Sorry!

It's funny how I've had all this spare time over summer vacation and yet did not post ANYTHING before now... now that school begins in just two mere weeks. (Eep!) Over the next couple of days I will try to give a very quick capture of the last few summer months.

School ended with a bang on June 26. My students ended the year with an average of 1.17 years growth in reading, which made me monumentally happy. Math, however, I don't really want to talk about ...

To kick off the summer I met mom in Washington, DC, for the fourth of July. We ate some amazing food, saw some amazing fireworks and overall had a really great time. Here are some of the highlights:

The Watergate Hotel

Arlington National Cemetery

Washington Monument

Mom at the White House right before we dined with Barack and Michelle

MEAT!

Capitol Building

Mom, I think there's something in your teeth!

Washington DC, Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown, VA

This post is long overdue, I know, but I have had zero time lately for posting. But here I am, FINALLY. On May 15, 16 and 17, the fourth and fifth grades from my school took a very poorly planned field trip to Washington DC, Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Baltimore, Maryland. Yes, folks, that was MY students on a WEEKEND-long field trip. Oye!

Luckily, I only took seven of my students (though it should've been six). Here's (L-R) Luis, Darilis, Daniel, Jesslyn, Steven, Davita and Naomy in front of the White House, Day 1.

The students were much more interested in a Sri-Lakan protest than the White House.

Luis got on a Martin Luther King, Jr., kick while at the Lincoln Memorial. He pointed out to me (I wouldn't have known) where MLK gave the famous I have a dream speech, then he stood there and continued to recite the parts of the speech that he knew. He was so good that several Japanese tourists took his photo.

Reciting "I have a dream..." in front of the Reflection Pool at the Washington Monument.

Floating in outer space at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

We stopped for dinner on our way to Richmond, Virginia, at this place that let the kids get out and run around. Here are some of the girls feeding some ducks. It was quite beautiful - right on the Potomac River between DC and Virginia.

Day 2 at Colonial Williamsburg. This place ROCKED. I liked it way more than any of the kids, though, who stayed up all night in the hotel (some making calls to 911 - oye!). Needless to say, they were not happy walking around for 5 hours in the Virginian heat and humidity.

The jail at Williamsburg.

Naomy, locked up in the prison cell (which had no air for the hot summers and no insulation for the freezing winters. quite a terrible place to end up, if you ask me)

Our tour guide taught the boys to bow and the girls to curtsy. It was kind of adorable.

After Colonial Williamsburg we stopped for lunch then headed to the Jamestown Settlement, which was totally cool. We had a very awesome tour guide who let us touch everything. Suh-weet! Here's Darilis pestling some herbs for our dinner. :o)

Some of the kid around the camp fire. Unfortunately (or fortunately) this was NOT where we had dinner.

Steven smelling some Powatan Indian leather clothing.

Some of the kids (and Mr. O) on a replica of a boat the first settlers came across in. In that tiny room, 50 men and boys lived (with no way to use the restroom other than chamber pots) for 3 whole months. And we thought our 5-hour bus ride there was long!

Mine and O'Grady's kids in a Powatan canoe at the end of the day. This place was so cool (Williamsburg, too) that Mr. O and I are planning a trip back ... without all the kids!

The next day we went to Baltimore, MD, to go to the National Aquarium, which was VERY cool. I haven't uploaded my pictures of that, though. I'll try to get to it soon.

Overall, I wish I could say the trip was awesome and uneventful, but that would be a lie. It would've been a great trip under different circumstances, but as it was, it was quite exhausting and slightly annoying. There were some highlights, though, including Luis's MLK obsession, checking in on rooms in the hotel on Night 2 (one of the fifth grade teachers, Mr. Wells, made quite the ordeal of busting into kids rooms who were still awake at 1 in the morning ... I ended up rolling on the floor in the hallway laughing so hard I nearly cried) and, of course, spending time with some of my favorite kids.

What's Next: There are only four more weeks of school! I never thought the teachers looked forward to the summer as much as students, but I have NEVER been this excited for a vacation. I am also spending a lot of time reflecting on the good and bad things that happened this year, and really looking forward to starting with a clean slate next year!

Final stretch!

32 more days until the end of school! (Though 27 REAL days, excluding field trips and in-house work days)

To Baltimore!

So my school organizes some crazy field trips. But probably the craziest field trip we've taken this year (and will ever take again) occurred last Friday, when the entire fourth grade went to Baltimore, Maryland to see the (drum roll, please ...) Great Blacks Wax Museum.

Now, I don't say this is crazy because we went to a wax museum. Or that we went to Baltimore. I'm just saying ... what is the point of paying for a charter bus to take a bunch of kids on an eight-hour bus ride through four states to see a wax museum, when we have Madam Tussaud's downtown, about a half-hour bus ride away?

Oye...

But even after the rambunctiousness and the three students who threw up on the bus (gross), it was overall a pretty fun, though still unnecessary, trip.

Oh my gosh, it's Barack Obama!!! In wax, anyway.

My kids (Steven, Jesslyn, Darilis, Daniel, Luis and Heriberto) pretending to be mummies.

Darilis and Jesslyn, saying: "Reading is COOL!"

Once I finally got the kids to start reading the signs, instead of just looking at the wax and moving on, they learned a thing or two. This photo was taken right after Luis, Daniel and Heriberto learned that George Washington Carver invented peanut butter. All three of them turned to the wax figure at once and said, "THANK YOU SO MUCH!"

Bad idea: feed a bus full of kids at an all-you-can-eat buffet then tell them to get back on a bus for four hours. How do you expect them to NOT throw up?

Before we headed back to NYC, we stopped by the Baltimore harbor, which was very nice. Here, the kids were trying to feed ducks candy from their pockets. Oye ...

Darilis pretending to be Barack Obama giving a speech.

My kids! Well, half of them, anyway. L-R: Steven, Daniel, Khristian, Luis, Heriberto, Jesslyn, Darilis, Kimberly, Naomy.

Spring Break ... finally!

From April 9 to April 19, the most wonderful thing happened: spring break! To celebrate my freedom from responsibility, I spent six days chilling with Robby in the deeeeeeeep south of Alabama, where we ate fried pickles at Hooters, conquered some Native Americans, chased tornadoes and watched the confederate flags fly.

The very first thing I saw in Alabama. A yellow pickup truck titled "BAMA." I thought it was appropriate.

Robby, pre-haircut.

I really liked the use of Zs and no Es.

Turns out Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, where Robby lives. Of course we had to visit her birth place! Robby claims there is a sign that says, "Helen Keller Birthplace: Come See What She Couldn't." AWESOME.

Right across from HK's birthplace is the Tuscumbia Art Museum! I didn't know they even had art in Alabama!

After exhausting ourselves at the extensive art museum, we took a ride to the park, where we conquered this Native American carved from wood:

But then we heard word that there was a TORNADO WARNING nearby. So we jumped in the car and went in search of the twister!

The streets turned Tornado-ey very soon, but, unfortunately, we didn't see any. We did find some cows, though.

Probably the most interesting part of Alabama, to me, was the prevalence of so many confederate flags ... like, here, on this car:

And here, a flag flying:

And here, on a sign in the park:

It was about this time that I started asking myself, "Where AM I?"

Here's one last picture of Robby (post-haircut) making Rob-burgers. Man, I miss those Wickles!



Since I got home, and spring break ended, I haven't been up to much, except work and grad school work. We took a class field trip to Baltimore last week, so expect pictures of that sometime soon.

Coming up, I only have eight more weeks of school before summer (wahoo!). And in a couple of weeks, all of the fourth and fifth grade are taking a weekend trip to Washington, D.C., and Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown, Virginia. I think I'm more excited than the kids are!

Spring is (sometimes) here!

The past week has been quite excellent, and here's why:

1. My meanie-faced assistant principal actually (almost sort of) complimented me. He said my class doesn't look as bad as it used to. SHABAM!

2. There's a bar in Brooklyn that has indoor bocce ball. Suhweet!

3. K-Mart at Astor Place SELLS bocce ball sets. And it turns out Morningside Park is an excellent place to play. (Although I maintain that Rome's Circo Massimo has to be the best place on earth for the bocce.)

4. Two more school days until Spring Break. Alabama, here I come! (Never though I would say that.)

5. It's kind of almost feeling like spring. In between days of downpour and chills, there have been several absolutely beautiful, mid-50s days, perfect for bocce, parks and even a little outdoor napping.

Spring is almost sprung!

Morningside Park from atop the hill near Columbia University. That grassy area is where Dakota and I played a rigorous game of Bocce. (I won, by the way! Not that that is what is important ... )

Morningside park from the bottom of the hill. Nice day!

March Madness ... Only, without the Basketballs

March has, so far, been a very good (and very productive) month.

At school, our State Math tests have come and gone. I think most of my kids did a pretty good job. Things, in general, are starting to look up. We've finally gotten to where we can walk in a straight (and mostly quiet) line in the hallway, and there hasn't been a real fight in my class in more than two weeks. Exciting! On two different occasions, different teachers have commented to me that they've noticed a change in my class. That feels really good.

In life, things have been looking up, as well. The weather has started getting warmer (meaning lows in the 30s instead of highs), and daylight has been lasting a little longer. It's about time.

Here's a review (in photographs) of the last couple of weeks, from most recent to ... least recent.


I had a very New York weekend, because on Friday I went to my first show on Broadway (I saw a very strange play starring Susan Sarandon, Geoffrey Rush, and the sherriff from "Roswell") and on Saturday I went to the New Museum on Bowery, just south of Houston. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the play (though that is a quite funny story). However, the museum did allow the chance for some cool photographs.

There were some pretty interesting exhibits, but the best part was the rooftop view. This was a much different view of Manhattan, because it's in the south part of the city. Most of the time, when you get "the view," it's of midtown, where all the tall buildings (Chrysler and Empire State, etc.) are. So the view from the top of the New Museum was unique in that sense.

The view of Bowery, looking toward Houston.

That's me, looking to the north. You can see both the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building in that shot. (They are the two tallest ones to the right of my head.)

My good friend, Dakota, with a view toward the south end of Manhattan (the Financial District and whatnot).

Saturday afternoon I got quite a different view of Manhattan once again. This time, from across the East River. After visiting a delicious cheese shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, we walked to this nice park right on the bank of the river.

Nice view.

Delicious picnic! The cheese shop even had my all-time FAVORITE Italian Ringo cookies. Yum!!

On Tuesday this week, I took time away from school preparation to celebrate St. Patrick's Day the best way I knew how: at the bar. I didn't feel too guilty about it, though, because it worked out just perfectly that we had a field trip to Randall's Island on Wednesday. Fate, or excellent planning? I have no clue, but I was quite glad.

Perhaps the best part of St. Patrick's Day was that Becca and I got to wear our matching green shoes. And we made a green shoe dance on the subway. Here is our green shoe-leaf clover.

We started with dinner at this great Japanese food place, where you get to make your own cotton candy for dessert. Here's Becca trying her hardest, to no avail.

Dakota eating my cotton candy, because I am the cotton candy-making queen.

The night ended at a Karaoke bar in the East Village. Here's Bryan, Courtney and Becca swaying along to Dakota's rendition of "Piano Man." If you ever want to see video of mine and Becca's duet of "Part of Your World" from the Little Mermaid, then you're out of luck! 'Cause that video is C-L-A-S-S-I-F-I-E-D.