#geekyteacher

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I’m having my students write a retelling of “The Gingerbread Man”.  Before they write, they need to design their own gingerbread person.  These are some works in progress.  I <3 the mermaid gingerbread princess!

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Thor: Ragnorak

I’m a little behind the curve not having seen Thor IMMEDIATELY upon release.  I really enjoyed it.  I didn’t have as intense a reaction as I was expecting, but I think that’s largely due to the hype surrounding the release.  So, in no particular order...my thoughts.

- I really did enjoy the movie, but it took me a bit to get on board with the tone/weirdness.  I liked that the movie didn’t take itself so seriously, but I feel like with didn’t get to sit with *anything* that had any emotional depth at all.  That bothered me a little.

- DISLIKED “Hey can I have your picture? Sorry Jane dumped you...”  In fact, I’m really mad about it.  Mad at the writers.  Mad at the MCU production staff.  No Jane is bad enough, but no Jane also means no Darcy and that really irks me! It was such a LAME way to completely sidestep and diminish address that relationship.  *sigh*

- DISLIKED that The Warriors Three are dead.  [Happy that Lady Sfi was apparently off-planet.]

- I’ve loved the short haired look since I saw the early promo pics.  Chris can rock the short hair! <3  Bonus - awesome Stan Lee cameo!

- When Thor tried the lullabye in the arena with Hulk I had to physically clamp down my fangirl squee.  I was surrounded by people so flailing was not an option.  But I LOVED that it was something Thor knew well enough to try to employ himself.  LOVED THAT!

- When Bruce comes back to himself for the first time in 2 years, I love that the first person he asks for is Nat.

- Hulk & Valkyire and Bruce & Valkyrie were awesome.

- Tony’s voice recognition passwords.  [He loves Bruce the best!]

- I was totally distracted by the fact that the rock monster was voiced by the guy who voices Koran (sp?) on Voltron.  Seriously distracted.

- I don’t like Loki.  Never have.  But...I really admire how much Tom Hiddleston brings to the part.  There’s always so much going on in his face, posture and tone.

- Cate Blanchett was AMAZING!!

- Anthony Hopkins as Loki pretending to be Odin was gold!

- I really liked that Karl Urban’s character is literally a guy just wanting to get by.  He knows he’s in WAY too deep.  I loved his hesitation once he became “The Executioner” and that he had a redemption moment at the end.

- I really like that the stakes are raised.  I was surprised when Hella wounded Thor and took his eye, and that it’s obviously a permanent injury. As saddened as I am by the loss of the Warriors Three, I like that there have been permanent consequences.  Same for Mojlinr - as much as I was hoping it would be reconstituted by the end, I’m glad that it was permanent, because that gives us...

- Thor in his Avatar state.  That was BAD-ASS {You are the God of Thunder, not God of Hammers.}

Overall - lots of fun. Lots of laughs.  Can’t WAIT for Black Panther!

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Turkey Trouble

November is a tricky month in New Jersey.  We have short weeks for Teacher’s Convention and Thanksgiving.  My school district has half days for conferences.  No school on Election Day. And we had another half-day somewhere in there.  So it’s really difficult to get a ball rolling and keep it rolling.  But...

I’ve been working with my students on recognizing dialogue and punctuating it appropriately using quotation marks.  We also found many alternatives to use instead of “said” to spice up our writing.  The feathers on the turkey have those words.

Then we read “Turkey Trouble” by Wendi Silvano which is always so much fun.

After reading I posed this question to my students.  If you were Turkey and trying to hide from Farmer Jake, how would you disguise yourself?  I’m alway amazed by the creativity that comes out in this activity, particularly because my students have many struggles with language.  I gave them a turkey template I found on TeachersPayTeachers and they went to town!

After they spent some time illustrating their turkeys, they developed sentences to explain why Farmer Jake shouldn’t eat them.  We painted elbow macaroni with red paint for them to use as 3-D quotation marks.  After they typed their sentences (in Google Classroom which I had to dust off and reteach myself how to use...) I printed them out and they got everything assembled.  Here is some of their work:

Disguise: President Lincoln 

Disguise: a “cool dude” and a present

Disguise: a flower in the garden

Disguise: camoflague and a taxi driver

I am just so pleased with all the work the students did and how cute it all turned out! :)

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One of my second grade girls presented me with this drawing when she arrived this morning. :)  I’m not hard to figure out <3

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:(

I had a dream last night that there was an active shooter at my school.  Unfortunately the shooter had a cherry picker, so was able to shoot into my second story classroom.  The drill we normally practice didn’t apply so I had my students lay on the floor.  I couldn’t call for help.  I couldn’t use my whistle because I was so scared I couldn’t get any air into the thing.  I couldn’t get to the door even though I could hear the shooter coming down the hallway.

I woke up in a sweat because this is the world we live in now.

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It’s almost October 15th and I finally feel like I’m getting my feet under me with this class.  Know how I know this?  I started searching on Pinterest for Halloween bulletin board ideas which MEANS...I have the energy and motivation to take down the bulletin board that is currently on display. \0/  [We’ll see if I still feel this way on Monday.]

In other news, I made it through the first round of auditions for our Drama Club production of Shrek the Musical, Jr.  Callbacks are next week.  Here’s my biggest issue - all of the shows we’ve done to this point were either Disney things or very well known shows.  Shrek is not well known - outside of animated movie form - to these students.  And we do not have a musical director.  This show has some complicated music and with only a CD to help the students learn their music...I see struggles ahead.

Pretty sure once rehearsals start in earnest I won’t feel like switching up any more bulletin boards...

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The best laid plans...

It's a rainy Tuesday. I was excited because I planned to take my students outside for science and watch their heads explode. They think it's completely scandalous to experience weather! Sadly, just as I was gearing up the admin called a Shelter in Place Drill. Wrecked my whole plan! :(

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The PTA hosted “Trunk or Treat” tonight for preK-5th grade.  I think this is the 5th year I’ve participated.  I don’t go nearly as all out as some of the other folks - I stick with my M&M theme and keep it cute rather than scary.

I love when my students realize it’s me giving out candy - there’s lots of squealing and glee.  Sometimes they don’t know it’s me right away because it’s pretty dark so when they figure it out it’s pretty entertaining.

Some highlights from the evening:

I handed out M&Ms (I love a theme) and the tiniest, cutest Captain America gave me a high-five for his bag.  Seriously my heart melted and he made my whole night.

When I saw my first Iron Man of the night I said, “You’re the first Iron Man I’ve seen” and the young man in all seriousness said, “I’m the only one.”  (I was waiting for him to say “I AM Iron Man.”)

I try to engage with the children and comment on their costumes.  When someone came to me dressed as a Ninja Turtle I said something like “Way to go Donatello” (feeling pretty proud of myself for knowing which turtle it was by the color of his mask) and from behind the mask he responded, “My name is Lou.”  I thought that was so funny!

Two boys showed up in matching inflatable dinosaur costumes. Crazy.

The temperature was well above freezing unlike the past few years where I came home and couldn’t feel my toes.

A pirate came up and said, “Trick or Treat, matey!” and after I gave her the candy her mother prompted, “What do you say next?”  The pirate hesitated for a moment and then gave a hearty, “ARGH!”  So funny!

All in all, a fun and successful night!