A Very Good Day, Indeed

Today was a good day. Supremely satisfying, but not for any particular reason. God truly blessed me with joy and strength. Today was the first day all week I haven't "felt" the physical exhaustion that results from chronic sleep deprivation.

The day began with a frenzied 6AM shopping trip for lab staples. (Too lazy to go after work, that's why.) Then, after a hectic campaign to clean up my classroom, my field advisor came in and observed my lesson during 3rd period. That's always a little nerve-racking. Usually I just threaten the kids within an inch of their lives beforehand. This time, I tried a different tactic: bribery. They were PERFECT(!!), so guess who has to get up and make a batch of brownies before 3rd period for tomorrow?! I am NOT complaining, however.

Our lab demonstration was low-fat nachos today. Some of the "skills" and "vocabulary" we learned included selecting lean meats (95/5), preparing & draining ground beef, dicing vegetables, and calorie/fat-reducing substitutions, collander, and skillet. Our take home "message" for today: Not all reduced-fat foods have to be nasty. The nachos were a homerun with the kids. It was like vultures on a carcass!! No one griped about baked tortilla chips or lean ground beef- unbelievable. And, the kids paid me the ultimate compliment: "THESE ARE WAY BETTER THAN SCHOOL NACHOS." Every kid in every class LOVED them. Oh, except for 2nd period. I took away their lab privileges and they got to do book work today :) Suckers!

Fifth period was going swimmingly until one of the kids- AGAIN- threatened to kill one of the others: "I'm gonna kill him. I hate that little monkey!! When they find him dead over the weekend you'll know it's cause I shot him to death." Yeaaaaaaaaaaah. That sounds like a problem for the psych ward.

In my 7th period class we are learning about family. Yesterday, I put them in "families". (They drew family names. ) I assigned roles within each family: mom and/or dad/stepmom or stepdad, kids, or other relatives to illustrate the different family types: nuclear, extended, blended, single-parent, adopting. It certainly underscores the point that we don't get to pick our families and thus have to make the best with whoever we are "assigned" to. Of course they "hated" it (I think they really liked it). They were so grossed out when I assigned someone to be someone else's wife. They have to over-dramatize everything and act like they still have cooties and can't be in the same family. Haha, it was so entertaining and I loved it. Isn't that of primary importance, anyway? Today, I made the family patriarch introduce their families and take family portraits together and they got all freaked out about that too. Hehehehe...

I'll post some family portraits later. :)