Are you a "Twi-lighter?"

My friend Margie sent this link today . . . Clips and "making of" moments from the upcoming Twilight movie . . .

Click here

Snow?!?!?!?

Yesterday, I put on my shorts and T-shirt and spent the day walking in the park, mowing the lawn, and doing yard work. I even got a sunburn, for crying out loud. Now, my fingers are so cold I can hardly type. The mountains are again covered in snow, and I may have to shovel later. Global warming? Not in Salt Lake. Sheesh!

Air Mail, Birthdays, Messy Desks, Time Zones, and Poor Planning

A whole month ago, I put this card on my desk, fully intending to put it in the mail early enough to reach Paris Soul Mate by today. When I found it under some papers a week ago, I realized I was too late. My next plan was to post a picture of it here so that she would at least see it on her birthday. Much to my dismay, I remembered this afternoon that she is 8 hours ahead of me and would therefore already be in bed by the time I got it posted.

So . . . Happy Birthday yesterday Sina! I've thought about your special day often, I'm just too disorganized for you to know it in a timely manner.

Why is Halloween in the Fall?

My class has been making ABC's of Weather books this week. They have to think of a weather-related word for each letter of the alphabet, then put it in their book and illustrate it. For some, this has been quite a challenge. After 3 days of struggling, one little guy finally decided he should collaborate with a friend. They got to "O" and got stuck. First they came up with "hot" which was, of course, vetoed because it doesn't start with "o." Then they tried "Open Season." Right letter, no connection to the topic at hand. A nearby child suggested "October." I told them they could use it if they could relate it to weather. A lengthy discussion followed about Halloween, October and whether it is cold or hot at that time of year. One of the boys realized that October is when the leaves change. (This is where I started to think we might be getting somewhere . . . I'm always jumping to conclusions.) I asked, "And why do the leaves change colors?" His very sincere answer . . .


"Because it's Halloween and they're dressing up."

I Love Lucy, ESL Class Edition

Remember how Ricky was always mixing up his English words? Well, my 2nd grade Ricky-ette, who is Cuban (but not Desi Arnaz) has moved from re-naming fairy tale characters to spelling. We have been studying contractions the last few weeks. She is always very confident in her mastery of English and has even been known to roll her eyes in disgust at English not working the way she wants it to. (Her mean Language teacher keeps insisting "the" begins with a /th/ sound and not a /d/ sound, and that while a house does, in fact, have walls, a "how" does not. "I know! House! A how has walls. That's what I said!" Repeat 3 times before deciding not to pick this battle right now.) Yesterday, she informed her Reading teacher that she knows how to spell can't. It's very easy, you see. C . . . A . . . N . . . Cross da feet . . . T. Doesn't everyone know that? Sheesh!

Technology and Rumpel-stinky

Last night, I thought it would be fun to have a thematic background for my blog so I downloaded this nifty lighthouse background to go with my Port Townsend post. Much to my surprise, when I used the non-Blogger-standard template, all of my sidebar info disappeared. I thought I saved it before switching, but it only saved the format and none of the information. I'm especially sad to have lost a few blog URL's (If you're reading this and your blog isn't on my list, please send me your missing URL!) and a year's worth of books read and sights seen. Anyone know how to save the sidebar things so I don't lose them again next time I change backgrounds?



I was reminded this morning of why I love teaching beginnning English. We are studying fairy tales and today I started reading Rumpelstilskin. That is a hard word for a beginning English speaker to say and it kept coming out Rumpel-stinky. I think that could work. He is kind of a stinky character. When I got to the part about the dad telling the king that his daughter could spin straw into gold, the kids were horrified that he said such an obvious untruth. When one asked why he said it, another responded that it was because he was a "liar, liar." I agreed and added that his pants were on fire. We had a good laugh and I continued reading. A few pages later, one girl looked very thoughtful. She then asked, "Doesn't his bum hurt?" Random questions occur pretty frequently in second grade so I merely reminded her that if her question didn't relate to the story then she should wait till later to ask it. Still very thoughtful, she replied that her question did, in fact, relate to what we were reading . . . because if his pants were on fire, that would probably hurt his bum. Good point, kiddo!