…and the rest is history

Well, since I’ve been teaching, that is. Oh, and if you try to figure that out with only two finals week per year, don’t go thinking I’m THAT old because I’m not…we’re on the block schedule, so I have four finals weeks per year. Whoo-hoo.

Finals week means a touch extra stress because there are always a few kidlets who need to be pushed to pass, and then there are always a few parents who are in touch for reasons of the unexpectedly low grade kind. You know, the “I can’t believe he’s getting a B+” kind.

Not that I’m terribly fond of grades, themselves, but at this point they’re pretty much a necessary evil. If I could break off into my own little world, there would be no grades…but that’s another story.

What made the teacher and reader in me VERY pleased and a wee bit calmer yesterday was the arrival of an Amazon shipment. See, somehow I misplaced (i.e. got stolen from) a video another teacher lent me, so I needed to replace the video. Amazon had it, but for only $7, and if I’m going to order, I figure I might as well hit $25 so that I can get free shipping, you know.

So…I got J some books. NICE books. VERY nice books. Books that I might drool over myself for a while until he is old enough to not crease the pages while he’s wrestling with me during reading time. My favorite is Los Gatos Black on Halloween, written by Marisa Montes and illustrated by Yuyi Morales. First, it’s gorgeous, and I love eye candy. The illustrations of graves, skeletons, ghosts and cats (of course) are darkly rich…and so details. The artwork is enough to make me fall in love, but the poem that plays out over the pages is wonderful, too. It introduces Spanish vocabulary within English text. For example, “Las calabazas, fat and round,/Carved pumpkins guard a hallowed ground.”

I got three others…all goodies. I might be posting about them later, but I’m out of time now, so I’m off. Have a great Friday!