I had half an hour from the time I finished work to the time I had to be back at school for open house. After running home, showering and eating (food should not go down that quickly), I dashed back to school, if only a little late.
There were two ways I could have done this open house. I mean, the display is only going to be up for half an hour, during which the parents must rotate through 6 presentations, meaning the parents are only going to see my stuff for 5 minutes or so. I could have just made a poster and put up some pictures. But I decided I had a little bit of pride left after that week, and I decided to wow these parents. I recreated every experiment we did in class. Forensics, Adaptation games, density columns, chromatography, etc. Here's what the semi finished display looked like:
There's another table to the left that I didn't get to photograph. I also had a video I spoke about earlier of the rocket launches.
Open house overall went well. I had many parents come up to me and tell me how much their kids loved my class. One mother commented that the stuff I was teaching them was pretty advanced, to which I replied "yup".
The Sleepover
After open house, the program decided to have a sleepover for the older kids (I think it was 3rd grade and above). I honestly was not enthused about having to watch these kids for another 10 hours, but I was obliged to stay and chaperon.
In order to tire the kids out as quickly as possible, we had them play "Minute to Win It" games. Some of my favorite ones included Beer Pong (okay, sans the beer), one where you had to stack three golf balls on top of each other, and a game where you had to blow a deck of cards off a cup except for the joker. This last one was called.....Don't Blow the Joker (hee hee).
And tire these kids out it did. A lot of these games were really physical (like one where you had to scoot around on your butt through an obstacle course), which equated to a bunch of small sweaty kids running up and hugging me throughout the night. But by the time 10:30 rolled around, most were ready to sleep.
However, not before a quick snack. They gave them hot dogs and watermelon (really good watermelon). One of the kids, N---, decided it would be best to put ketchup on his watermelon. The program administrators yelled at him, telling him if he threw up from the weird combination, he would have to clean it up himself. I thought to my self: watermelon's a natural laxative. After eating nearly half a watermelon by himself, I think we have other problems to worry about.
N---- decided to sleepover as well. There was one point in the night when he was running around muttering something. The first time I listened in closely, I heard "suck it, suck it, suck it..." while the second time I heard "f**k it, f**k it, f**k it...". After pulling him aside and giving him a stern talking-to, it turns out he was saying "funky, funky, funky".
All the kids went down rather quickly, at which time us grown ups retired to the office to hang out. We played Taboo for 3-4 hours, stopping only because we exhausted all the cards. My team won. By a lot. The best thing about playing with friends and co-workers is that you can rely on inside jokes.
I gave the clue: M----- does this to me a lot. Without missing a beat, someone gave me the word: Annoy.
Someone also gave: N---- does this everyday. The answer: cry.
Sadly, the most fun I've had all summer. But, they're a great group of people, and I'm not surprised.
Mrs. K, who was taking her shift while we were playing Taboo, told us that while she was watching the kids, she heard singing. She at first thought it was us (we were apparently laughing really loudly), but when she stepped outside, she couldn't hear it. She started walking around the sleeping kids, and finally found the source. N---- was sleep-singing. An insipid little tune, as she put it.
At around 2 am we rotated shifts, and I sat down on the stage, intending stay up for the rest of the night watching the kids. I plugged my ipod in and grooved out to some Percy Sledge. I think I dozed out around 3:30, because I woke up around 5:30, on the 60th song of my playlist. Further evidence that I physically cannot pull an All-nighter.
After the sleepover, I came home, with full intention of just staying up and making the most of my Saturday. But after only getting around 6 hours of sleep over the last 2 days, it was inevitable that I would crash in front of the TV watching Everybody Loves Raymond. A waste of a weekend, but much needed.
And now I find myself on Sunday morning, trying to figure out if I should try to have fun on this last day of my weekend, or just bite the bullet and start writing my lesson plans. Though the former sounds more appealing, the latter desperately needs to be done. I'm going to try to teach the kids about DNA, a subject I didn't learn about until freshman year of high school, I'd have to reckon. Yes, it's overly ambitious. But I have a plan. A plan that will require me to pull out my Legos and build things. And since it takes so much effort to drag them out from the back of my closet, I might as well leave them in my room. And since they're in my room, I might as well play with them, since it would be such a waste to leave them derelict in a corner. Lego party anyone?
Open house overall went well. I had many parents come up to me and tell me how much their kids loved my class. One mother commented that the stuff I was teaching them was pretty advanced, to which I replied "yup".
The Sleepover
After open house, the program decided to have a sleepover for the older kids (I think it was 3rd grade and above). I honestly was not enthused about having to watch these kids for another 10 hours, but I was obliged to stay and chaperon.
In order to tire the kids out as quickly as possible, we had them play "Minute to Win It" games. Some of my favorite ones included Beer Pong (okay, sans the beer), one where you had to stack three golf balls on top of each other, and a game where you had to blow a deck of cards off a cup except for the joker. This last one was called.....Don't Blow the Joker (hee hee).
And tire these kids out it did. A lot of these games were really physical (like one where you had to scoot around on your butt through an obstacle course), which equated to a bunch of small sweaty kids running up and hugging me throughout the night. But by the time 10:30 rolled around, most were ready to sleep.
However, not before a quick snack. They gave them hot dogs and watermelon (really good watermelon). One of the kids, N---, decided it would be best to put ketchup on his watermelon. The program administrators yelled at him, telling him if he threw up from the weird combination, he would have to clean it up himself. I thought to my self: watermelon's a natural laxative. After eating nearly half a watermelon by himself, I think we have other problems to worry about.
N---- decided to sleepover as well. There was one point in the night when he was running around muttering something. The first time I listened in closely, I heard "suck it, suck it, suck it..." while the second time I heard "f**k it, f**k it, f**k it...". After pulling him aside and giving him a stern talking-to, it turns out he was saying "funky, funky, funky".
All the kids went down rather quickly, at which time us grown ups retired to the office to hang out. We played Taboo for 3-4 hours, stopping only because we exhausted all the cards. My team won. By a lot. The best thing about playing with friends and co-workers is that you can rely on inside jokes.
I gave the clue: M----- does this to me a lot. Without missing a beat, someone gave me the word: Annoy.
Someone also gave: N---- does this everyday. The answer: cry.
Sadly, the most fun I've had all summer. But, they're a great group of people, and I'm not surprised.
Mrs. K, who was taking her shift while we were playing Taboo, told us that while she was watching the kids, she heard singing. She at first thought it was us (we were apparently laughing really loudly), but when she stepped outside, she couldn't hear it. She started walking around the sleeping kids, and finally found the source. N---- was sleep-singing. An insipid little tune, as she put it.
At around 2 am we rotated shifts, and I sat down on the stage, intending stay up for the rest of the night watching the kids. I plugged my ipod in and grooved out to some Percy Sledge. I think I dozed out around 3:30, because I woke up around 5:30, on the 60th song of my playlist. Further evidence that I physically cannot pull an All-nighter.
After the sleepover, I came home, with full intention of just staying up and making the most of my Saturday. But after only getting around 6 hours of sleep over the last 2 days, it was inevitable that I would crash in front of the TV watching Everybody Loves Raymond. A waste of a weekend, but much needed.
And now I find myself on Sunday morning, trying to figure out if I should try to have fun on this last day of my weekend, or just bite the bullet and start writing my lesson plans. Though the former sounds more appealing, the latter desperately needs to be done. I'm going to try to teach the kids about DNA, a subject I didn't learn about until freshman year of high school, I'd have to reckon. Yes, it's overly ambitious. But I have a plan. A plan that will require me to pull out my Legos and build things. And since it takes so much effort to drag them out from the back of my closet, I might as well leave them in my room. And since they're in my room, I might as well play with them, since it would be such a waste to leave them derelict in a corner. Lego party anyone?
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