No Yarn About Yarn

SOL # 4 (should be # 5) See below what the Slice of Life Challenge is all about.

Needles sliding into each other. Looping the yarn. Pulling back the needle to dig in and catch the loop. Tightening or keeping things deliberately loose, depending on how much air you want to knit into the piece. Looping the yarn. Pulling back the needle to dig in and catch the loop. Every session, the same small movements, hundreds and hundreds of time.

For me, knitting is like liquor. It relaxes me. It's my serenity now! strategy. (That's for you Seinfeld fans... and you know who you are.) It's one of the ways I calm my spirit.

image by Pixabay

Madame  Defarge I ain't. In fact, I'm not chronicling anything as I knit, I'm unchronicling it. (Yeah, I know that's not a word but that's a writer's prerogative. We can make up words as long as the meaning of them are clear to the reader.)  I'm unraveling my story, my day, my stress, my anxiety. 

What do you do to destress your life? Nosey Sioux wants to know.

Teen Entertainment and Adult Entertainment

SOL # 3 (should be #4) See below about the Slice of Life challenge. 

I am not talking about what entertains teens--I'm talking about how teens can entertain us. I'm a middle school teacher, and here are few of the things that made me laugh today:

• I finish Fridays with a music video, and the students vote. Was the video fab or was it a flop? (I got this idea from Tracy Brosch.) I made the mistake of asking the class for any suggestions. And one of my boys (who is quite proud of the barely-there moustache he's cultivating) suggested Pitbull's Fireball. I know Pitbull. I even like some of his music, so I checked out the video during my plan period. Thank goodness. The first 10 seconds alone would get me fired. I chuckled to myself, thinking that he thought I might play it for the class. Ha!

• The I'm-just-sitting-next-to-way-too-close-to-him-because-we're-helping-each-other-with-our-math-work maneuver. Ha ha! I remember having teen crushes. She didn't fool me one smidgen.

And the adult entertainment I had in mind? The kind of adult fun I enjoyed today was a short video on what Zoom teaching was like. I chuckled, because I did some of the same gesturing as this teacher did, and invariably got sucked into conversations about pets/bedroom decor/what they were eating while I taught, and so on.

 

Next week, our school might be taking off the masks... until we need to put them back on. It's often impossible to tell which student is talking/making noises/singing (and I'm most definitely not a music teacher) when they're wearing a mask.

I imagine the kids will be thrilled to be able to take off their masks... but I smile as I wonder if they know that baring their faces will have a downside...  

                                                                                                                                                                                         

It's the Small Things

SOL #2 (should be 3--see below to read a bit about the Slice of Life challenge) 

Here are some small things I delighted in yesterday:

• the softness of a well-loved quilt as I snuggled on the couch
• the velvet of the side of my dog's nose
• laughter among friends--women friends--who get the same things I get
• dancing to Uptown Funk in my car seat as I drove

I make a conscious effort to lighten my foot when it comes to the gas pedal when that song comes on. I once got a speeding ticket for going 78 on the highway when Bruno and his friends were singing. The officer was a great guy--he wrote it for only 70--but wondered why I was going so fast. I didn't have the courage to say, "It was a reeeally good song,"

If you want to smile or snap your fingers or tap your toes, check out Uptown Funk's  music video... and keep a close eye on Bruno Mars' footwork and what he does with his hands. He's mesmerizing...

The UN

 My students are working on their Civitas project. Civitas is a St. Louis gem--a model UN program. The students who participate choose a country, research its problems, draft a UN resolution to solve one of those problems which involves data, a plan and a budget.

Yesterday (the first day I should have posted :( my classes waded through websites and asked lots of questions. Since Ukraine is on everyone's mind, there were were several resolutions from countries intending to sponsor Ukraine.

If only all world leaders would have the hope and the peace in their hearts that our students have...

                                     a photo from one of the Civitas General Assemblies in 2019--

                                                              not one of my classes