The Sprouts

 This was our week for state testing.

On Thursday a playful and  friendly colleague was supervising the Thirdlanders at lunch when lo and behold they decided to have a brussel sprout eating  competition that involved much screaming yelling cheering and rabble rousing.

By the time I returned and got everyone back to calmly lining up for recess, two Thirdlanders had to be sent to the health office for stomach issues.  They both were then sent home and come to find out, they didn't make it to school on Friday either.  We got a doctor's note via email on Friday that read, "Please do not let her eat brussel sprouts again." 

Most of the participants in the contest and even others in the class are decidedly against brussels now, which I think is unfortunate.  If they're nicely roasted the way they make them at C3, they're so delightful.  I may order some this very week. 

The Read Aloud

Yesterday I finished reading a great book to the Thirdlanders.  It was a book that started off sad and got even sadder and more tense as it moved along.  We were mesmerized.  It's a rare read aloud that causes a whole class to erupt into vehement choruses of shock, outrage, relief and curiosity throughout the story.  On Friday I had a half day off.  I taught in the morning and left at lunch for an afternoon appointment. I usually do the read aloud after recess, but I could not have a guest teacher reading the ending of this amazing book, that has been part of our lives for several weeks. We needed to bring it home together.  Masked up, I started reading right after morning meeting and when I came to the final line, I broke out in tears and the Thirdlanders broke out into applause.  There was also some jumping up and down.   Thanks to Barbara O'Connor.  How to Steal a Dog is some book and you are some writer.  
 

The Human

 Our friend JB is at it again.  He's designed a cool website called 

human.com and it's a place where people tell quick jokes and you can vote on the one you like the best.  

I love this site for these reasons.  First, I prefer short jokes to long drawn out story telling jokes and secondly it only takes about 30 seconds of my super precious time to check out the four daily jokes and lastly, it's fun to share a joke with my dad on our phone calls.  The 3rdLanders also think the jokes are amusing.  So it's just a triple win.  THANK YOU JB!!!

Here's a link.  Just click it and start chuckling. 

Here's one I liked last week.  What did the cannibal do when her husband came home late for dinner?  GAVE HIM THE COLD SHOULDER!

The Weirdnesses

No photo because for some reason I can't click on my photos today.  

Come to find out, every day I've had tech problems at work.  Case in point:

• All of a sudden the document camera only shows a black screen.  
• The birdcams we've watched for months now tell me I have restricted access.  
• The media player for watching DVDs about the economy refuses to play said DVDs.  

Every day I fill out a help ticket and our IT friend finds me and tries to fix stuff for me. Sometimes he can, sometimes he can't.  I wonder if I'm being targeted by some villainous worker in the technology department at both job and home.  Not sure what I've done to annoy someone, but clearly I've done something.

Switching topics, I wanted you to know about what I saw at recess this week.  You have heard that kids have no sports equipment this year.  I saw some sixth graders hiding behind our garden area playing a condensed kind of football with someone's lunchbox and on a grassy knoll behind me I saw a group of sixth grade girls playing catch with a large orange peel.  

Also, I'm not feeling confident about moving about in the world even though I've had 2 Moderna vaccines.  Will I ever?

My tech woes and the weirdness at recess and my pandemic anxiety bring to mind the classic song by Bob Dylan.  You should listen to this song today if you feel like it.

But something is happening and you don't know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?