Sometimes I feel like I'm sleepwalking through my days and then I wake up and it's November 8. Gracious.
Two weeks ago I got sick with the worst cold I've had since Senegal, though I did get to lay in bed for a day. My students were very curious as to where my voice had gone or if I would be getting them sick too. (Some reacted to this with the typical 'Ew, get away' but one girl asked if I could cough on her so she could be sick too and not come to school...I did not oblige.) Pumpkin carving and an 80s Halloween costume helped me bid adieu to October; the realization that our furnace didn't work greeted these chilly November mornings. And afternoons. And nights. But! As of today, all is fixed: I can wear one sweatshirt at a time and function outside of my bed covers.
My father visited Ethan and I last week, always a wonderful time. He worked a visit to my class into his schedule, and my students loved it. When he asked who wanted to work with cars, every boy's hand shot into the air. He explained where Volvo's engines are used, which was impressive, but the fact that each engine is green was much more impressive. Some of my favorite questions from Room 204:
"Are you famous?"
"How many hours do you work?"
--to which my dad replies "About 55, depending on the week..."
--and Jacob, the questioner, is stunned. "That's way more than 24...how does he do all that in a day?"
"Do you live in a mansion?"
"How many times have you been on a plane?"
--My dad has no numerical answer for this, so he tells Farri more times than he can count and Farri is unbelievably impressed. "I hate planes," Farri says.
And when my students realized the geographic location of Virginia, where my family lives, to Milwaukee, where I work, they stare at me in disbelief: "Miss Gaynor, you fly that far every day just to come to work?!"
We finished WKCE tests last week too, which is the other big news from Mitchell Elementary. WKCE, for those of you who did not go to school in The Badger State, are our state tests and were they ever a huge deal this year. Really, the testing time isn't that intense, just two 45 minute periods two mornings a week and one hour period two mornings a week. Room 204 was impressively focused and again I was grateful to be working with this particular class.
I'm headed to Madison this weekend to be with my old life for a bit; wish me luck with that. <3
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