I don't think I actually have anything to write about. I guess I'm just writing on here out of a sense of duty. It's Sunday night, and another week is about to begin. I don't want it to.
Sometimes when I'm in the shower, I think about odd things. This morning I remembered something that still makes me mad to this day. In high school, I had to take home ec. (did I really? was I forced to or was it voluntary?). We were assigned groups, and I ended up in a group with this really free-spirited girl from Quebec, Isabelle. Now, Isabelle did not know that recipes had directions on them for a reason. She burned everything, she pulled chicken from the oven when it was raw, she dumped in the wrong proportions of the wrong ingredients all the time. Every time we had to make something, she ruined it. It was so stressful in the kitchen with her because I had to keep my eyes fixed on her non-stop, and yet she always managed to sneak some kind of huge mistake past me that always ended in disaster. The home ec. teacher was entirely merciless. I even tried explaining the situation to her in private, and she would not listen. She said we were a group and it was our responsibility to keep each other in line. It was so unfair. I got a C in home ec, and that's the only C I ever received in school. Infuriating. It took me 10 years to stop pretending that I hated cooking. After all, I got a C in home ec! Obviously I couldn't cook. I've gotten over that and now I love cooking. But I still curse Isabelle.
That's the story for today. At least I learned something from it: I'll never grade my students the way my home ec. teacher graded me (one grade for the whole group).
On the other hand, some times I get as frustrated at my own students as I did with Isabelle. But I won't go into that, of course. In both cases, I feel/felt like a babysitter.
I'm going to bed now. The garbage truck always comes at 3:30 in the morning on Sunday nights. The huge dumpster is right outside our bedroom window and the garbage truck comes and shakes and rattles the dumpster around for a good 30 seconds or so (which is long, in real life). So as a light sleeper, I'm guaranteed an interrupted night of sleep every Sunday night. Have a nice week, everyone.
6 comments:
ahhh, light sleeper! That reminds me of the sleepless nights during the summer we lived together when the cruisers always accelerated right in front of your house. Good times.
Just so you know, the policy at our school now is that you cannot give group marks. (Some people think this means that you can't do group work, which is not true--it merely means that you have to design your assessment so that each individual gets their own mark.) So if you came to our school now, you would not get a C in home ec. (And yes, we had to take home ec.)
ah isabelle, i remember that free spirited girl.
what a character!
I always thought you secretly loved cooking. . . and now I see why it was secret.
I am trying to learn how to make truffles this week, among all my other tasks. Taeda helped me roll some truffles in cocoa; suddenly I noticed there were fewer in the bowl than I had put there. Yes, T. had a cocoa beard, and was quite contentedly sampling the product. It was so hard to limit him!
sarah, i can't remember the last time you blogged about eagerly looking forward to the new week.
true, gabe. that could be for two reasons: 1) i cannot stress how sick of school i am at this point, and 2) i seem to always post on sundays or mondays, which are never the best days of the week. maybe i should try to write on fridays or saturdays more?
heidi, i wish i could have seen a picture of taeda with his cocoa beard!
Ugh. Those garbage men. I always feel like we are being bombed or something. I heard it yesterday during the day, and it was barely noticeable--but at 4 in the morning, I tell you what.
Happy (American) Thanksgiving! Hey, you should demand Canadian Thanksgiving off!
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