Found this online today

and it made me laugh. Is this really on TV somewhere?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACi1VO9JP0A

Are you married?

I was in the middle of working one-on-one with my first graders during math today. One girl waited patiently in line for her turn to talk with me. Then she said, "Miss Reed, are you married?"

I asked, "Why are you talking about that right now? You're supposed to be doing math."

She pointed at her math book, where she was to draw pictures of three things shorter than herself, three things the same size as herself, and three things taller than herself. And she said, "We'll you're taller than us, so we thought you must be married."

"Oh, I see. No, I'm not married. That's why my name is Miss Reed."

And from across the room another boy piped in, "Yeah, and if she got married her last name would change, too."

And another student across the room: "And she'd have kids, too."

By this time another girl had come to the front of the line, and she said, "Everybody has to have two."

Ok... what? So I asked, "What do you mean? Everybody has to have two?"

Get this - "My mom says she wants four grandchildren, so that means my sister and I both have to have two kids each. And my sister doesn't want to have kids when she's an adult, so that means I have to have four! Ugh... I don't wanna think about it." She sighed...

And so I checked her math page, and that was the end of it. First graders! Gotta love 'em! :-)

First Grade Word Play

The other day a few of my boys were standing in line waiting to talk to me, and I overheard their conversation:
A - I know a bunch of girls who say "whatever" like this - "what-ev-er" (you know, valley girl-style)
J - Yeah, what-ev-er
Teacher - What girls do you know that say it like that?
A - Well, I don't know. But I know about them. There are lots of girls who say it like that.
Teacher - Right...


And another boy, who probably needs some English-language tutoring, was told to write a story using as many words in the -ide Word Family as he could. This was a homework assignment, and he wrote a great story - with no idea what the adults would think when they read it:

I try to hide from my bride
because she wants to ride on me!
I ride the bike to get away from her.

He-he-he... :-)

Yearbook-ed

Lots of friends have been posting pictures of themselves using the "Yearbook Yourself" site. I decided to check it out, and the results were fun and interesting. Try it yourself at www.yearbookyourself.com

In this first one I see a sure family resemblance to my Granny! (Circa 1952)

And this one reminds me of pictures of my dad's sisters hanging up in my Grandma's house. (Circa 1960)

This one is what I would have looked like if I were on "The Brady Bunch." (Circa 1974)

And this one is scary because I actually have a year book picture that looks pretty similar! (Circa 1990)

Mountains

During our Landform Unit, I've been teaching each of the first and second grade classes two days of lessons about mountains. The other day I was working with a group of first graders, and we had a big discussion about the reasons people go to the mountains, what kinds of things they do in the mountains (If you wanted to go diving would you go to the mountains?), how mountains affect what people wear, what kinds of things can grow in the mountains (If you wanted to be a farmer would you move to the mountains?), altitude sickness, and so on. Then I told the kids to draw a picture showing what people do in the mountains. They were supposed to prove they understood how mountains affect people's lives. Here's one picture I got:

I definitely think he has the right idea, don't you?

He Fixed My Shower

My master bathroom has a detachable shower head that fits into a clip, which is meant to let you adjust it to point up or down. When I first arrived at the apartment, the shower head wouldn't ratchet to stay in place; it pointed down and back toward the wall behind it. I left instructions for it to be fixed, and when I arrived back a month later it was. The shower head stayed put for almost a month before it started dropping down and spraying water all over the wall behind it.

I took it apart myself to try to figure out what the issue was, but no luck. I was able to jiggle it and get it to cooperate just long enough for a shower, but this was no long-term solution. The management office here is quite unresponsive to all requests for repairs, and I was about to try a stick-on hook and some string to tie it in place.

But then. The repairman actually showed up the other night! He stood on the edge of the tub and jiggled the shower head. Then he removed it from the hook and showed me that the clip worked just fine. So then I had to put the shower head back and show him that it didn't! He couldn't figure out what to do, so I took it apart for him. My confidence in his ability to fix it was lagging at this point... He unscrewed the hook from the wall - and a little folded up piece of paper fell out from behind it! We realized at the same time that the previous "fix" had been made by jamming this paper into the clip. We both had a laugh. And then, yes, you guessed it. He asked me to go get him some more paper to add to what was already jammed inside. Ha! Guess we'll see how long the fix lasts this time!

October Holiday

We had October 1-5 off for the Chinese labor holiday. I didn't think five days was really enough time to go anywhere, plus last October holiday I learned a good lesson about not going to an island during the October typhoon season! So... I decided to save my vacation money, stay in Shanghai, and go shopping instead! Here's a rundown of what I did:

Wednesday - Learned how to make homemade tortillas at a friend's house and went furniture shopping for about six hours at a Chinese antique place, an upholstery store with six floors, and IKEA. Bought 12 pieces at IKEA!!

Thursday - Went to the Pudong Flower Market and bought seven plants for my balcony. It's a great little secluded get-away now! Had my birthday dinner with some friends at my favorite restaurant in PuXi - Lapis Lazuli.


Friday - Went shopping at a furniture warehouse here in Pudong and bought a REALLY cool wooden chair and furniture for my balcony get-away. They're still making the cushion for the chair... Also went shopping for lamps for the living room.

Saturday - Proctored the SAT for seniors at our high school, had Thai food for lunch, played card games for hours at a friend's house.

Sunday - Stayed home all day. IKEA promised to deliver some time between 9am and 2pm and assemble my 12 pieces sometime between 2pm and 8pm. I scheduled the other furniture delivery and lamp delivery for Sunday, too, since I knew I'd have to be home all day. While waiting around, a friend and I planned our Chinese New Year trip to Vietnam (coming up in January) and I leveled and stickered about 100 books from my classroom library. I promise to post pictures of my apartment soon. It's feeling much more homey now!

Assembly in progress...