the family bunny was missing.  Mom picked up the bunny later that day, I don't believe M will be bringing any more pets to school anytime soon.

just like Spongebob

Yesterday, I went to the beach with some of my favorite New Orleans friends.  We had a great time and it was everything a beach day should be- napping, reading, playing in the ocean, and of course... getting burnt.


Ladies and gentlemen, I am red.  Painfully, awkwardly, awfully sunburt.  The kind of burnt where it hurts to walk and where you live for the moments that you slather aloe on yourself. In retrospect, 15 SPF wasn't quite strong enough.


It will be amusing to see my kids' reaction to my sunburn.  Since most of my kids have minimal interactions with white people, sunburn is a new phenomenon for them.  My favorite story was an interaction between one of my kids and a co-worker last year.  This was right after I'd run the Mardi Gras Half Marathon, so I came to school with a burnt face.


Waynetrell: Ms. Holmes, what happened to Ms. Taylor's face?
Ms. Holmes: She was out in the sun, so she got red.  It's called sunburn.
Waynetrell:  Oh.... that happened to Spongebob once!


This cracks me up beyond belief... Waynetrell's only context for sunburn was an episode of Spongebob.  That's right, Waynetrell.  I am just like Spongebob.