A week ago, it was cold and freezing rain and ice was bearing down us. This morning it was lightly snowing. In between, we’ve had a sixty-two degree day, rain, near zero temperatures, sub-zero wind chills, and our first significant snow – a paltry two and half inches. It is difficult to believe it is February in Chicago.
On Friday, my school went to the Museum of Science and Industry in downtown Chicago for our annual health unit field trip. Our students have been studying the human body in science and writing a research paper in my class – language arts. Their paper, or rather book is due Tuesday. It should be due Monday, but Lori and I both know what a due date does to a household and we opted to ruin Monday night rather than Sunday night and the Super Bowl. The field trip is always a nice end to the unit in LA and science and I look forward to going.
an exhibit from Body Worlds – this is the vascular system of a REAL human body.
Our field trip fell on Friday and created a third four-day week in a row for our students. They enjoyed a day off at the end of the semester in our second week back, Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, and the field trip making three days in three weeks they’ve not been in the classroom. I can’t vouch for the first two days, but I and my fellow teachers view the field trip as an extension of the classroom, especially with quality of the human body exhibits at MSI and other exhibits.
Maybe it was the three four-day weeks, maybe it was the weather, maybe it was my group of students, maybe it was the crash that blocked traffic and delayed us almost an hour, or it could have been the bus break down on the return trip, or the lost kid\parent chaperone, or any combination of the aforementioned incidents, but I came home Friday evening with a pounding headache. I think we need to re-think our field trip, or maybe I need to gain perspective by talking to the other teachers. Friday only counted if I was counting pain medication.
my view from the back of the bus – both ways – at least it was a sunny day!
Saturday I cleaned snow off the driveway and did a little bit of work on the week ahead. This is the time of the year when really kick it in gear and I need to be more prepared than ever. I checked the weather forecast and read that our area will go from no snow, relatively, to a serious covering over the next couple of days with significant snow Sunday night into Monday, and again Tuesday with more in the future forecast. Woo hoo!
W is reading To Kill a Mockingbird in his English class and thus B and I are reading it, too. We are both reading it for the second time. We both read it in high school and I don’t remember much, except the character’s names – Boo, Scout, Jem, and Atticus. For W, this is the novel I hope he’ll remember and be able to make connections about fairness and justice as well as the imperfection of our society and how much we still need to grow, despite how far we’ve come. But, I suspect the lessons won’t really kick in for at least a few years, as it does when I walk my students through The Giver in a couple of months. So, Saturday night we watched the film version of To Kill a Mockingbird with Gregory Peck in true black and white on VCR videocassette. I felt like I stepped into a time machine and I dozed off a couple of times in the middle of the film. I was awake for the finish and the Boo Radley reveal, which W had to re-watch this morning and I caught a double-dose of the ending.
It is Sunday morning and I have floundered between finishing the video, prepping for the coming week, and searching for ideas for a post. It is Super Bowl Sunday and an un-official American holiday. If you’ve forgotten, I’ll be rooting for the 49ers and hoping it is a good game. The teams I have rooted for have come up short the last several Super Bowls and I am hoping the streak ends with today’s game. Regardless, I’ll be watching with wings in hand, chips and dip, and good dose of cheering.
I know it’s gonna be great day. Tomorrow is possibly gonna be a million and six times better (if the 49ers win), but that will be a moot point if I don’t jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, one check off on the task list at a time.
What is on your list – before the big game? Please, tell me you’re gonna watch!
I e-filed our Federal taxes today, wrote a blog post, and worked revising another project. I won’t tell you I not gonna watch the Super Bowl, but I will say that I am going to be tuning in to Downton Abbey! To celebrate that it’s Super Bowl Sunday and a holiday (unofficially), I am slathering Philadelphia dark chocolate cream cheese on top of hobnobs. This makes the hobnobs taste about a million and six more times better than they already taste!!
Just for you – Go 49ers!!
I haven’t thought about taxes – don’t want to! I need to watch the Downton Abbey epsisode sometime today. I use sports analogies and teams in my geography class to illustrate regional specialties and I capature many kids, mostly boys, but I know that the Super Bowl is not a ‘holiday’ for everyone – but the hype! If we could only get that type of engagement in our government, oh my!!!
Howdy Tonette! Sounds like you have one heck of a busy day. just finished balancing the checkbook and folding laundy – two of my favorite pasttimes, right up there with grading!! Next, I am heading to a softball hitting clinic to help O with her hitting. We’ve got another 3-5 inches of snow coming tonight, which means a fun drive to school in AM! Good luck to the ’9ers!
and I am disappointed with the outcome, but it was a good game to watch – especially the end when the ’9ers almost pulled it off!
Aloha Clayton~My list, for today includes walking my puppy, doing laundry, emptying out the closet of clothes not worn to put the new (laundered) clothes in, sewing buttons on a pair of pants and shirt (all done), applying for a couple of jobs (also all done), finishing up a cover letter for another position (will get to that once I finish reading/answering emails), getting the salad, poi, and lomi lomi salmon ready for the game, and watching the game!
Sorry your trip on Friday was not a good one and gave you a headache. Hope you’re feeling better now. Just re-read Mockingbird a couple of weeks ago. Was going to re-read Grapes of Wrath, but remembered how depressed I was after reading it the first time…figured that could wait until I find a new job.
Have also been reading Burn This Book – it’s actually about writing and I find it interesting.
Hope all is well – Happy Be-lated Birthday to W.
Go 9ers!
I thought I replied to you, but I created my own thread… I guess that’s how I channeled my disappointment!