I heart Harry Potter.

It is FINALLY Friday. Well, pseudo-Friday!

It's been a long week this week, and we are off school tomorrow for Veteran's Day. I am so excited to sleep in tomorrow with Nick and the puppy son. I really, REALLY can't wait! AND! Even better: Nick is off work today for the holiday, so even though I have orientation for Petsmart tonight until 7:30, we will get to spend a few more hours together than usual :) Speaking of Petsmart, I am really excited tonight to start orientation. I can't wait to learn about what I'll be doing in the groom shop. I'll definitely be sure to update later or tomorrow what I find out!

I posted a little while ago a book list. In that post, I talked about how we are reading the book Night in my AA class for their long independent portfolio piece. The first few pages were really hard to get interested in, but after I got past that, the book is SO good. It's very said and graphic, but very interesting and I don't want to stop reading at all. So that I don't get too far ahead of the class, I started re reading (for about the 10th time..) the Harry Potter series. Hello? Why haven't I done this since high school??

Seriously? HP is intoxicating. It was in high school, and it still is now. It totally makes me want to buy some cloaks, a wand, and a pretty, pretty white Owl and name it Hedwig. Doesn't Hogwarts truly exist? Seriously, I would even live in a cupboard under the stairs for a while if it meant I could someday end up at the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I'm only halfway through Year 1, and my favorite part, so far, is when Harry gets to go shopping for all of his school supplies, and is discovering all things magic for the first time. 

What is your favorite part of the Harry Potter series?

I am really, really hungry, so I can't wait for lunch today! (Vegetarian Minestrone and a salad, yum!!) Hope you all have a great Thursday/pseudo-Friday :) xoxo stephanie

Love notes and puppy naps

Hello, friends! I really, really wanted to update earlier today, but I was SOTIRED. Today at school we had a pep rally, and consequently, it was spirit-wear day. OFCOURSE I left my only WHDT t-shirt at Nick's house and dirty. Thankfully he agreed to wash and dry it for me when he got home from work last night, which meant that I had to pick it up EARLY this morning. It was worth it, though. I think the kids were surprised :)

School was pretty okay today, we got lots of papers in that need to be on the report card (by Monday) so that was a small accomplishment. The pep rally was fun to watch (and a nice break for the kids) but since it was right in the middle of the day (4th bell) with two bells after it before dismissal, the kids were a little more than rambunctious.

When I got home from school today, the only thing on my mind was SLEEP. So, I turned on Dr. Phil, grabbed my puppy and my blanket, and hit the sheets. AND I SLEPT. I just woke up, in fact, and I feel so much better. I have to work tonight, eight to close, and I am not looking forward to it, but we know how much I need money right now... And after tonight, I am off until Monday morning when I go back to school!!

I also came home/woke up to this in my email via my wonderful boyfriend:

Just how did I get so lucky?

Hope you all have a great Friday and a greater weekend :) xoxo! 

Tuesday!

I wish my classroom looked like this. :)

Today was a bit like pulling teeth with my students. After a long, three day weekend, they were still hibernating and not so ready to do the Daily Oral Language Lesson that I had so thoughtfully planned for them at the end of last week. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better because I am assigning their term research paper – the advanced kids get to write about a coming-of-age tradition or ritual of their choice (from a list that I have provided, naturally) and the other kids get to choose the career that they are most interested in and research it. These should make for some very interesting reads in a few weeks!!

I also finalized the literary analysis assignment that all of the kids will be getting at the end of September, and I am really excited to read what they have to say, even though I am sure that they won’t be as excited to write it. ;)

Tonight, my little Guillermo has to be taken to the vet to get neutered. Nick and I are really nervous, even though we know that many, many dogs have this operation every day, and that he will be just fine. We are mostly sad that he is going to be so scared in a cage overnight without his mommy and daddy. Since dogs, like most humans, cannot eat for a certain amount of time before surgery, he has to be taken in tonight instead for his surgery in the morning. I understand the reasoning behind this, but still am really nervous to leave him there! At least, we know we are lucky that this surgery is less invasive for a boy, and that makes us both feel so much better. Hopefully, having his baby blanket that he’s had since the very day we brought him home will make HIM feel better!!

I think we are both just so worried because he is our first baby (Chihuahua). ;) Send him good thoughts and prayers!! That being said, before we drop him off at the vet tonight, we are taking him to PetSmart to get a little treat. He is definitely spoiled! Needless to say, I might be more than a little distracted at work tonight!

Hope everyone has a great Tuesday!

Oh, to be in high school, again...

This quarter in school, I am doing a unit with my AA (these are the advanced kids) 11^th grade English class on JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. I have read this book upwards of five or six times since high school, and it has always been one of my favorite books.

It is so interesting to compare how I thought of it in high school, and how I interpret it teaching high school. I had always thought that Holden Caulfield was just a bratty teenager who was hilarious in his speaking habits and whose wit and voice made me giggle at each turn of the page. After teaching this to my students, they have begun to ask me questions that I have never even though about. Why is Holden so depressed? Why does he curse so much? Etc. It really made me think about the title of the book, and it also made me pick up on details of the novel that I have never noticed in my naïve reading of it. When I gave the lecture about themes, motifs, and the connection to JD Salinger’s lifetime, the parallels were not lost on the kids, and it made me feel great to teach something they had never heard before, but also that they were interested in, and made them feel as though they were looking in on someone’s eerie, private life. As we delve further and further into the book, the kids are more and more excited to read. A few of them are even ahead of schedule, which makes me feel great as a teacher. I am so happy they are enjoying a book that I was so fond of while growing up, and it’s an excellent way to teach students how to cope with their own coming-of-age experiences in a positive way.

A friend of mine posted this interpretation of Holden Caulfield on Facebook a few months ago, and it really hit home and pulled some of the stray threads of the novel together for me. I am really excited to show this piece of artwork with kids and see what they think about it.

Also, Nick and I started to watch the first season of Nip/Tuck last night, and we got through two and a half episodes.

The show is pretty good, but after having a nightmare that I got a boob job, I don’t think I’ll be watching anymore. It’s a really interesting show, but just not as captivating as I hoped it would be. If anyone has any suggestions about what we should try out instead, let me know!

It's so nice to look at my blog stats and see that I have been getting lots more page views and readers over the last few days! Thank you to all of you who take the time to read :) I hope that everyone who is interested in what I have to talk about in my little corner of the world will take the time to follow me by clicking the button at the top left of this column!! Thanks, everyone!!

I hope everyone is having a great Labor Day! xoxo