Firstly, Mr. G took some pics of the really beautiful animals in our neighborhood and I wanted to share a few more. I feel so lucky to live here. Such an overlooked part of everyday...the animals around you, but I'm always mezmorized and there are plenty to watch by my house.
Nextly, today was the DARE Graduation at school. As a 5th grade teacher in NJ my students take part in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program during which a town cop comes in each week and teaches the kids about the dangers of drugs and alcohol abuse. Our cops take it one step further and throw in lessons about dealing successfully with any negative peer pressure involving illegal substances and violence. The cop we had this year was just awesome. The kids love her and you can see she enjoyed spending time with them too.
At the end of the program the students do three things...write an essay about what they learned, create a poster for DARE with a slogan (for example: Be Awares, Drugs are for Squares), and take part in a graduation. It has the potential each year to be cute...we all wear matching tees and put on a show for the parents, the 4th grade, and various town officials. Here's this year's shirt.
We usually do it up...rewrite songs with new, DARE-y words (STOP! in the Name of DARE, Before you Make Mistakes! Think it Oh-Over), skits, etc. As you can imagine this all takes time. But if you look further down on the page that counter to the last day is a' tickin' (thank the Gods), testing was late this year, and as much as I love all the kids in this year's 5th grade, as a group they're a difficult mix. So this year we tried to fly low.
It still managed to be very stressful. So many needy kids with so many issues makes for insane rehearsals. Other teachers complained that we were too loud (don't ever call the principal on your co-worker right away...go to them and talk first. Don't teachers tell kids to try to solve problems on their own first? I can't wait to see how other people are going to deal with this group! Let's see who complains then!)
We ended up making this Bob Dylan Subterranian Homesick Blues-esque video (that's the one where he holds up the signs in the video) all to the tune of Under Pressure (we used both the original version and the Used's cover during the show). The cop spoke, we ran the video, the best essays were read aloud and in the end everyone was happy, but the stress of getting there with 95 some-odd kids behaving like they'd snorted 20 Pixie Stix each was heavy. When I got into the car to drive home I realized that the only end-of-year work I have left to do can only be done in school and that I have the evening free. Mr. G works late...so I stopped at Kings (Ou La La, movin' on up) and got some treats for myself.
The Green Mountain Coffee bag says Mocha Nut Fudge and the cake is red velvet. I'm chowing down right now. Along with some knitting on the Mary Thank You Socks, the next volume of Fables and watching The Fashion Show with Smudge I think I'll feel better by morning!
The sock is coming along smoothly but as usual I'm dreading the Kitchner. I don't know why
I'm so bad at it. I even use a guide. Hopefully that'll be done before I go to sleep tonight.
Posts
5 comments:
Hi! Thanks for the nice comment you left on my blog.
I hate doing the kitchener too, and I've been doing it for almost 40 years. So for socks I don't do it anymore. Instead I do the 3 needle bind off.
tutorial here: http://www.stitchdiva.com/custom.aspx?id=189
Turn the sock inside out and bind off the sts. When I first did this I thought the seam might bother my feet, but it doesn't. I don't feel it at all, and I have really sensitive feet. So give it a try. I
Soon you will have all the time in the world to spend time in your beautiful new house and in your sisters beautiful new house.
You can kick kitchener out of the park!
Your socks are awesome.
so how about some of that great cake for your old Mum.
What a great way to kick back after all that work. Love the animal pics!
I'm a retired 6th grade teacher. Our kids got the DARE program in that grade. Your post brought back many memories both great ones and frustrating ones.
Mmmmmmm! Red velvet cake, my fave!
::Sigh:: I miss going to Kings (used to live in Caldwell, btw, briefly).
Post a Comment