Happy New Year

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays. I got some welcome time off and mostly spent it with family. By the end, I had actually come to . . .shiver . . .miss my little dorks. I don't know if that's ever happened before. Well, today they pretty much earned it.

For instance, I was doing a lesson on fractions. "Kevin here is one fifth of the Cheetahs team," I said as an illustration. "He is also--"

"Better than you," he interrupted perfectly. Not much I could say to that one.

Later, I was asking for volunteers to draw out a problem on the white board. Chris volunteered and made a minor mistake that I pointed out. He corrected it. "This is the sort of thing I want you guys to be doing on the class work today," said, meaning the problem he was doing.

"What, making mistakes?" Chris asked.

And during lunch, some of the kids were again eating with me. Cheyenne and Nayelyn were discussing the various cultures in their family, and I told them mine. I went on to say how I like it when various cultures come together and make interesting mixes. Seemingly out of nowhere, Nayelyn asked, "Are you an only child?"

"Uh, yeah," I replied.

"That's probably why you're so interested in other cultures."

This is one of the single most insightful, astute things anyone has ever said about me. God bless her.

Movie Time

Yesterday during dismissal, I heard a pretty great conversation. Two of my boys, Christopher and David, were talking about a movie, Judd Apatow's Funny People.

"It was funny," Chris says.

"Well, yeah, it's CAWED 'Funny People,' wright?" David replies. He thinks for a minute. "Is theiw blood owr couwrsing?"

"There's no blood, but there's cursing. And . . .some other bad stuff." At this point it's just the three of us outside waiting for parents to pick them up. Chris is obviously more aware of me being near them but I'm trying not to seem like I'm listening. After all, this is a totally normal conversation for 5th grade boys, just not one most would have in front of a teacher.

"Sex?" David asks.

Out of the corner of my eye I see Chris glance at me nervously. He says nothing.

"Sex?" David repeats. "You know, naked people?"

Nerd Wars

I was just handed a note from Christopher. On it he traced the Star Wars logo. Under that he wrote "may the fouce [sic] be with you Mr. Rice hope your [sic] not a trekkie or you will be sorry."

Trekkie was also apparently originally spelled "terky."