Oh, Jose.

I was watching Planet Earth with my students yesterday and a male bird was trying to get a female bird to mate with him--by displaying his feathers like so. The kids were totally confused so I nonchalantly explained that he wanted a girlfriend. Jose (who is 10) turns to me and says: “You mean take it to the next level.”

What was I supposed to say to that?! Of course I didn't say anything at all. I just started laughing.

April Happenings

For Jameson's birthday, I surprised him with tickets to Wicked. He'd been dropping hints that he wanted to go ever since it came up here so we went for his birthday and it was AMAZING. Both of us have a great love for musicals! It was a school night (shh..don't tell the kids! I'm usually fast asleep by 9:30 or 10:00!) but I DID IT! We got a super great deal on the tickets, too; I bought "limited view" discount tickets in the Orchestra which weren't limited at all! We could see everything! Whoo hoo!




We've also been going to this spectacular park (if you can even call it that) just about every chance we get. It's definitely one of Palo Alto's best kept secrets. My mom and I discovered it while she was visiting back in the fall and it is gorgeous. It's a huge hundred acre (I'm just guessing) reserve, and you have to show proof that you live in Palo Alto before you're allowed to enter. Talk about exclusive! It has a lake and everything!
Please excuse the poor picture quality--we've broken our digital camera (though we don't know how) and now we only have the camera on my phone :/



And finally, this past Friday my awesome sister Jenn sent Jameson and I tickets to see Keane in concert. They're from England, and the girls in my family just love them! And now Jameson is starting to love them. Jenn hooked us up because she has such a cool job here. I love my sister!

Thanks google images for the photo! The one on my camera was pretty pathetic.

This is Success

I have this student who has had issues with talking in class and then gets a horrible attitude when her misbehavior is corrected, and she's come a LONG way. Today made me realize how far she's come. This afternoon while we were about to sit down and read Superfudge, she expressed the need to write me a note. I gave her my permission; it seemed urgent enough to her. When I read her letter, I couldn't help but laugh. (You'll see why). It made me really proud, though, because she decided to reach out for help AFTER she had done everything she thought she could do to solve the problem herself--which is something I've been trying to teach these kids all year. Instead of whacking her table teammate, she wrote me a letter for support:

Dear Mrs. Haslam,

It's very hard being in a team with Reyna. She is very distracting and anoying and I keep asking her nicely to be quiet but it's not working. I'm gonna blow any second so please help me solve the problem I don't want nomore getting in trouble because of her and then getting a attitude. So please help me solve the problem.

Love,

Raven