Self-reflection from a six-year-old

"I didn't HIT anyone at all today."

The following words were spoken by one of the six-year-olds in my after school activity today, at the end of the day, as we were cleaning up and getting ready to head to the busses for dismissal. Keep in mind, this comment came with no prompting what-so-ever from me. Only all day of reminding him the day before to keep his hands to himself and to control his body. I thought it was pretty amazing, for such a young kid to come up with something so, well, profound--for lack of a better word. Or maybe my standards have just been lowered beyond belief. Who knows?

What was the most amazing thing a kid has said to you today? This week?

I'm Intrigued by Simply Jane

I was surfing the web tonight, and came across this charming little studio in South Minneapolis. It takes the paint your own pottery theme to a whole new level. I love paint your own pottery places, but this sounds even better. Pick out your own piece of unfinished artwork, from candlesticks to picture frames and more, and receive instruction and motivation as to how to go about painting it and finishing the piece. The initial creativity is left up to the designer though, which is ultimately you and me. It makes me want to jog down there in my next free moment and check it out. I wonder how much it costs for an evening! Do any of my artistically-inclined Minneapolitan friends want to check it out with me? I can so do this alone, but it would be better with friends. Much better. What do you think? What is your favorite creative activity?

One of those where I don't really have any thing to say but I post anyway

Yeah, that's right. I'm here, letting those few that follow this thing know that I am alive. It's Saturday morning, and I am working. It's my choice. I'm kind of dreading that choice now, but what else am I going to do on a beautiful Saturday morning? I'm roughly 5,000 words into National Novel Writing Month without a clue as to what I'm actually writing about. I haven't written anything in three days. I have to be at work in an hour. Today, I'm supposed to be sampling Cranberry Orange Turkey with Havarti Cheese, all Archer Farms brand of course. "It's perfect for the holiday season and you can have it custom sliced." Grr. Who cares?

On the license front, I'm still not license officially. Double Grr. Now Minnesota DOE is telling me that on top of the tests they had me take, I still have to take some classes to make the Birth-Preschool part of my Birth-Grade 3 license valid. But I don't even want to teach infants and toddlers, and I think my last post made that abundantly clear! I suppose it doesn't matter, as this is the only way to get the original license validated so that my reading license can go into effect as soon as possible. I'm talking to two universities (the only two that offer EARLY CHILDHOOD programs in the state of Minnesota--Bethel and Walden online) to see if they can really help me. I don't want to think about it any more.

What else is new? Not much. First graders continue to amaze me. Loving after school. Actually liking my job at times, minus lunch duty and uncooperative students. There are ways around that, I just haven't found it yet. I'm just going to keep swimming. On the upshot, I'm not a Minneapolis Kids employee anymore, so I guess that's worth celebrating.

Now that I'm far away from baby land, I can safely post this little numbe that a Em and I came up with one late night over G-chat

Top Ten Things To Say in an Interview for an Infant Room Teaching Position That Might Betray the Fact that You Know Crap About Babies

10. "...Will there be feces?"

9. "What would I do at floor time with the rug rats? Crap if I know... HAHAHAHAHA. ...Shoot myself? Wait....was that a trick question?"

8. "Well, if faced with a floor full of babies, I would...dance a jig and hope for the best? Talk about Sesame Street and how awesome it is to be able to talk?"

7. "Well, what do you want me to do with a floor full of babies? Quote Shakespeare?" Discuss Homer and the Odyssey? You can never teach them too early!"

6. "Your Baby Can Read. That's what we would be doing. Your Baby Can Read, Theory of Hegemonic Decline, classic lit--you know, the usual."

5. "What can possibly be so hard about a room full of babies? You pop in a tape and let the music do the rest...right? Um, thank God for Raffi--know what I mean?""

4. "You mean there's a wrong way to slap a diaper on that little fella? Who knew?"

3. "She's so TINY! Are you sure I won't break her? So, how hard could I squeeze her? I mean, theoretically..."

2. "You mean that little munchkin...er...dopey/sleepy/sneezy...I have do what? You are asking me to do what now? I DON'T THINK SO BIOTCH."

1. "What if I run out of formula? Is there a snack machine in this place?"

Strange and funny quotations

“Don’t take too long. This is the first day of the rest of my life.”

An older woman whom I had never met before said this to me, explaining that she was a writer, teacher, and can work anywhere.

She later explained that someone just bought her a house in Savannah, and that this was her dream location.

What would you do if you heard this randomly, during the day?

Good Joyce Carol Oates clip

"The first six weeks of writing a novel is like hell." Good to know, going into NaNoWriMo 2009.

I got it.

I start the new job at the old school tomorrow!!! How unbelievably excited am I? Words can not even express my level of excitement right now.