24

There is this series that has been around for a couple of years starring Kiefer Sutherland. It is called 24. It is a show in real time. Each episode is one hours of a 24 hour day. It is action packed and one of those shows that you know is good because you just can't believe how quickly it went by. That is how I know that I had a good lesson at school, the kids say, "Its already over?" I love those days.

Anyway, so I hadn't really heard of this show, but I guess I was behind. One couple in our group at church bought the first season because they loved it so much. They let another couple watch it and then it has been passed around to nearly everyone in our group. Last Wednesday night Steve came up to me and handed it to me. He said, "I heard you were next." I was thinking, next for what. Well apparently there is like a waiting list for this show.

I am totally addicted. But Jonathan is like 4 hours behind me so we can't watch it together. I keep encouraging him to watch some more episodes, but I'm never up at the same hour as him so we couldn't watch it together anyway. I think that the show is still running, but I have not idea when. I will soon find out.

Meet Mr. Cool Guy

Koosh balls were the greatest inventions. I often use them in my classroom. But they were hard to find. My Mother-In-Law put an email out to all of the teachers at her school and I now have a wonderful collection of koosh balls. Meet Mr. Cool guy, he is somewhat of a celebrity in my classroom. I throw him to each student as I sing a greeting to them and then they have to throw him back to me as they sing their greeting. He is a hit in all of my classes, PK-5th grades.

The other day I decided to use a different koosh ball for my greeting, I just thought that I would add a little variety. Well kids love what they know! All of them asked where he was, was he sleeping, was he on vacation, was he taking a break. As you can guess I just agreed to whatever the reason that the kids came up for the absense of the Mr. Cool guy. But my favorite response from a 3rd grader was, "Is he (my new koosh ball) one of Mr. Cool guy's relatives?"

You never know what kids are going to come up with. And even though you (the teacher) are totally tired of something, that does not mean that they are even remotely tired of it.

Student Survivors

My heart goes out to all of those people who have been affected by Katrina. I have heard horror stories and received an email cautioning us as we get students who may have seen horrific things happen to family members and friends. We were warned that they might become very scared when it rains or the winds blow hard, that they could regress in behavior up to three years, and they might be very angry or feel guilt. To tell you the truth I didn't know how I would react when I got a student survivor.

My first students came today. First was little, well we'll call him Mark. I always ask my students where they have come from and so I pretended like I didn't know about Mark's situation and asked this question. Well when he responded that he had moved here from the Superdome, my eyes filled with tears. I was just thinking about this sweet little first grader trying to survive among all of those people. I wasn't sure how he would react to class so I was just kind of observing. We were playing a game where one student gets to be the wolf and he can either say that he is there, so he can chase us, or he can make up any excuse why he is gone. Some popular excuses are he went to Wal-Mart, he's brushing his hair, he's taking a nap, etc. But Mark had a turn and his reply was that he was playing the trumpet. That's New Orleans for you.

We Have the Keys!

The keys to our house came in the mail last night. I got to go over and look at it, its been two whole months since I have seen the inside. We are totally excited and I am finally inspired to start the packing process. Here are some pictures of the inside.