My school's Spring festival went off without a problem.
The kids and parents seemed to have a good time and it was marked improvement over the Fall festival. This time we rented a bounce house, a popcorn machine, and a bubble machine.
The kids LOVED the bounce house. There were still children in it when the company came to take it down.
The face-painting booth Primary 1 ran proved popular. My classes cake walk wound up giving away most of the cakes in a raffle since the children were more interested in the bounce house and face painting.
Since we had it from 10-12 we avoided the afternoon heat and left us teachers with our afternoon free. Which we enjoyed by headed over to the local sports bar.
Afterwards I went home and napped for a few hours. Now I'm nursing my sun burn and catching up on my reading.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Friday, April 21, 2006
Poetry Friday-the Uncle Shelby edition
I spent many happy hours with Uncle Shelby.
Uncle Shelby might more well know to some of you as Shel Silverstein.
Here are four poems from three of his books.
'Prayer of the selfish child' from A Light In the Attic
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
And if I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my toys to break.
So none of the other kids can use 'em...
Amen.
'The lost Cat' from the same book. (Fellow cat owners, we all know we've said something similar at least once)
We can't find the cat,
We don't know where she's at,
Oh where did she go?
Does anyone know?
Let's ask this walking hat.
'The Voice' from Falling Up
There is a voice inside of you
That whispers all day long,
"I feel that this is right for me,
I know that this is wrong."
No teacher, preacher, parent, friend
Or wise man can decide
What's right for you-just listen to
The voice that speaks inside.
'The Battle' from Where the Sidewalk Ends
Would you like to hear
Of the terrible night
When I bravely fought the-
No?
All right.
Shel Silverstien died in 1999.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Historical accurate movies=boring?
Edit: It came to my attenion that my draft posted instead of my final. Here's the final verison of my rant.
I re-watched Emma the other day and had a minor rant attack over historical inaccuracies in the movie. Afterwards I started to think, what was the last historical accurate movie which gained any sort of interest.
All the recent movies like Troy, Alexander, King Arthur, and even the recent version of P&P, have historical inaccuracies large enough to drive trucks through. Does a story/time period need to be skewed or changed to make an interesting story? I'd like to think the answer is no.
It's almost as if Hollywood and the general have ingrained in their brains that if it's truly historical it's boring. I've heard the "people don't see movies to learn" argument before, but why can they learn and be entertained at the same time?
And hey Hollywood do you think we could at least TRY to get the costumes right half the time? While the accuracies of costumes in movies such as Ever After (and perhaps Pirate of the Caribbean, though ironical though weren't too off basis from what my limited knowledge of that time period)and, A Knight's Tale can be forgiven somewhat I dislike seeing things such as plate armor on knights in a time only chain-mail was avaible.
Or how about artifacts pieces in the right places? I can't have been the only person who gaped at the sight of the Lion's Gate in a throne room in Tory.
Please let's not even started on changing stories to 'suit' modern audiences. It's a frustrating trend that seems to tie into the sanitized of myths and fairy/folk tales. (Remind me to do a rant on the loss of understanding of the importance of the storyteller in the telling of fairy/folk tales and how this ties into the before said sanitization.)
Does anyone else become frustated with this?
Strangely enough though, I have no problem with A Lion in Winter.
I re-watched Emma the other day and had a minor rant attack over historical inaccuracies in the movie. Afterwards I started to think, what was the last historical accurate movie which gained any sort of interest.
All the recent movies like Troy, Alexander, King Arthur, and even the recent version of P&P, have historical inaccuracies large enough to drive trucks through. Does a story/time period need to be skewed or changed to make an interesting story? I'd like to think the answer is no.
It's almost as if Hollywood and the general have ingrained in their brains that if it's truly historical it's boring. I've heard the "people don't see movies to learn" argument before, but why can they learn and be entertained at the same time?
And hey Hollywood do you think we could at least TRY to get the costumes right half the time? While the accuracies of costumes in movies such as Ever After (and perhaps Pirate of the Caribbean, though ironical though weren't too off basis from what my limited knowledge of that time period)and, A Knight's Tale can be forgiven somewhat I dislike seeing things such as plate armor on knights in a time only chain-mail was avaible.
Or how about artifacts pieces in the right places? I can't have been the only person who gaped at the sight of the Lion's Gate in a throne room in Tory.
Please let's not even started on changing stories to 'suit' modern audiences. It's a frustrating trend that seems to tie into the sanitized of myths and fairy/folk tales. (Remind me to do a rant on the loss of understanding of the importance of the storyteller in the telling of fairy/folk tales and how this ties into the before said sanitization.)
Does anyone else become frustated with this?
Strangely enough though, I have no problem with A Lion in Winter.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Work, applications, and K'zoo
Three months until our contracts are up and still we haven't heard anything. Granted keeping me at the school would take raising my salary to somewhere near industry standards and allowing me to leave early two to three days for classes. The healthcare issue is pretty much a non-issue since we were promised this before Christmas. This is something we're all going to demand.
I'd rather not leave since my fellow teachers are also my friends. The director, a good deal of the parents, and the partners? I'd be happy never to see again. I'm working until five now since we've been over ratio in afterschool, more for the benefit of co-workers and my bank account than my director.
On to school related news. I still hate Texas politics. I just hate it even more now. My application essay might be the death me.
I'm not kidding here.
On a K'zoo note: I'm counting the days. Plus if you're going to K'zoo check out: K'zoo meet-up plans via Dr. V and Ancrene Wiseass(who has one of the best blog names going).
I'd rather not leave since my fellow teachers are also my friends. The director, a good deal of the parents, and the partners? I'd be happy never to see again. I'm working until five now since we've been over ratio in afterschool, more for the benefit of co-workers and my bank account than my director.
On to school related news. I still hate Texas politics. I just hate it even more now. My application essay might be the death me.
I'm not kidding here.
On a K'zoo note: I'm counting the days. Plus if you're going to K'zoo check out: K'zoo meet-up plans via Dr. V and Ancrene Wiseass(who has one of the best blog names going).
Blog Carnival updates
The Carnival Of Education is up over at The education wonk.
The Carnival of Feminists XIII is up at I See Invisible People
Teaching Carnival #8 is now hosted at A Delicate Boy.
The Carnival of Feminists XIII is up at I See Invisible People
Teaching Carnival #8 is now hosted at A Delicate Boy.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
The REALLY Dead Women Writers Meme
Bardiac has posted the master list of the REALLY Dead Women Writers Meme.
Misogyny, stupidity, or both?
I feel like I should write something witty, intelligent and stimulating. Instead I'll bitch about the idiot DJ I heard this morning.
I listen to a radio morning shows on my way to work every morning. Normally the dj's are interesting and funny. Today one of them had me screaming at my radio.
The whole thing started with the ring one of the Desperate Housewives is selling on eBay. One of the DJs said he knew why know one would buy the ring. In fact, he had two ways to tell if your marriage would fail.
Reason 1: If the ring came from a pawn shop.
Reason 2: If the woman asks the man.
Take a guess which reason provoked a response from me?
The other two DJs disagreed with him on the second reason too, thankful. Still the guy kept going on about how it was just wrong for a woman to ask a man. If he didn't ask, the DJ said, then he wasn't ready.
I'll spare you the wild horse and saddle analogy he made over and over again.
To make matters worse, they took callers. Most of the women that called agreed with him!
Am I alone in boggling over this? I'm not even sure if he knew how he sounded, but I almost expected him to say women belong in the kitchen next.
I won't be listening to that morning show anymore.
I listen to a radio morning shows on my way to work every morning. Normally the dj's are interesting and funny. Today one of them had me screaming at my radio.
The whole thing started with the ring one of the Desperate Housewives is selling on eBay. One of the DJs said he knew why know one would buy the ring. In fact, he had two ways to tell if your marriage would fail.
Reason 1: If the ring came from a pawn shop.
Reason 2: If the woman asks the man.
Take a guess which reason provoked a response from me?
The other two DJs disagreed with him on the second reason too, thankful. Still the guy kept going on about how it was just wrong for a woman to ask a man. If he didn't ask, the DJ said, then he wasn't ready.
I'll spare you the wild horse and saddle analogy he made over and over again.
To make matters worse, they took callers. Most of the women that called agreed with him!
Am I alone in boggling over this? I'm not even sure if he knew how he sounded, but I almost expected him to say women belong in the kitchen next.
I won't be listening to that morning show anymore.
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