The Talk

Tomorrow would be a good day to finish up that 20 minute ncte talk. I have a lot of doubts about that happening. Lacking a bit of confidence.

The Deer

I feel sorry for the owner of this car, the driver of this car, and the deer who ran full speed into this car. After impact, I heard a dragging sound and was told that the deer was probably being dragged under the car. I told my companion that I couldn't get out of the car because I couldn't handle having a deer dying underneath the car. She convinced me I should get out by saying, "Get out." When I got out, I found out that the deer wasn't under the car at all. She was way back on the highway somewhere and the tow truck driver was making plans to go collect the body for venison sometime after he dropped off the car. The whole thing was a little bit sad, but could have been much worse.

The Sojourn

This week I'm going to a conference in Missouri. It's a conference on professional learning communities in schools. I'm not super jazzed to be going to this conference but the trip's been arranged and I will be attending. It's funny that this job comes with a few trips, trips I'd rather not go on. I'm just not sure I agree with all the focus on response to intervention, growth model reporting systems and curriculum alignment and assessment. But that's the world I live in right now. And it's not horrible, just kind of lame. On the good side, I took a walk on this beautiful day and saw a few bluebirds and I'm making some headway on the ncte talk.

By "headway," I mean I have just sat down to start working on it.

The Development

I'm very sorry to tell all of you that the professional development day I attended on Wednesday was sub-par. The theme? Teacher Leaders. It's a good theme I suppose, but we spent most of the day talking about some very basic articles in a large group of 60 people. Not a good idea, fyi. I wasn't too, too annoyed because I didn't make sub plans, just showed up. And I spent a little time reading an article I need to read for NCTE, on the sly. I left some important work behind, but I don't have the crazy time table of yore, so I wasn't too anxious about that. Sometimes I don't think my new gig is that interesting, but then I wonder if I have these feelings because I'm somehow attached to a frenetic frazzled pace and this flexible kind of day doesn't really suit me. But there are bennies: I'm neither frazzled nor frantic 100% of the time. I'll focus on those perks for now.

The Intentions

My dad and my big brother came up this weekend. They visited us on their way back from watching a football game in South Bend. We loved having them here. Lots of good chat and chuckling. Now we move back in to the fray. The moving finger writes and having writ moves on.

The Woods

I learned about squirrel hunting from 2 4th graders this week. We were going to read a short book about the Appalachian Trail so as a pre-read, we wrote about "In the Woods." Both kiddos wrote about squirrel hunting. They've killed quite a few squirrels in their day.
Curious, I asked, "Isn't it hard to shoot them? They're so small and fast?"
"No, you just get 'em as they're eating on the ground," a Friendly Fourthie replied. "Skinning them is the hard part."

The Book

Phew.  I've been thinking I'm heading toward aliteracy lately, but this giftie from SeattleKin has restored my confidence.  I love Nick Hornby.  His characters communicate annoyance with the world really well.

I'm working on the NCTE talk.  It's slow going as always, but it's warm and cozy here on the blue couch and I'm having a go.  

Husbandman nearly forgot about the yearly tradition of making me a pumpkin pie for my birthday.  But once I reminded him he headed right out to the shop to get the ingredients and he's making it right now.  That was a close one.  "How could you forget about this tradition?" I asked him, but he simply said, "I don't know.  Maybe it's because of my knee problems."  He truly has been having knee problems, but I'm not sure that would really make a person forget about an important tradition.  I'm going to cut him some slack, especially since he's almost putting the pie in the oven right now.  Yes!

The Efforts

This week needs to hurry up and get done.  It's report card week and the teachers are capital T for tense.  That used to be me.  I got very stressed during report card time, but was I grouchy to people?  I certainly hope I was not! But let's face it, I probably was.  I wish all the teachers could be happy and relaxed.  I wish I could give them a huge party or a grand vacation. I feel guilty that I'm not in the trenches with them any more.