Buying time till I can write another post

*AHEM* I mean... a quality blog post for your reading enjoyment. Riiight.

So go here. And here. These are the "more" I promised. Have fun! And if you want, go here, too.

And? When the hang did life get so craaaazy? OK, it's always been that way, but I'm goin' nuts here! And of course, I'm entering the dreaded "report card vortex." It's gonna suck me under for a few weeks... But. BUT! There's something fun coming up this weekend that I'm looking forward to.... and that's all you're getting for now. Neener neener!

Details to follow. Maybe. ;-)

Jumping for Joy

More to come...

I'm off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz

Well, ok, so I'm not gonna follow the yellow brick road, and I'm not gonna see the wizard, but I AM going away for the weekend, and TOTALLY looking forward to it. It's my church's annual all church camp at Keats Camp on Anvil Island. Beautiful little island, great speakers, meeting new friends, time alone with God, and lots and lots of pictures. I can't wait! And just as an added bonus, I get to start round 5 of dancing on Sunday night. Woohoo!

Too soon

I shed some tears today, too, for a different reason. I found out at lunch today that a student I used to teach music to when he was in grade six and seven died yesterday. He was in grade 9. Fifteen years old. He was playing basketball after school and just died. I heard he had a massive heart attack or a stroke, but then that they don't know exactly what happened. Either way... holy smokes. He was such a nice kid. I totally remember him, even though I only had him for one class a week.

There were a bunch of grade 9's from the high school at our school today, just hanging out, visiting. They all looked so shell shocked, and I thought about what it would be like for them to lose a friend like that, so suddenly. Were they with him? Did they have to watch their friend die??? There was SO much sadness and pain in their faces today. Pray for them, and for this boy's family, would you? They're sure going to be having a rough time over the next little while.

Wow, you know, you think everything is just going to continue, keep happening as it is, then WHAM. Especially kids at that age who feel like they're invincible. I just can't get their faces out of my mind. It's so sad...

Perspective

Tears seem to be very near the surface for me these days, and it's kind of surprising me. I had to leave yesterday during our pro-d workshop more than once because of it. We were goal setting for next year, and as I settled in with my small group of early intermediate staff, they suggested that I should probably go over and sit with the French Immersion Primary group, seeing as that's where I'd be next year.

I think that's when it really hit me that I'm leaving my department of sorts, and that next year will be very, very different. I have finally gotten comfortable where I am (well, not comfortable, that will take years, but enjoying it and not feeling like I'm gonna die every waking moment of the day!), and I really really like the group of staff I'm working with. That's not to say I don't like the new group, it's just I guess things really sunk in, and I found myself overwhelmingly sad. I've put in so much stinking work this year, and next year, instead of being slightly easier because of it, will be even harder. At the break, I couln't even talk to a colleague about it without crying. Seriously. What is with me?

I'm trying to have a good attitude about things. My principal keeps coming up to me and saying things like, "Heeeey, look who it is! The new grade 2 French Immersion teacher!" I know she's trying to be sweet and is excited for me, but I just can't muster up the gumption to be all "woohoo" about this yet. I'm trying, but I'm not there yet.

BUT... It's not all doom and gloom. The kids coming up into grade 2 are really great, and there will be aspects of it that will be really fun. It will be a really good learning opportunity for me. And, as Rebecca in Texas commented in a previous post (she's great for giving me the smack-over-the-head perspective that I so need - she's done this before!), I never know what kids God will be putting in my class because they need to be there. Only she said it much more eloquently: "I just keep thinking, God has something special in store for you. He has planned out your next year and He knows what child needed you to be teaching that class at that moment." She's right. (Again! Thank you, Rebecca!) There's a reason behind this switcharoo. I just don't know what it is yet. Keeping Rebecca's comment in mind makes not knowing ok.

Also, Denney the Beatnik Poet had a post yesterday that also gave me some good perspective. He talked about entitlement, and how it's so easy to slip into thinking that we are owed something. Like I am owed the opportunity to stay doing what I was doing this year. In reality, my job has been a gift that I am so grateful for, all the way along. It has worked out perfectly for me for the last four years. God's given me exactly what I need, and even exactly what I want. What makes me think he's gonna stop providing the best for me now jsut becasue it doesn't look the way I thought it would? Even more, what makes me think I am OWED anything???

Like Denney said, "Get over yourself! ... [these] are all gifts that will eventually be destroyed, stolen or returned and then I have to ask the question: What is it that I really want: the gifts or the Giver? ... and I'm entitled to neither."

What a crazy roller coaster life tends to be, eh? God seems to like to keep us on our toes.



........ speaking of toes, yesterday's picture and some others are now up at flickr if you'd like to take a peek at the first few shots on my new camera. Click the picture below to be taken there!

If I must spend the afternoon marking...

... I may as well do it here!

Squeeee!!!

May I introduce you to my new toy...


Idn't she puuuurdy???

And some goodies, to boot!*
SahWEEEET!!! This is gonna make learning how to use an SLR camera SO! MUCH! FUN! (An SLR bascially a camera that can be fully manual or fully automatic - SLR stands for single lens reflex and it has to do with how the light gets into the lens)

Aaaand, I FINALLY got my flowers planted. It only took about 2 weeks of hitting up the nursery looking for specific plants and being told, "Yeah, we don't have those yet. Try back in a few weeks." I gave up and went to Home Depot. Then my flowers sat in their little pots on my patio for two weeks, waiting for sun and spare time to coincide. They finally did and now I have pretty flowers on my patio! I took some pics on my now-little point and shoot, but it was dark-ish and, well, not so great. I'll take more on the new camera for some visuals soon!

This weekend also held brunch with my sis - Dutch pancakes and champagne! - shopping on Main St for some funky jewelry, a hike/walk in Lynn Valley with some friends, dancing till I got blisters under my toes (ouch!), then a late night Princess Bride fest with some friends from my dancing class (that movie at 2am is EXTRA great), giving my house a good scrub - down on hands and knees with a brush and rubber gloves...

Hip hip hooray for long weekends! AND, tomorrow (erg! Today! I need to get to bed!) is a pro-d - no school for students... only school for teachers. It's downtown at the library and we're done by 1- woohoooo! It's supposed to be sunny and beautiful tomorrow, so I'm taking some marking - and the new camera, of course! - to Stanley Park for some chillin' in the sun.

A-woo-hoo!

_____________________________
* The big lens is actually from my borrowed camera, my 55-200 lens comes in today

Mission Accomplished

So... judging by the vast array of comments on that last post, it was a widely popular one... ;) Ok, so only I found it funny. Oh well!

Moving right along...

I have officially passed my obsession on to my students.

I've been teaching them West Coast Swing dancing in PE for about the last month, and it's been absolutely hilarious! They've done so well! (Well, after they mostly got over the sheer revulsion of having to touch a girl's or boy's hand. OH! THE HORROR!

Any time we learn a new move in class that is a little bit tricky, or makes up somewhat self conscious (hello, body wave), our instructor brings out a great line, reminding us that it will not be perfect the first time: "You've got to go through the swamp of ugly before you get to the land of cool." I've been using it with my students. Last week, as I was excitedly praising them for how well they were doing (they improved a lot, all of a sudden, it was great), one of my students asked, "Miss Hillary, are we out of the swamp of ugly yet?"

I busted out laughing and assured her that yes, they were well into the land of cool.

I wanted to show them what West Coast actually looked like, and because bringing my instructors in was too expensive/not feasible, I asked around to a few of the guys in my dance class if they'd like to come to my school and do a demo with me. Chris was available, and willing, so he came to the school on Friday (his day off, at 8:30 in the morning - yay Chris!!!). It turned out to be WAY better than just having the instructors come, too, so I was glad!

We split the kids up and taught them some new fancy footwork (syncopations) to try with the moves they'd already learned. He did great - he jumped right in there with me, teasing the kids, helping the not-so-coordinated ones with their steps...

The other grade 5 class came in towards the end of the class and I got a few volunteers to do a demo. They were SO GOOD! And it was sooo cute to see them dancing together! Aaaah!

Then Chris and I did our demo. Yeah, dancing in front of 50 kids was intimidating! But also fun. The very first spin I did, they all cheered wildly, and I almost lost the beat cause I was laughing so hard. I tried taking a video to show y'all, but, er... I didn't think to check the batteries, and got only the first 30 seconds or so before the camera pooped out. D'oh!

Afterwards, I had the kids write thank you notes which we put into a big card (it's more like a book, actually!) for Chris. Their notes cracked me up; here are some snippets from a few:

... I wish you can teach us dancing all day [says the kid who NEVER pays attention and is totally uncoordinated!!!]
... and the fancy footwork you taught us were cool but also hard at first but then easy
... It feels better when we get our own fancy demonstration
... Do you get dizzy when you spin?
... Thank you Chris for Dancing even though you had a day of you SPent time dancing with us
... I liked that you came because Miss Hillary could teach us girls and the boys or girls didn't have to wait. Also because she didn't have to switch her brain [I was constantly switching between leader/follower parts and kept getting mixed up!]
... I never knew there were so many cool dance moves!
... The move that you did with Miss Hillary was cool! lmao (laugh my ass off) :) :) :) :) :) :) [she asked me not to read her note. Of course that meant I was gonna read it, and pronto. "Uh, yeah, you need to change the language here." *sheepish face* "Okay." She erased it and covered it up with smiley faces, but you can still see what was written underneath. Hahahahaaa!]
... You are a wonderful dancer and your in the land of cool already way to go!

Aren't they sweet? One student drew a picture of two people dancing. It's fanTAStic. I love the eyes and sly tipped up grins. Heeheehee!

I don't think most of them will ever admit it, but I think they enjoyed learning this dance! Obsession handoff - complete!

Profile name gone awry *updated*

What NOT to call yourself on an online dating site:

He's got a masters degree and is working part time at a pastroral counsellor at his church. I'm sure he's a very nice guy. But either he's got a quirky sense of humour or he just didn't realize how bad his profile name looks: therapist

(isn't that an Arrested Development episode or something???)

Udpated: OK, so maybe it's not so clear knowing that he's a counsellor first. I just couldn't get beyond separating the profile name into two words, right after the third letter... aw, whatever...

"The joke's not funny if you have to explain it, Hillary..."

Parlez-vous francais?

Last Wednesday we had the what-I-thought-was-going-to-be-big union meeting where everyone picked their jobs for next year. Sigh. All the jobs that were available next year at out school were posted up on chart paper and everyone got a card with their name and a number on the back which represented their seniority ranking. We just went through the numbers. #1 - go pick your job. #2... #3... all the way down to #31, who was right before me. He took the last classroom job in the English side. Bye bye Hillary. The kindergarten job that I had been hoping for was taken at the last minute by a teacher who was coming back from mat leave and decided to switch from grade three. All that was left was a grade 2 and a grade 3 French Immersion job.

So I took grade 2. Basically the grade 2's coming up are little angels and the grade 3's are... well... very much not. So I figure if I have to change grades - SO much work, but hey, every teacher has to do it - and change from intermediate to primary - differnet program, different reports, different creatures! :) - AND change LANGUAGES - in French immersion, every subject is taught in French, no English till grade 4 - then I'll at least take the easy class thankyouverymuch.

I'm trying to have a good attitude about it, but right now, I'm just really... I dunno. Not super happy about it. I think part of it stems from the fact that I am finally feeling a teensy bit on top of things where I am, and everything I have done this year, I have looked back and gone, "Ooooh.... THAT'S how I should have done it," and I just really want the opportunity to do it again, cause I know I could do it so much better. And my classroom is all set up - I have to take everything down and move. And and and.... whine whine whine. I'm trying not to be that way, but right now I just kinda wanna have a little hand-flapping, foot-stomping hissy fit, scrunch up my face and say, "I DON'T WAAANAAAA."

I really have NO other options. I could volunteer to be surplussed and leave my school (it may already be too late to do that), but then I could end up with anything, anywhere, and I'm not quite up for that game. I could keep my eye on the postings in spring transfer and apply for jobs that I want in schools that I want to be in, but there will be so many other teachers who have been surplussed that have priority over me, who has a job already, that there's no way I'd actually get anything at this point. Basically this is what I've got...

BUT... here's where I try to convince myself... I don't really know what's around the bend. I may really enjoy it! Grade two's are CUTE. And there are FOUR teachers at my school who have taught grade two immersion at my school before, one of whom I will be teaching with next year. They're all great, and they're all willing to help me. And if I have to make such a big change, at least I'm doing it in my own school where I have friends and know people and have that support as opposed to starting all over in another school. I think it'll still be good for my teaching, cause I'll have to be way more organized than I was this year (no more, "whoops, I forgot to photocopy this... you just work quietly, I'll be right back...") and I'll have to become structure queen. That'll be good for my teaching overall...

Sigh.

And then again, who knows. We've packed our classes to the brim in our proposed school organization, and actually it doesn't even work unless four students leave our school. And because of these cuts, most schools are in the same boat, so they may end up releasing funding for some schools to have another division (class) after all, and we may end up re-organizing with another English division. I'm not counting on knowing anything for sure until September. Ha, or given what happened LAST fall, even October.

Road trip to Montreal, anyone? Or perhaps I should head back to France this summer after all! It seems I should begin brushing up on my French.....

Scallywags, Snakes, and Sewing

That's what my day consisted of. I had some academics planned, but that all went by the wayside. There were FAR more interesting things to do!

The whole morning, my students watched Treasure Island with the resource/learning assistance teacher. All except the kids who were behind. I was the big meanie teacher who have them a list of like 15 recent assignments on Friday and told them that if they weren't done, they'd be staying with me for the duration of the movie to get caught up. And forget heading to the movie once they finished. Once the movie started, if you were in, you were in, if not, you'd be working. So I suppose the scallywags were in the movie, but also could be applied to the 10 or so kids who got to stay back with me to finish their work. Yaaarg.

After recess until lunch consisted of snakes. About 10 of them, to be specific. Live ones. The "Snake Guy" came from the something or other society for the protection of reptiles and talked a little big about the snakes, answered some questions, then let the kids hold them and play with them. Highlights? Might have been the snake that wrapped itself around one of my kids' head like a headband then tied his tail in a knot. Or perhaps the snake that crawled into the desk and tucked himself into a student's zippered binder. When we pulled the binder out of the desk, the snake was through all three binder rings, and had begun trying to escape by turning around and trying to slither out the same way he got in.... and then proceeded to get stuck. We had to perform a reptilian rescue! Dah da-da daaah! Another super cool thing was watching as one snake slithered its way out of its skin right as we were watching. I have a few long sections of intact snakeskin that we'll look at in a microscope later this week. Very cool!

We spent the majority of the afternoon learning how to cut fabric from a pattern, thread needles, stitch, and tie off the thread: we're making mini pants and shirts for one of the characters in our novel. I don't know HOW many masses of tangled thread I undid this afternoon. It was pretty funny to watch them try to figure it out.

Good times. Good times.

Eh, we'll do academics tomorrow...

Happy Mother's Day

Just thought I'd share some of my favourite pictures of my mom with you!

Now that I'm older, I'm getting to appreciate my mom more and more. I'm enjoying becoming friends with her, too, not just bein' the bratty kid. (Well, I'm sure I'm still bratty sometimes! Hopefully just in the playful way! *grin* ) She's been a great example for me, and I am SO thankful for her. I hope that when I have kids one day, I can be as great a mom to them as she has been - and continues to be - to me!

Mom and I went kayaking in and around Bowen Island.
The matching hats? Purely coincidence! Go Canadia!

A few years ago, mom took up rowing. This is SUCH a fantastic picture of her!
I hope I'm that much of a hottie when I'm her age... which is, of course, 39!
(hehehe... mom, is this where the "still bratty" kicks in???)

Love you gazillions, mom!

~From your "Hillary Duck"

No WAY!

This guy catches sunglasses with his FACE. Oh the many talents we humans have...

Friday afternoon thoughts (song link added)

I posted my last post immediately after hearing the news about my job. Then driving home from work on Friday evening, I had so many thoughts rolling around in my head that I flipped on my little voice recorder and started talking them all out. Sometimes I do that - kind of a verbal diary for when I can't write. Just like looking back on a journal, it's interesting to go back to it. But this time, after listening to it when I got home, I decided to turn it into a blog post. Why not? But I only had time to get it out now, so I've been feeling kinda guilty all weekend, reading your comments and well wishes (thank you!) knowing that I was ok with things, but just not having the time to post! Such is the way things go sometimes. Life before blog!

So here it is, word for word (ok, minus most of the ums and the and random comments to traffic muttered as I made my way through the Friday streets). This is probably one of teh most personal things I've ever posted. And remember, this is verbal, people. Don't judge me for my grammar and lack of varied vocab on this one! Cause you know, it's so spectacular usually... ;) I didn't know I was gonna be sharing this with the world when I was saying it!


Friday May 4, 6:30pm

Here I am driving home, listening to Carolyn Dawn Johnson's "Into You" [seriously, go listen, it's fantastic! It's at the core of my newly develloping dating manifesto. But that's another post for another time...] and then earlier, sitting in my classroom with the light streaming in - bright beautiful May day... and... just being really happy. Norah Jones playing, doing my marking, really happy and content, enjoying the content of grade 5 - the Cariboo Gold Rush, all of that stuff - then finding out about my job and taking a bit of a nose dive and how that was temporary, in-the-moment... and now... I kinda have my head wrapped around teaching kindergarten now. Thinking that, you know? This might be a good thing, and it might be... yeah, just what I needed. I feel like I'm too harsh with these kids - with my grade 5's - and wanting to, um... enjoy the little-kiddieness of it, and kindergarten? .... yeahHA! I'm gonna have to! And me thinking how I don't know how to assess how my grade 5's are reading exactly, and in kindergarten, I'm gonna learn those skills... and that... it's gonna be GOOD. And I think a lot of the things that I've been wanting to learn as a grade 5 teacher, I think a jaunt in kindergarten will be good for me. It'll be... alright, it'll be a lot of work. Won't be a lot of marking, but it'll still be a lot of work - prep, and things... but I'm finding I'm ok with it as I'm driving home, and listening to that song on the radio...

... and feeling like the biggest weight has come off of my shoulders, um, especially after having talked to [the boy of previously alluded to boy stuff] this week. Talking to him... really gave me... I hate to use the word, but "closure" and I feel like can continue on now, and I feel like I can... I can finally feel like that's all behind me now. Yeah, it's amazing, I feel like the biggest, biggest weight has been lifted off my shoulders. And I think that a lot of how I've been feeling over the last year has been emotionally sucked up by what's been going on with him - either liking him and not knowing how he felt, or going on dates and being so crazy excited I can't think of anything else, or in agony over what's gonna happen, or what has happened, and then being hurt and then mad about it and everything, and I've been thinking, it's put me in a bad place, in a sense. Not him, but the situation. I really feel... I don't know, I've just felt really selfish for the last year, like I've been... too sucked up by my own stuff to be as interested in other people, and I haven't liked who I've been over the last year, and I feel like that's all different, now. I feel like I have more emotional energy to think about other people, and... I just feel so much lighter.

And the other thing I was thinking about - so I guess there was the school stuff, and then the boy stuff, and then there was the... blessing stuff.

Melissa commented on my blog that good things happen to me. She goes, "Good things happen to you, Hillary."

And you know what? They do. [and this is where I started to crack] And I am SOOO blessed in my life - thinking about my job, thinking about my family... thinking about, you know, how blessed I am to have been in this school, and that I probably will be able to stay... and how blessed I am thinking about this settlement and thinking about my retro pay last year, and how great that was, and how easy it is to lose track sometimes of how blessed we are. And I just think that... like... what have I been looking at??? I've been SO tied up in all this, you know, gross stuff, lately that I haven't been able to focus on the good stuff, and... it's time to change that.

My life is good. And I'm really grateful for it...

Aaand, it's the start of a beautiful weekend, and I'm NOT behind in marking for the first time since September - while I've got a lot to do, I'm not behind - and I've got a fun night tonight, and a beautiful day tomorrow, and time with friends, and time for marking, and time to buy some PRETTY FLOWERS! and put them in my garden! and do a photography workshop, and then my dancing class... and...

Life is good. And I am grateful. And... the school thing? Ehh... I'll be alright.

The! End!

What goes up must come down

I really should be more leery when I get good news. It always seems that bad news is right around the bend. Like when I bought my new (to me) car after my accident. My excitement level shot through the roof. Then I got home and found out my beloved Camp Kawkawa was closing down forever. Seems the geological experts thought there was too great a risk of the mountain falling over onto the camp. It honestly felt like a death.

So yesterday I found out about my settlement. Today I found out that my school is losing two divisions due to declining enrollment - freaking Vancouver housing prices, nobody can afford to live here anymore and they're all moving to the 'burbs. And other than some temporary positions and some French Immersion jobs (which I could do, but I really don't want to), I'm low woman on the totem pole. No biggie, everything gets shuffled around, I thought, I'll be fine.

I started to realize that I may not be fine when, while photocopying some stuff down in the office I got asked into the principal's office and invited to sit down with both her and the VP. Turns out I will not be teaching grade 5 next year - barring some miracle (which may still happen). And depending on what the people above me choose to do, I may be surplussed, which means I'm out of the school altogether and working as a permanent teacher on call. I still would have full pay, full benefits, and be accruing seniority, but I'd be all over the place and would be placed as soon as possible into any job that opens up.

There IS an in-between option, which is taking one of the positions at my school that will be freed up by people leaving - a two primary French Immersionclasses, or English kindergarten. Or bumping people who are lower than me from their jobs, which I am loathe to do (don't worry, L - I won't bump you!). But that's a huuuuge shift. I really don't know if I have it in me to do another year like this one. New grade. New language. Practically new creature (comparing a grade 5'er and a kindergarten kiddo). I don't know if I've got it in me. This year has almost done me in. I just want to do it again so at least I'm a little bit ahead of the game. It makes me want to bawl just thinking of having to start all over again. And possibly having to leave my school. I love it here...

Wednesday after school is the big meeting where we go down the seniority list and people pick the jobs they want from the projected staffing for next year.

I have some big thinking to do. And praying. I REALLY don't want to leave my school. I may have to...

And yes, I realize how ironic this post is right after my big excited whoop-dee-doo less than three hours ago about taking a road trip this summer with the grade 5 cirriculum in mind. Phooey.

Hehe, I may have kids asking about fake hair and wrinkles after all!

There's gold in them thar hills...

Ok, so this is probably interesting to nobody but me, but we're doing a unit on the Cariboo Gold Rush right now, and it is SO COOL! I'm sitting here in my classroom finding old archived pictures for the kids so that they can see what life was really like, and have some images in their head of how things were back in the 1860s for people arriving from all over the world, taking steamships and paddlewheelers up the Fraser River, taking mule trains and stage coaches up the Cariboo Wagon Road, and striking it rich up in the interior of British Columbia... it's really really cool! I've never studied about this before (well, that I remember, anyway!) and I'm having a blast. The novel we're reading - Cariboo Runaway - is really historically accurate, I'm finding. Even the stagecoach line that the characters take was actually a real company. And online is a veritable treasure trove of photos and original documents, like an actual mining licence or steamer ticket. Wowee!

And this is where I have realized that I am a teacher through and through. You can still travel the Cariboo Wagon Road, stopping at various historical points all the way to Barkerville - the 'capital' of the Gold Rush in B.C. And I want to do it! Take a road trip. Mostly for fun, but think of all the photos and stuff I could collect for my students next year! Aaaand yes, I realize that that would be letting my job even dictate what holidays I would take in the summer. But Oh! It would be so fun!

Ok, back to work. Yes, I realize this post makes me a humungous nerdball. But I'm hoping that my discovering this stuff, too, as the kids do, will make it all the more interesting for them!

Litterally jumping up and down

No, really. I am about to POP. KA-BLEWIEEE! I! Am! So! Excited!

'Member my Beastmobile? (really, go check it out!) And then when Beasmobile got shmooshed and died? And the resulting whiplash (that still kicks up every now and then, grrr)?

Well I just got an email from my lawyer - a longtime family friend - with the final settlement amount, AND IT'S TWICE WHAT HE TOLD ME HE WAS EXPECTING TO GET!!!!!! Nope, not enough exclamation points yet. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's even more than what he told me he'd START negotiating at!!! Wow-ieeee!

I'm going to be able to cut my debt in HALF! And I do believe I'll stick thumb to nose, wave fingers, and give the big PPPBBBTTTHHHHH! to teaching summer school this summer. Either that or take a wee holiday guilt-free after summer school ends (but no jetting off to Europe again for me. Most of it is going to ye olde student loans).

Oh happy day!!! Thanks, God! Thanks, Lawyer! Thanks guy-who-put-my-Beastmobile-out-of-its-misery!

I'm off to do a few more happy dances. Not even Mr. Photography Instructor can ruin THIS day!

YEAHOOOOOO!!!!

Booyeah!

How I will be defined in the dictionary...

hillary -- [adjective]: Visually addictive 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

One reason I'm glad I teach grade 5

Two recent stories from friends of mine who teach grade one and two gave me a reason to be glad I work with the older ones*...

A few weeks after colouring her hair, a grade 1 student asked my friend, "Madame, is your hair real?" Bewildered, she answered, "Of course it's real! See?" and pulled on it to prove it. "Oooooh," said the student, "Then do you colour it because it's turning white?"

hehehehe!!! (L, you're still a hottie, don't worry!!)

And another friend a while back was getting her kindergarten class to do self portraits. She was sitting on the carpet with the kids and drawing a picture of herself as an example. When she was done, one of the kids pointed out, "But Madame, you forgot to draw all your wrinkles!"

Nothing like kids to help boost your self esteem. *grin*

* Aw, who am I kidding, those kids are CUTE!!!