Dagmar - Oh he does have a sense of humour, and truth be told, I really wanted to pet the hamster too. Problem was that it was clearly meant to disturb the class and probably see if I'd get angry. I mean, that guy used to skip every two hours of class, and NOW that the staff meeting for their class is over and they don't risk much by skipping anymore, now all of a sudden he comes back to class religiously? Yeah, right.

It's not the first time either; he likes saying provoking things. Sometimes it's okay and I just snap back with a witty remark that shuts him up, some other times it just disrupts everything (most pupils in this class are crap at English, too, so it really doesn't help *them* when we get such disturbance; a 'good' class would 'recover' in a second, but not them, alas). But they have their final exam in 3 weeks, and the few that still come to school would really benefit from some more training in English. All I can do is throw perturbers out of class now, sinc it's the only sanction that still works at this time of the year.

Alinnell - I'm not even a Nutella fan, in fact (now, the dark, bitter chocolate kind, that's another story...). But I have something of a past as a binger, and in such cases, even your food choices in terms of good taste can be off. :x

Allison - Nutella? Perfectly vile.

Dagmar - I like your plan for the summer. Putting yourself first sounds excellent.

Kery

I'm back from Baltimore and apparently only brought 1 lb back with me. Lots and lots of standing and walking probably helped me out. Although I indulged in some desserts and drinks I probably should have skipped, I made relatively good choices on the main dishes (lots of steamed/broiled seafood). My boss has now decided he will never go back to Baltimore though because he found himself walking through a sketchy neighborhood and felt very unsafe, and apparently one of our sales reps got mugged. Personally I saw that there were some sketchy areas, but having grown up in LA I know how to recognize and avoid sketchy places, especially at night.

Didn't quite have the happy homecoming I was hoping for since DH had a really bad day at work and was in a very bad mood when he picked me up from the airport. He was glad to see me, but the work negativity was more overwhelming. He's been under some extra stress lately since his grandma is in the hospital as well, and I think he may be headed for one of his depressive periods (usually they last a couple weeks). Lots of talk about hating his job, but he won't look for a new one since he thinks he'll hate any job just as much as this one. Then we did his 30 day progress for P90X and he didn't make as much progress as he wanted to, so he was grumpy about that as well. I know from experience that when he gets into a funk there is absolutely nothing I can do or say to cheer him up, and I just have to wait it out, but it's still hard to deal with. Hopefully he can relax some over the weekend.

I'd like to share something my daughter wrote. She's just completed her junior year at Cal State Fullerton and is working on her honors research paper. While her thesis is still developing, it has to do with creativity and motivation and how to keep those in the classroom. Dana Linnell
Let me know what you think. Obviously I'm biased!

She made me want to read the book she's referencing. I already agree with her ideas on schools so she's convincing the converted (or something to that effect - long day) but what she says re "one size fits all learning" and the quashing of creativity makes sense.

My two cents' worth.

Dagmar

Excellent !

I'm going to note down this book's ISBN and check it later on. It sure sounds interesting.

Creativity in a classroom is really not easy. I regularly try to offer my students opportunity to do something different (work on book covers, write a song...) but, much unfortunately, our educational system has formatted them so 'well' that it's become very hard for them to get out of that mindset and let their creative juices flow.

Wonderfully written and extremely interesting!
You must be so proud!