I gave my scheduled run tonight the ol' one finger salute and instead headed to a section of the city I'd never seen before for some beer with a coworker. HEY! Don't freaking judge me! It may not have been the best decision for my plan to be the Universe's most awesomest jogger who occasionally picks up the pace enough to be considered a slow runner, but it was good for my mental health. A few beers, some greasy, fattening food, a shared crossword and much, much name calling and I no longer want to rip out all of my boss' hair strand by strand. That's gotta count for something.

Know what else counts for something? We had a field trip today, and except for the part where my 6th grade boys practiced their extortion skills on my 4th grade boys, it went as smooth as could be expected. I'd even go so far as to say that everyone involved had a good time - except maybe the polar bear, who ate the Capri Sun juice container a student "accidentally" dropped in its' cage. I was fairly angry about it, but my Korean teaching partner thought it was kind of cute, because it was an accident. An accident? He would have had to practically stand on another kid's shoulders to reach over the glass divider to "accidentally" drop it in the cage. Sigh. This was the same boy I had already had a discussion with about how zoo animals don't eat people food, because I busted him throwing potato chips and cookies to the elephant. "I know, Teacher. Accident, Teacher. I won't do again, Teacher. Sorry, Teacher." And 10 minutes later, he feeds a plastic container to an endangered animal and gets a big hug for it. But hey, far be it for me to bring a little social awareness to their young lives. I'm just here for the kimchi.

ANYWAYS - the rest of the field trip was great. Each kid had been assigned an animal they had to research for homework, and when we got to that animal they had to present their material to the rest of us. This was my favorite:

Student: My animal is the lion. They live in Havanna.
Me: They live in Cuba? There are lions in Cuba?
Student: Teacher? Lions don't live in box. Even I know.
Me: Not cube, CubA. It's a country.
Student: Oh. Yes, Teacher. They live in Havanna.
Me: Are you sure you don't mean the Savanna????
Student: Teacher, I don't know. My mom did homework. I just read to you.

I'll post pics later - I got some good ones of the monkeys doing dirty deeds to each other, so make sure you stop back cause you definitely won't want to miss out on them. Right now, my book (The Inheritance of Loss) is calling me, so I need to go get a few chapters in before the ol' ball and chain gets home from work. :-)

4 comments:

Mel-2nd Chances said...

OMG, did the student get points for honesty? LOL too funny

Sarah said...

ha - oh Mom. And Cuban tigers / lions can totally eat plastic.

Barbara said...

I laughed out loud and choked on coffee...awesome post:)

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Wait! Lions don't live in Havana?

I'll bet you all the sugar cane in the Serengeti that YOU'RE wrong about that!