The Girl with the Turkey Tattoo

Hey all,

It's Thanksgiving Thursday, and I've been fighting off the turkey sweats and tryptophan coma, watching my fantasy football team get obliterated, and I've seen countless commercials for a certain movie, so my blog post title was chosen accordingly.

It sure has been nice having this whole week off, even if there isn't a whole lot to do at the in-laws'. But I figured it's a good time to reflect on what I'm thankful for, and share a few of those things here.

Things I am thankful for:

1) My (bratty) wife, who insisted she be number one on this list
2) My family
3) My little wingnut, arriving in May
4) My job (and by extension, my income)
5) My students (or to be completely honest, SOME of my students)
6) My friends
7) Learn Me Good Groupies (Both of you)
8) My house
9) My health, even when it's hidden under a hacking cough, watery eyes, and enough mucous to choke a walrus
10) Cheez-its
11) Sweet tea vodka
12) The Big Bang Theory and Modern Family
13) Duke basketball dominance


Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! And to all a good night!

A few simple gift ideas

My girlfriend, er, I mean FIANCE and I are travelling to her folks' house for Thanksgiving this year. Her parents do have internet, but it runs at roughly the same speed as Rosie O'Donnell. So I won't be blogging for a while.

In the meantime, though, I wanted to put forth a couple of suggestions for anyone looking for some fun gifts for loved ones or co-workers this year.

Readers on your list? Why not start by giving the gift of humor in book form? Check out my own Learn Me Good, the more recent It's Not All Flowers and Sausages by Mrs. Mimi, or the hot-off-the-presses How to Lose Your Self of Steam by Carol at Bellringers! (I just got my copy of Self of Steam in the mail and will be reading it at the future in-law's!)

Seen enough books at school? How about a T-shirt or 2? Good news -- you're in luck! Check out the wide assortment of funny and witty shirts at my Speadshirt store. Here are a few of the designs:





















Savings available for the thrifty shopper! Take advantage of these deals from Spreadshirt!



Want mugs? Tree ornaments? Magnets? Check out my Cafepress store!




Safe shopping as always, and Happy Thanksgiving!!

Post-turkey snoozing

I hope that everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving! I concentrated on the turkey this year, not eating as much stuffing or potatoes as in usual years. I was not disappointed!

Plus, I actually went to a store today, on Black Friday! Circuit City is going out of business, so I went and bought some movies for $.87 and such. Only took me 45 minutes to get to the store! Woohoo!!

It's a Thanksgiving miracle, the 199th Carnival of Education HAS shown up, and it's over at the founder of it all, The Education Wonks! Check out all (or most) of the posts, and I again invite everyone to submit their entries for NEXT week's carnival hosted right here at Learn Me Good. Send me an email, or use this handy submission form.

Mid-week cleanout

Hey everyone, tomorrow is finally Turkey Day, and I will be away from the keyboard, stuffing massive amounts of, well, stuffing, into my pie hole, which is also going to be taking in a lot of pie! So very appropriately named articles today...

Today is normally Carnival of Education day, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. Might be the Thanksgiving lull, or it might be the "Christmas Creep" suggested by last week's host, I Want To Teach Forever. At any rate, if anybody discovers its double top secret probationary location, please let me know!

I do want you to know however that I know EXACTLY where NEXT week's Carnival of Education will be. That's because I'll be hosting it myself, right here at Learn Me Good. I was thinking I'd have the honor of hosting the 200th edition, but if nobody's doing it today, I might have to settle for 199. Everyone, please send your submissions to me (as long as they are education related -- I've already gotten one post about steel metallurgy) before next Tuesday so I can include you in my ramblings!

Since I'll be with the family tomorrow, I want to go ahead and plug this week's Mr. Teacher column on education.com which is titled, "Things I am Thankful for." It pretty much speaks for itself.

Lastly, since I didn't have much else to offer today, I'd like to bring out some reruns and ask everyone to check out these "classics." A couple of vids I made earlier this year. They're the gifts that keep on giving!

Something to be thankful for

Anybody have this whole week off -- raise your hands!

I thought I'd kick start the week by posting about something to give thanks for. One aspect of my daily job that I truly enjoy.

I LOVE the very end of the school day, when the kids get on the buses. OK, at first glance that's going to seem very cynical, but let me explain a little further.

Between us, my partner -- Ms. Jenn Ed -- and I have 42 kids. We are required to walk them all individually to their buses. Since there are 12 buses, as well as day care buses and parent pick up on the other side of the building, we decided to divide and conquer. We chose one of the buses, and I take all of the kids who ride that bus and all of the ones in front of it, and she takes all the kids who ride the buses behind it and the parent pick up kids. As it turns out, my group has about 30 kids in it, and hers has about 12. So actually getting the kids out of our classrooms and all the way down the hall to the outside can be somewhat of a hassle each day. But once we are outside, that's when it gets fun.

To make sure everyone gets on the correct bus, I use a system that I blatantly stole from Ed U Cater. As my shapeless, pulsating blob of students trudges past each bus, I call out the name of the bus, and then hold out my hand, like I'm asking for money. The kids who ride that bus aren't allowed to go get in line until they have slapped my hand. I am able to count how many times my hand gets slapped at each bus, so I know for sure whether or not the correct number of kids got on that bus.

The kids love this, as they're clamoring over each other, waiting to hear their bus called out. When they hear it, they come charging towards me, ready to give me a high five. Sometimes I hold my hand up over my head (I'm 6'4"), and they jump at it, trying to reach it. Sometimes, if they're getting too far out in front of the pack, I turn around and face the other way before holding out my hand, so that they have to come back to slap it.

Several of the kids that I drop off have brothers or sisters who are already at the buses waiting for them. When they see me coming, they often run over and want to give me five also. I have to really be mindful of my counting at those points, but it makes dropping the kids off highly enjoyable.

Does anybody else have any stories to share about things they really enjoy about their job?