Back in Business

For those of you who didn't hear the saga of my Cancun trip, here's the basic summary:


Wed.- got to Cancun around 1:00, explored the massive/beautiful hotel, had a delicious welcome dinner followed by entertainment (traditional dancers)
Thurs- explored the streets around our hotel, swam in the pool/beach, read books on the beach, dinner at a swanky restaurant
Fri- my traveling companion got sick (postponed the trip to Chichen Itza, and ended up cancelling it because she was still sick), went to the hotel doctor, filled a prescription for her, and while she rested I read books on the beach
Sat- flew back to MN a day early (our plane was delayed an hour, so we got back at 5:00), went to the doctor, sat around the waiting room until 9:30pm while they ran blood tests/did an IV for her, collected my things and got back to Courtland around 11:30pm
Sun- drove down to Fulda for the Sunrise Service, hung out with my awesome family for Easter, watched my cow have a calf (it's a boy! we named him Arnold Palmer), watched a movie
Mon- lesson planned literally all day


And now I'm back at school planning for tomorrow. 


The first day back was pretty good as far as our days go.  I gave my students the suckers I brought back for them.  They looked like caramel suckers, so I didn't look too close at the label when I got them... this morning I saw a goat on the label and a caption that read, "Leche de Cabra" aka- Milk of Goat.  Yep, I bought goat milk suckers.  A lot of my students took one lick and threw it in the trash.  Then there were others who thought they were the best suckers ever.  I forgot to give the 8th graders theirs... maybe tomorrow.  We'll see what they think of them...


We started the ITBS today.  I have two students who've never done them before, so they were a little confused when filling out the name space on the answer folder.  The rest of the class wanted to do all the tests today and just get it done.  Uh, no way Jose!  I told them their brains would explode if we did all of them today.  I think they really just wanted to skip math class.  We only did one test today because it took so long to fill out the name areas.  That and I wanted to give them Daily 5 time.  We also voted on a movie to watch as a class... Big Hero Six was the winner by a landslide... it was almost unanimous!  Two of the kids in class own the movie, so I don't even have to try to locate it by Thursday.


Over Easter break, one of my students' parents texted me asking if I had access to fertilized eggs they could try to incubate.  Their daughter (a first grader) tried to incubate an egg from the store in her pocket... it didn't end well.  So I brought back five eggs from home and handed them off to the family today after school.  They're so excited!  The mom confessed she and her husband are chicken enthusiasts.  In fact, their first date was to a chicken show three hours away.  So we bonded over our love of chickens.  I'm excited to hear how it turns out!  Hopefully they all hatch!