Well, I'm waiting for it to snow. As a kid I never thought teachers were really PRO-snow day. I kind of pictured them sitting at home watching the snow come down, scowling. "Foiled again!" they would say. Some of my colleagues are ANTI-snow day. "We'll have to make it up at the end of the year when the weather is nice," they say. I guess I'm just one of those live-for-the-moment people who thinks that snow IS nice weather. Paul and I got a super-duper sled for Christmas and we are looking forward to testing it out on the hill behind our house. Today we were two hours late, but that's just because there was ice. Hope you're having a happy winter!!!
January 05, 2005
I always tell the kids that "if I didn't love them" I would let them do whatever they wanted. For exapmle, if someone is not following directions sometimes I say, "If I didn't love you, I might let you get away with that," or, "Aren't you glad I love you too much to let you do that?"
Today I overheard a conversation between two kids:
"If teacher didn't love us, well, that would be a lot of fun."
Today I overheard a conversation between two kids:
"If teacher didn't love us, well, that would be a lot of fun."
January 01, 2005
December 21, 2004
This is a newspaper article from our local newspaper that I thought some might find funny. Though I'm sure much of it is in jest, it shows the kind of community that we are now a part of, much different than Portland. The author of this article is Brian Mitge of The Chronicle.
"Turns out catching a chicken is easier than knowing what to do with it.After a chase under copper pipes and behind washing machines, a Centralia police officer managed to remove a chicken from the laundry room of the Econo Lodge motel Monday.Unfortunately, because of a communications mix-up and the fact that the city’s animal control officer was on vacation, officer Gary Byrnes released the chicken back to the wilds of the motel parking lot — exactly where it had been wandering before motel workers chased it into the laundry room that morning.Econo Lodge manager Kim Cho said the motel staff had wanted to keep the bird safe until someone could take it to the county animal shelter.The chicken had shown up that morning in front of the motel lobby, just a few yards from busy traffic on Harrison Avenue.“We said, ‘Put it someplace safe until we get someone to take him,’ ” Cho said.Workers called the Lewis County Animal Shelter — which has adopted out chickens, turkeys, hamsters, even iguanas — where staff members told them to call the police. They did, asking officers to hurry so the chicken wouldn’t mess up the linens.The call from Central Dispatch that went out to officers, however, ended up as a simple (if unusual) request to remove a chicken from a laundry room.Byrnes drove straight to the scene and had a motel maid unlock the door for him. The bird took flight and refuge behind some pipes, but Byrnes managed to catch it in just under 10 minutes — although he got a small cut on his head in the process.He held the squalling bird by one leg as he took it to some tall red bushes behind the motel, near a chain link- fence separating the parking lot from Fuller’s Twin City Skate Park in Rotary Riverside Park.After being released, the bird walked west with a stately strut, apparently no worse for the wear. Byrnes also took the humorous situation in stride.“Protect and serve, and all that good stuff,” he said with a smile after releasing the bird.Cho said she wishes things would have gone differently. She’s still worried about the clucker, which, she said, seemed like a house chicken, not a wild one.“If I have a home, I would have just taken it,” she said. “We didn’t know they would let him free like that.”Centralia Police Sgt. Kurt Reichert said police couldn’t have taken the bird to safety even if they had known the manager had made that request.Officers wouldn’t put poultry in their patrol cars, and the animal control officer wasn’t available with his specially equipped vehicle.Reichert compared the situation to playing “telephone,” the childhood game of passed messages and compounded misunderstanding.“What I understood, the call was to remove the chicken from the laundry room, it was stuck in there or had wandered in there,” Reichert said.The question of where the bird came from is still unresolved, although the likely source is the the Country Cousin restaurant five blocks away.The down home-themed eatery has a coop of chickens maintained by Chehalis farmer Penny Mauel and her daughter, former Lewis County Dairy Princess Brandy Mauel.One of their birds escaped in September — probably the same one that wandered by the motel, Penny Mauel said.She said the birds they display at Country Cousin have distinctive speckles from their mixed lineage, the result of their family’s hen mixing with the neighbor’s stock.“My kid soon figured out why the chicken crosses the road,” Penny Mauel said. Her daughter supplied the long-sought answer: “There’s a rooster on the other side.”
"Turns out catching a chicken is easier than knowing what to do with it.After a chase under copper pipes and behind washing machines, a Centralia police officer managed to remove a chicken from the laundry room of the Econo Lodge motel Monday.Unfortunately, because of a communications mix-up and the fact that the city’s animal control officer was on vacation, officer Gary Byrnes released the chicken back to the wilds of the motel parking lot — exactly where it had been wandering before motel workers chased it into the laundry room that morning.Econo Lodge manager Kim Cho said the motel staff had wanted to keep the bird safe until someone could take it to the county animal shelter.The chicken had shown up that morning in front of the motel lobby, just a few yards from busy traffic on Harrison Avenue.“We said, ‘Put it someplace safe until we get someone to take him,’ ” Cho said.Workers called the Lewis County Animal Shelter — which has adopted out chickens, turkeys, hamsters, even iguanas — where staff members told them to call the police. They did, asking officers to hurry so the chicken wouldn’t mess up the linens.The call from Central Dispatch that went out to officers, however, ended up as a simple (if unusual) request to remove a chicken from a laundry room.Byrnes drove straight to the scene and had a motel maid unlock the door for him. The bird took flight and refuge behind some pipes, but Byrnes managed to catch it in just under 10 minutes — although he got a small cut on his head in the process.He held the squalling bird by one leg as he took it to some tall red bushes behind the motel, near a chain link- fence separating the parking lot from Fuller’s Twin City Skate Park in Rotary Riverside Park.After being released, the bird walked west with a stately strut, apparently no worse for the wear. Byrnes also took the humorous situation in stride.“Protect and serve, and all that good stuff,” he said with a smile after releasing the bird.Cho said she wishes things would have gone differently. She’s still worried about the clucker, which, she said, seemed like a house chicken, not a wild one.“If I have a home, I would have just taken it,” she said. “We didn’t know they would let him free like that.”Centralia Police Sgt. Kurt Reichert said police couldn’t have taken the bird to safety even if they had known the manager had made that request.Officers wouldn’t put poultry in their patrol cars, and the animal control officer wasn’t available with his specially equipped vehicle.Reichert compared the situation to playing “telephone,” the childhood game of passed messages and compounded misunderstanding.“What I understood, the call was to remove the chicken from the laundry room, it was stuck in there or had wandered in there,” Reichert said.The question of where the bird came from is still unresolved, although the likely source is the the Country Cousin restaurant five blocks away.The down home-themed eatery has a coop of chickens maintained by Chehalis farmer Penny Mauel and her daughter, former Lewis County Dairy Princess Brandy Mauel.One of their birds escaped in September — probably the same one that wandered by the motel, Penny Mauel said.She said the birds they display at Country Cousin have distinctive speckles from their mixed lineage, the result of their family’s hen mixing with the neighbor’s stock.“My kid soon figured out why the chicken crosses the road,” Penny Mauel said. Her daughter supplied the long-sought answer: “There’s a rooster on the other side.”
December 18, 2004
December 14, 2004
UPDATE: (if this doesn't make sense read the previous blog)
"One generation will overwinter or hibernate. This is called diapause. Diapause allows the cocoon to wait out a cold winter when few if any leaves would be available for caterpillars to eat. Diapause cocoons stay in this hibernation state until the warmth of spring and longer periods of daylight will trigger the moth to complete its development and to hatch."
"One generation will overwinter or hibernate. This is called diapause. Diapause allows the cocoon to wait out a cold winter when few if any leaves would be available for caterpillars to eat. Diapause cocoons stay in this hibernation state until the warmth of spring and longer periods of daylight will trigger the moth to complete its development and to hatch."
We have a cocoon in our classroom. This cocoon was given to us at the beginning of the school year (like the first day of school almost) by another school employee. At one point I was absolutely sure it was dead. I wrote about this in another entry a few months ago. Well, the jar is on our science table and the children are allowed to pick up the jar, shake it, and use a magnifying glass to look at it as much as they want. You can hear it and feel it scritching and scratching on the outside of the cocoon if you shake the jar a little (or a lot). I must do some research on cocoons because I have a hard time believing that it is still alive after all this time even though I know it is because I can feel it scratching. Is it afraid to come out? Is it hibernating? Does it have brain damage from all the shaking? When it does hatch and we put it outside in fifty degree weather will it not surely die? I feel like quoting a kindergartener who recently put her mouth over the lid of the jar and in a very stern and firm voice said, "waaaakkkeee uuuupppp!"
Another thing, I recently tried the classic experiment in my classroom with a potato and a jar of water. You know the one were it grows roots in the jar? Well, the potato was there for a full three week and nothing happened. I think I teach in the Bermuda triangle of classrooms. A strange place where moths are trapped in their cocoons and potatoes are sterile. What does it all mean?
Another thing, I recently tried the classic experiment in my classroom with a potato and a jar of water. You know the one were it grows roots in the jar? Well, the potato was there for a full three week and nothing happened. I think I teach in the Bermuda triangle of classrooms. A strange place where moths are trapped in their cocoons and potatoes are sterile. What does it all mean?
December 10, 2004
Rainbow Puddle
It's been raining like crazy around here and our cafeteria / gym is separate from our classrooms so every day on the way to lunch we wind around in a maze and try to find our way through the puddles. Today there was some gas or oil in a puddle and the kids noticed that there were colors in the water. One of them said, "Oh, I get it. That's where rainbows come from!" All the other students nodded in agreement. "It's a rainbow puddle."
It's been raining like crazy around here and our cafeteria / gym is separate from our classrooms so every day on the way to lunch we wind around in a maze and try to find our way through the puddles. Today there was some gas or oil in a puddle and the kids noticed that there were colors in the water. One of them said, "Oh, I get it. That's where rainbows come from!" All the other students nodded in agreement. "It's a rainbow puddle."
December 09, 2004
You Might Be From a Small Town If:
You can name everyone you graduated with.
You get a whiff of manure and think of home.
You know what 4-H is.
You ever went cow-tipping.
School gets cancelled for state sporting events.
You have ever gone home for Homecoming.
You fix up to go buy milk lest anyone starts the rumor that you have gained weight or quit taking care of youself.
No place sells gas on Sunday.
You have to drive an hour to buy a pair of socks.
It was cool to date someone from the neighboring town.
You ordered your waredrobe out of a catalog.
You had senior skip day.
The whole school went to the same party after graduation.
You don't give directions by street names or house numbers, but you give directions by references (turn by Marty's house, go two blocks past Sanderson', and it's four houses left of the track field).
You can name everyone you graduated with.
You get a whiff of manure and think of home.
You know what 4-H is.
You ever went cow-tipping.
School gets cancelled for state sporting events.
You have ever gone home for Homecoming.
You fix up to go buy milk lest anyone starts the rumor that you have gained weight or quit taking care of youself.
No place sells gas on Sunday.
You have to drive an hour to buy a pair of socks.
It was cool to date someone from the neighboring town.
You ordered your waredrobe out of a catalog.
You had senior skip day.
The whole school went to the same party after graduation.
You don't give directions by street names or house numbers, but you give directions by references (turn by Marty's house, go two blocks past Sanderson', and it's four houses left of the track field).
December 06, 2004
November 29, 2004
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