Posts made by silverfox

@SuperiorHuron

There is nothing wrong with rereading. You never catch everything the first time.

There wasn't a thread within the last year I could necro which is sad.

I finished an amazing one called The Library Book that details the evolving nature of libraries by structuring it about the story of the 1986 Los Angeles Central Library fire. It was pretty amazing.

Then I stepped back and read two young adult fiction books (the last two in the series by Shannon Hale) in the Books of Bayern Series, River Secrets and Forest Born.

Now I'm reading Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson talking about his work around capital punishment in our country and it's amazing but also slowly destroying my faith in humanity.

What books are you reading?

Today is the last day of online learning.

Usually the last day of school follows a pretty predictable format. We have about 1.5 hours in the morning. We watch a movie (Magic School Bus or such), then at 10:00 we have an awards ceremony were lots of kids get some kind of recognition. Then parents mob us to check their kids out early and take them home. There are lots of hugs and goodbyes. There are drawings given out, and yearbooks to sign. At least one kid has a sharpe and runs around getting people to sign their shirt after assuring me their parent said it was okay (followed by the inevitable appearance of a parent asking "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!)

We go out for a loonnnggg recess (45 minutes) with the last 5-7 kids still lingering in each class. We play tag, 4-square, basketball. Then it is lunch. There aren't enough kids to justify eating in the lunch room, so we grab the food and go back to the classroom. A silly movie gets played (I am a big fan of Pixar shorts) and they ignore it as they eat and talk.

I get to work tearing apart my classroom. We have to pack everything up and get it ready for moving because we don't have any permanent shelving so it all has to get moved for carpet cleaning. My mode is to throw everything in a huge pile in the middle of the room. The kids are done eating so they help me pick through the pile and organize it into boxes. They do a lot of, "Can I have this?" To which I usually shrug and say sure, except to my plastic sword they all want but I keep for dress up days. A bunch of odds and ends end up in their backpacks. In the middle of this there is always someone who pokes their head in with left over ice cream or popsicles from a party, and we break to snack.

Slowly the last few trickle out till we only have maybe 3-4 kids in the entire building. We send them to call parents and get an ETA. Often we set them free in the hallways to help whatever teacher needs it, as long as they tell us where they are going. Our art teacher always manages to convince a few that staying is the BEST THING EVER and so we make her come over and admit all we are doing is cleaning. At least one kid is just hanging out because school is their safe spot and they don't want to go home and know that is where they will be for the next two months.

It is always a sweet day with a touch of bitterness. There is so much hope for the next year though.

This year is so different. The sweetness isn't there, just the bitterness and it feels so hopeless because no one knows if we WILL see one another again next year. I'm doing a lot of crying, and so are my kids.

I made a video early on of basic stuff my kids would have to be able to do - like finding their missing assignments.

Heaven help me, I have sent those videos out so many times. Just don't even bother pointing out I've said it so so so many times.

No one reads group emails.

@Rinel

Professionals cry and I am a supporter of their use when one is at the end of their rope.

I have loved ALL of my principals to death, but to a person they sometimes don't act until you show up sobbing in their office with the list of things you have done in hand begging for something else. Not that they don't want to act before them, but because they didn't want to undercut my authority and influence by stepping in too early. Showing up not-upset meant I wasn't totally concerned yet and just wanted to give a heads up or still had tricks to try so they trusted me.

Crying signaled 'oh shit. Okay. Yes. We will step in now.'

@Lisse24

Ugh I'm so sorry.

We got a new Margerie guys and she's pretty good. Just a nice first scene. I think we're going to have a good partnership.

@Alamias

The Library Book, Susan Orlean.

When you crack open a book, read the first line, and go, "Oh damn, I'm going to like this."

I don't know why I always do this. Hubs aunt works as an editor for Penguin Random House and sends me books. I've liked every single one of them, but for some reason I still let them sit on the shelf for 9+ months before I read them.

@Auspice

I'm dying to know who got the duck and mule.

Oh good. I almost forgot a birthday. I don't manage to do it every year, but I like sending this person random junk and this is an excuse ICly to do it.

Ah, makes sense then. Thank you for the clarification.

@Coin

... why did that need pointing out? (Honest bewilderment.)

Norwood made an off hand comment about not wanting a kitten but then every other pose back was, "So you want a kitten huh?" It was fun.

@A-B said in Tips for not wearing out your welcome:

Therefore, don't go taking anything I say here from now on, including this message, to be true or what I mean. Just think of it as the output of an amusing randomised chatbot.

So while these declarations can help some people, for most of us they honestly don't. I don't have any other frame of reference for what your'e saying than the literal text that's being put down. If you're not being serious I need you to say (kidding!) or give me some kind of clue you're not being in earnest in the moment.

I've got someone I've played with for.... god, seven? eight? years now. We've met in person. I know her like the back of my hand and I STILL get tripped up almost 2/3 of the time when she says things. The first few years we played I put her on @gag soooooo many times. So man. But her RP was always so freaking good that I kept coming back. (It wasn't healthy.) They come off as antagonistic, mean, and hurtful. I have to ask, "Are you serious?" SO VERY OFTEN, and it's only the fact that I HAVE played with her so long that I can take her comments and ask that question vs take her words as god honest truth.

If I don't know you from Adam? (or Eve, or your preferred person suit) Whatever you type and my personal filter are going to decide the emotion behind that unless you specifically tell me otherwise.

It's spirit day to help encourage participation in our class Zooms.

I totally forgot.

So yes, I do now have a sharpie triangle nose and whiskers hurriedly drawn on my face and ears made out of pipe cleaners.

I'm really glad no one has to look at me in the face for a few days while I get this OFF my face.

@Kanye-Qwest said in Tips for not wearing out your welcome:

@kk

these pandas made me smile and that's good. more than an upvote worth.

I struggle so hard in a text based environment to understand cues. It's why I am DYING in this extended learning environment. I can look at a kid and know with about 90% accuracy what feeling they have. Give me an email from that kid and I have no clue.

Online I can't understand how anyone is thinking or feeling. I assume that is the same for everyone else. I try to be transparent about my emotions if they are going to be an issue.

That said? Everyone is going to read things through their own filter. I'll be upset but I can't really blame someone for interpreting my actions as unacceptable. Each game decides what is appropriate or acceptable or not. If I'm not, then I just need to go away. There is nothing I can do to not wear out my welcome on a place where there isn't a place for me. There doesn't HAVE to be a place for me. It is okay.

@Tinuviel

WHAT?! Don't base my whole life off of Mu*s?!

(no but seriously, they're right. I'm bad at people-ing outside of my professional setting but Mu=/=real people for most people most of the time.)