teaching animals.

well, folks. like always, it's been a while.

the spring semester is already in full force, and i've started my student teaching, which has been...interesting, to say the least.

i'm with the same class i was with last semester, which is great, because i already know the kids and they know me. it's also a little not great, because the honeymoon period was a lot shorter this time around. they're already bored with my shiny newness, and they let me know this by treating me like any other old teacher.

for the most part, though, they're really amazing. they've got lots of interesting things to say, and BOY do they like to say...sometimes i just can't get them to stop SAYING.

i got a head start on the books we'd be studying this semester over the winter break:



yep, two typical high school classics.

i came into the picture a little too late to be able to teach Lord of the Flies, but i just got to start Animal Farm with the kids.

they weren't very excited about the whole thing.

"miss! this is a book about animals? on a farm? really?"

and the kids who'd already read it had something to say about it too:

"miss, this book SUCKS."

so as you can see, i was working against the tide from the very beginning.

we did a couple of pre-reading activities that i think the kids enjoyed. i can only hope it peaked their interest a little--maybe they'll actually WANT to read the novel.

the first activity we did had the students respond to seven statements with AGREE or DISAGREE. some of the statements were:

"All people are created equal."
"Power corrupts the people who have it."
"People who can't read are easier to control than people who can read."

and so on.

i had the kids move to either side of the room depending on their answer for each question, and then they talked it out. it was a good thing i was acting as the mediator, because the conversation threatened to move to full out heated discussion a couple of times, and i had to say, "ok, guys. this is just a casual conversation. calm down."

a few times, one of the students tried to be NEUTRAL, but that wasn't one of the options.

so in return, this student asked me, "well, what side are you on, miss?"

"i'm not on any side. i'm in the middle. i'm neutral, like switzerland."

"i thought you said we couldn't be in the middle."

"yeah, well i'm the teacher."

i love getting to say things like that.

a short trip

down memory lane.

due to some vehicular bodywork that needed to be done on my lovely little car a couple of weeks ago, to fix THIS

but it turns out that this quick car-fix brought some good along to it.

i was forced to clean my car in preparation, and dug up some great CD's that hadn't seen the light of day for quite some time.

this past week, i dusted off my old copy of the Spider-man 2 soundtrack.

the first notes of Dashboard's "Vindicated" automatically brought me back to senior year of high school. which was both nice, and a little weird.

anyway, because i was in the mood, i popped in my copy of Spider-man 2 on saturday night, settled in with a bag of greasy food from Sonic, and proceeded to enjoy Spidey's plights with Doc Oc and his former friend Harry.

it was surprisingly wonderful.

speaking of Spider-man and it's surprising wonderfulness...um, pretty bad news for us Spidey lovers.

apparently, Zac Efron is currently in the works to become Peter Parker in the new Spider-man movie, which will focus on Parker as a young high schooler.

i understand why tobey maguire wouldn't want to do it anymore. the guy's already gotten a lot of crap for playing an eighteen-year-old.

but still.

ZEFRON?

i can only hope for the best at this point.

also, if they try to squeeze Miley Cyrus into this somehow...

oh, damn you Disney.

listening:

to the new Owl City album:

the boyfriend says Owl City is, and i quote, "LACKING."

lacking what?

"TALENT."

but you know what? i LIKE IT.

speaking of music i like, i ordered a new Ben Folds cd today that i'm pretty stoked about.

i actually heard about said cd via television. Mr. Folds was a judge in the recent special, The Sing-Off.

the show is all about a cappella groups, and it turns out that Ben Folds just put out a cd with a cappella versions of some of his most popular songs.

check out samples of the songs on amazon. and read the story behind the album here.

weekend update.

i had plenty of time to read this week.

no school.
and although i worked more this week than i usually do, let's be honest.

i do NOTHING at my job.

i sit at a desk, watch a lot more Netflix than i should, obsessively check facebook for updates, and READ my HEART OUT.

it's awesome.

so, thanks to my lax work environment, i was able to finish up two books:

Flowers for Algernon
by Daniel Keyes

and

I am the Messenger
by Markus Zusak

i bought Flowers for Algernon a while back, when a bookstore near my university was closing, due to the rough economic state.

at the time, the book sounded really familiar. i read the summary, and knew that at some point in time, i'd come into contact with this book before. however, i was pretty sure i'd never read it.

flash forward to about a week ago. i start reading Flowers, and find that this book is eerily familiar. parts of it, anyway.

i do some internet research, and find out that's it's a film was made of the novel. it's called Charly. maybe that's how i know this story? although, when i think about it, i'm pretty sure i've never seen that movie.

i finish the book, make my ritual goodreads post, and the next thing i know, one of my friends (who i knew all through primary and secondary school) has commented on said post. she says, "i think we read a part of this book in a class. i don't remember which one."

ok, so now i'm sure i'm not crazy. but why only read a little snippet of this book? it's so lovely.

do a little more google research, this time consulting wikipedia.

ouila!

turns out that Flowers for Algernon is also...(drum roll, please)...a SHORT STORY!

now it's starting to make sense. i don't know which class, either (that's going to take a little memory digging), but i KNOW we read the short story at some point in my academic career.

one of my next goals is to read the short story. i'm very excited to see if it jogs any memories.

anyway, after Flowers, i headed on to I am the Messenger. Zusak is also the author of The Book Thief, which has been sitting on my shelf for a while now, but has yet to be cracked open.

Messenger is a little hard-hitting with its message, but it's good regardless. it's an interesting story about an average, underage cab-driver kid who starts getting cards in the mail with addresses or people's names on them. he becomes a sort of messenger/saint, going around and making these specified people aware of things they need to be made aware of.

in other news:
i've started on a christmas craft project for the boyfriend. more details on that later.

i'm also pretty excited about James Franco hosting SNL tonight...
Taylor Lautner's performance last week was entertaining, to say the least.

enjoying:

Catherine's Animals: Animal Prints by Catherine Ledner.

awesome animal pictures featuring animals of all kinds.

i'm especially enjoying this cute little owl:

and this picture of an adorable hedgehog,

who is cute, but not nearly as cute as my own hedgehog, Spike Lee Jones.

monday reading.

what i should be doing is writing this damn paper. i've only got about a page or so left, but i just can't bring myself to finish it and send it off.

as soon as this paper is over, so is this semester. and my undergraduate English courses. it's kind of a weird, big step that i thought i was ready for...but i'm beginning to think i'm not.

just finished this book:

Our Town
by Thornton Wilder

it's actually a play i had to read for this paper i'm supposed to be working on.

i was supposed to have read it about two and a half months ago, but since i've already proved myself to be a procrastinating fool, it's probably apparent that i didn't read it when i was supposed to.

but since i have a paper due over it...today, actually...i finally read it. and it turned out to be a really wonderful play. it's about a very small town called Grover's Corners, and the people in that town. it's also about not noticing everything we have in life while we're living it, and how depressing that is when we understand it.

final verdict: very good. i highly recommend it.

now i just have to finish this paper...

enjoying:

the Nicholas Sparks reference on ABC's Castle last monday.

let me reenact it for you:

a man has been brought into the precinct for questioning. however, the man has been hit on the head and cannot remember anything, including his own name.

meanwhile, the rest of the officers are looking for a fifth bullet on the crime scene of a recent murder. there are five bullet cases on the ground, but only four bullets/bullet holes that can be found.

back to the man with amnesia. one of the officers has him empty his pockets, in the hope that there may be some clue as to the man's identity.

eventually the guy pulls a copy of Crime and Punishment out of his coat's inner breast pocket.

they've found the fifth bullet, and it's a miracle this guy didn't get shot.

next scene: the officer who was working with amnesia guy strolls up.

"Good thing he was into Russian literature. If he were a Nicholas Sparks fan, he'd be dead."



so true, so true. i laughed for a very long time at that one.