I was sick yesterday and stayed home. My voice was close to nonexistant. Today wasn't much better as far as my voice goes but I went in anyway. It went ok.

This morning when I walked into the gym where the kids wait the first thing one of my kids said to me after excitedly calling me over was "I had eggs for breakfast." It's not like this kid is poor and rarely has food for breakfast. I'm not sure why he so exuberantly shared this information with me. I had cereal for breakfast in case you're wondering.

It was kind of hard doing class with no voice today but it wasn't too bad. I used a lot of gestures. Today we learned about ecosystems in science and I had them do an activity where everyone gets in a circle head-behind-head and then they all sit down. If it works correctly then when they sit down they should each be supported by the knees/legs of the person behind them. It took a few tries to get it but they finally did and they had a lot of fun. When they finally did it successfully I then pulled one student out of the circle and they all fell. This wasn't just to be cruel. The whole point was that it's an example of how all the parts of an ecosystem work together. I think it really clicked for them.

It's a good feeling to give a writing assignment and then watch a kid get really excited about his writing ideas. Today I had them write a letter to anyone in the world about the fantasy world inside of their closet (an idea we came up with last week). One kid wrote it to a fictional person and I had to wonder if this kid is dealing with anger because most of the letter was composed of insults towards this imaginary person ("You fat slob!" etc..) and it ended with "I hate you!!" Wow...I had him rewrite it and focus on the content of the assignment and leave out the insults. It was kind of weird.

Another thing that happened today is that one of my students (a girl) was reading a Judy Blume book when she called me over to help her with a word. She said "What does this word mean?" and pointed to it. The word was "tits." Sheesh...whaddya say?! I just said "Just don't worry about that word right now." Later on she came across it again and asked me again. Then she said "Should I ask my mom what this word means?" Again I didn't really know what to say to a 4th grader asking me about "tits." I guess she'll ask her mom.

Well, that's about all I've got. Adios.