No Clay

Today was supposed to be our first pottery class... the Lord must've known I needed more time at school because I got a message on my phone saying class was cancelled.  The clay hasn't come yet, so we can't do anything.  I never thought I'd be glad to have pottery postponed, but I am today! 


The other volleyball coach was running late and didn't even make it to practice.  I didn't have time this morning to work on lessons I need for tomorrow (because of a last minute faculty meeting), so I have two powerpoints to make tonight (well, one's done; I just have to add pictures to it).  I have a huge stack of papers to correct, grades to enter in the grade book, emails and letters to send to parents about being chaperones on our upcoming class trips, and an external hard drive on the fritz.  That's right.  As soon as practice was over, I buckled down, ready to go to work... well, my hard drive wasn't quite so ready.  The computer stopped recognizing it and no matter how many times I tried plugging it in, nothing happened.  And then people started coming into my room to talk to me and I was about ready to pull my hair out because nothing was going right and I wasn't getting anything done! 


But.  Now that pottery is cancelled, I have a little more time at school.  I still need to go grocery shopping/visit the library, but the library is open until 8:00.  Maybe I'll even have time to correct some papers tonight.


In other news, the bow I ordered from Sheels in Sioux Falls way back at the end of June finally came in.  I was planning on cancelling the order since it took so long, but the guy I talked to never called me back and the bow came in before I could call them again.  So.  I suppose I should try to figure in a trip to Sioux Falls this weekend.  Sigh.  And here I was looking forward to a weekend of doing nothing and going nowhere except Fulda. 


Back to the school day.  We were on some weird tangents today in the 5th and 6th grade classroom.  Before chapel I explained an iodine/starch experiment I did with the 8th graders to show the process of osmosis.  Then they wanted to know what iodine was usually used for.  When they found out it's sometimes used to keep umbilical cords from getting infected, they wanted to know more about umbilical cords... which led to a discussion of how an umbilical cord actually works.  Some of them wanted to delve further into the process of pregnancy/reproductive system... but I decided to save that for another day... when they're in 7th and 8th grade.


Our physics topic today was potential and kinetic energy.  Somehow we got on the topic of why you don't move when you sleep and why some people sleepwalk.  And then they wanted to talk about dreams and why you have dreams and what happens if you die in a dream and how come you only remember some dreams and then it was time to get back on topic.  Whew!  Good stuff.


Tension was tangible after lunch.  The morning was pretty good, but for some reason our class bully decided to up the ante during lunch.  And in physics he made so many noises it drove his neighbor crazy and someone volunteered to switch spots with the kid who was so annoyed.  Unfortunately, I'm thinking this change is going to be permanent, at least for the rest of the quarter.


One of the 8th grade girls brought in something that "will amaze you".  It was a cow hoof.  Just one toe.  She got it from a rancher in Montana.  One of his cows had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and was struck by lightning... and all her toes fell off.  So this girl picked up one of the toes and brought it back with her.  It's pretty much the coolest thing ever!  I kind of hope she lets me keep it...