Thumper the Humper

I have a rabbit and I love him dearly. He is the joy of my life and he's kind of like my little child (since I don't know what it's like to have real children).

That's my darling Waffle and my sister when he was just a baby bunny and we thought he was a girl. About a year or so ago I was feeding him and noticed that he had something near his bottom. "Oh, Waffle! You have poop stuck to your butt!" It was not poop. It turned out that Waffle was not a she but a he.

Since then I've come to accept the fact that he is a boy. If I had known this in the beginning I would have named him Thumper, but that's okay.

It turns out that I should have named him Thumper because he has this habit that he's picked up since going through his bunny puberty...

He humps...A LOT!

I always used to tell people how friendly my pet bunny was. He used to go up to people so they could pet him and he would snuggle on their laps and such. Now he has become a little too friendly. I let him out of his cage so he can run around and he chases me around the room. I tell him, "Waffle, this is disgusting! I am your mother!" He doesn't listen.

This is him eyeing up my roommates ankle.

She had no idea what she was in for.

He spots something he likes...he sniffs a little.
He likes what he sees. He likes what he smells. He's gonna go for it.

He may be a sexed crazed bunny...but he's my bunny and I still love him.

Where is Everybody??

Last night we got an ice storm in Happy Valley. Nothing out of the ordinary. The normal ice covered roads and sidewalks. We were all hoping for a snow day or a delay at the very least. I still don't have a cell phone so I asked my friend to text Rome who's staying with me for the week. This way I know if I have to go to school or not.

My alarm went off as usual and I snoozed it (as usual). I figure that even if there is school I'm not going to make myself look too pretty for it. Just my normal radiance. Haha When I do get up I immediately check the phone. No text. Damn.

I get up and get ready. Usually I hear my roommate getting ready across the hall, but didn't. I think to myself, "Oh, he must be running late."

I step out my back door. (Back story: They're redoing our front porch so we haven't had a front door since Thanksgiving. They took out part of our balcony railing and built makeshift stairs up to our second floor apartment. They pretty much took a bunch of old ply wood and nailed it all together and called it stairs.) I almost fall down from the ice that has accumulated on my balcony. I step forward to the makeshift stairs and it's all smooth ice. I look at the railing and it's all smooth ice. Jack Frost strikes again!

I almost die trying to get down the stairs...but continue on my way to school because these children need to learn!

I open my car and turn it on. It sounds like a wild banshee screaming because I need an oil change but don't have money (typical college life).

I begin to scrap the ice off my windows and wipers and think about all the trouble my kids are having trying to get to school. I think that this is dumb that I have to go to school. Then I think that these children need to learn so it's all worth it.

Then I get in my car and begin my journey up the road to Starbucks. When I get there I see that it is empty. I thought that was strange seeing as how it's usually packed at 7:50 am. No bother. Everyone must have made their own coffee because they were afraid of what the Starbucks parking lot would be like (since it was all smooth ice). Luckily, I am a brave soul and I need to pump myself with caffeine because these children need to learn!

I continue on my way to school. My school is up on the top of a hill and the hill was all smooth ice. As I made my way up the hill in my tiny compact at 15 mph I was thinking to myself, "Wow, I wonder if anyone else had this much trouble getting up this hill. It's all smooth ice! I hope I don't start rolling down backwards because these children need to learn!"

I get to the top of the hill...the parking lot is empty. I still didn't understand. I think to myself, "Wow, everyone must have hard a rough time this morning because I'm the first one here!"

I turn the corner and still do not see any cars. I spot the custodian and his snow blower so I wave him down.

"Good morning!"
"What are you doing here?", he answers, "there's no school today."

Yeah...I would tell you about my journey back home from school, but that's not funny. It's just sad.

Beauty is in the Eyes of the Beholder

I went on a little trip with Rome down the shore to visit his aunt and little cousins. There are 4 of the little rugrats and they're all under the age of 10. The two middle girls are 7 and 5. They love Hannah Montana (in fact, I think I'll call them Hannah and Montana). Hannah and Montana got matching Hannah Montana makeup kits from Santa. He's so thoughtful!

So I'm sitting at their kitchen table, just minding my own business when Hannah comes up to me with a big grin on her face (Montana was close behind).

"Can I give you a makeover?!"

...I wasn't aware that I needed one. If there's one thing I learned in Kindergarten it's that children are brutally honest, so if the 5 and 7 year olds think I need to update my look I'll take their word for it.

It started out with a manicure. The nail polish was of the peel away variety so it didn't last past the first hour. Then it was time for eye shadow. First of all, I would just like to say that there were 4 different compartments of eye shadow, blush, and lip gloss. I couldn't tell which was which and that's when I became worried.

Slowly she dipped the wand in the pink "eye shadow". I mean pink. Full on 1985 hot ass PINK! I closed my eyes and hoped for the best. She began to apply and then I heard the most horrifying words I've heard in a long time...

"No, Hannah! That's too much!"

When the 5 year old is telling the 7 year old that she's using too much eye shadow you know there's a problem!! I looked like a clown for 3 days. I just kept scrubbing and scrubbing. It would not come off. I'm pretty sure that "eye shadow" was the lip gloss or something else that greases up your eyelids like a fast food cheeseburger. This stuff would probably make it through a nuclear war.

This is false advertising. The package said I would look just like Hannah Montana and I came out looking like Amy Winehouse. Is this Hannah Montana important enough to have a complaint department? I'd like the address.

Resolution

So it seems that everyone is making a New Year resolution so I suppose I will post mine as well. I only have one and it's a small one, but I feel it is important none the less.

Drum roll please....

My New Year's resolution for 2009 is to stop worrying about other people and care more about myself. There...I said it. I realize that this may sound selfish but I have very good reasons for this resolution and I really thought long and hard about it. (Honest, I did!)

1. For most of my life I have made decisions based on how they will affect other people. I am so concerned about how these decisions will affect people that I have made poor decisions for myself because someone else benefited from it.

2. I often compare myself to others. I'm sure if any of you do this, you've come to realize that it puts a real damper on your mood. From now on I'm only going to compare myself to me.

3. I have also been known to screw myself over by getting in the middle of arguments between friends. I often feel the need to choose a side and defend the friend who got screwed over. I've done this too many times only to realize that the friend who got screwed over deserved it.

So there it is...my resolution to be selfish. Happy New Year Everyone!

Elffy Business

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

My friend made this for Christmas. I think we watched it about 15 times before we could finally breathe. There were rumors of some funny business going on with me and Santa, but none of it's true. Anyway, the video's pretty funny...at least we thought so.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Whoever Said 'Let it Snow' was on Crack

So yesterday after school was my last day with the kids and I realized how much I'm going to miss them over the break. I broke the news to them gently and they had several concerns...

Kenny: But Ms. Skelly, I left your card and candy at home.
Adam: Will we see you in first grade?
Kenny: Ms. Skelly, how can I get your card and candy to you?
Eddie: Does Santa know where you're going??? You better make sure he knows before you leave.
Kenny: I need your address and phone number so I can send you your card and candy.

Shortly after they all go home, Vodka Mom turns to me and says, "you should really leave tonight, otherwise you'll be stuck until Saturday." Of course I don't listen. "I'll be fine!", I think to myself. I've driven in much worse. So I wake up this morning and look out the window only to find that everything is white. Just white. On my way up the road to fill the tank I spin out and almost land in a ditch (which would have been better than being hit by the truck that was following me).

It's really kind of amazing how many things went wrong this week. One of my best friends is no longer an intern and is going to have to wait another semester to graduate, my last blog caught the attention of my fellow interns like wildfire and was blown way out of proportion, I miss my kids already (and we had a little bit of a rough day yesterday), my final assignment did not get submitted the way it should have been and I don't know how to show that I REALLY did do it on time, and my dreadful science lessons were lost 4 times.

To top it all off Rome is supposed to come back tonight and I miss the Hell out of him. He flew from Rome to Munich and is anticipated to land in JFK at about 8. I think he's in the air right now...not really sure. Since I don't have a phone anymore (due to an untimely hot tub drowning) I can't call anyone to get the flight info.

Life could be worse, though. It's a possibility that he's going to be stuck in Germany tonight. At least I'm in the good old US of A.

This is the real world, Kid. No job for you!

For lack of funny kindergarten and mom stories, I'm sharing a blog I wrote in class today about fair assessment. Take it as you wish...it's just what I think.

My fellow interns and I have found ourselves in a heated discussion about good and fair assessments. What is a good assessment? How does a teacher make sure that the assessment is fair to all students? It seems to me that the best way to make sure that all student assessments are fair is to create a rubric ahead of time. This way it can be shared with students and they are already aware of what exactly is expected of them. This is the easy part.

The more difficult part comes when it is time for the teacher to evaluate the assignment. It is no secret that everyone has different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to learning and it is no different when it comes to children. There is such a great pressure that comes with the letter grading scale because at some point, someone decided that was the easiest way to assess a learner. However, if I have learned anything in my experience as a student teacher it's that the easiest way is certainly not always the best. It takes effort from both the teacher and students to really see how well a student can perform and how much he or she can achieve.

A classmate of mine brought up the point that when a child grows up and gets into the real world, an employer is not necessarily looking for who is trying the hardest. They're looking for who is producing the best work at the fastest rate and for the most part, that's true. In my personal opinion I don't see how it relates to teaching children. Yes, children become adults and they should be prepared for what they can expect in the real world, but at what point are we forgetting that right now they're still children? Is it fair for us, as teachers, to put that pressure on them at such a young age? Personally, I agree that it is the responsibility of the teacher to prepare students for life, however it is also our responsibility to preserve their childhood. They only get one. What gives us the right to take that away from them with the pressures of performance?

It is important to keep in mind that our students are often harsher on themselves than we are. Since this is the case, shouldn't students have at least some involvement in their own evaluation? I believe that even the Kindergarteners I work with are capable of telling me whether or not they did their best work. Students need individualized goals so that everyone is challanged. They need to understand where they are so that they can work to get to where they can be. If I have twenty students with twenty individual goals and all twenty of them reach that goal, then I don't see any reason why I shouldn't have twenty "A's". What it comes down to is the fact that in order to have a fair assessment or evaluation, you need to know your students.

But what do I know? I'm just an intern.