My oldest is a gifted artist and I want to share a picture she drew last week, because she’s just amazing.
©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Parental Bragging
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
My oldest is a gifted artist and I want to share a picture she drew last week, because she’s just amazing.
©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Teacher’s Corner will be an irregular feature containing my mumbling and ranting on issues of education and people.
The theme of today’s post is probably going to be a reoccurring one: Why are the USA determined to be so horrible? On Twitter somebody posted the following note which apparently was handed to their child:
Mrs. White’s 8th Grade Admin/Bathroom/Water/Nurse Pass
I will only have two passes for the ENTIRE month during Focus, BOTH Math Blocks, Community, Lunch, Restoration, etc.
I understand that once the number is circled, it indicates how many times I have went (sic) thus far for the entire month.
I understand that I need Mrs. White’s signature for EVERY TIME I leave to go to the Bathroom, Nurse, speak with Admin or to get water.
I understand that once I have used my 2 passes for the ENTIRE month, I will not be able to go to the restroom, get water, or go the nurse (sic).
I understand that only special accommodations will be made if my Doctor writes a note regarding a medical condition.
I understand that failure to comply with the Bathroom/Water/Nurse Pass will result in an Automatic Detention and a zero on whatever assignment I decide to walk out on.
I understand that Ms. White is petty and although we both have options, I can be denied going to the bathroom/water/nurse during the lesson.
I mean, WTF?
As a teacher, I know that “the potty goer” is a nuisance. It is disruptive in class when every other minute somebody asks to leave, leaves, comes back, etc. That’s why we encourage our kids to use the breaks, which are, btw. included in this bathroom pass. We have two big breaks of 20 minutes between 2nd and 3rd, and 4th and 5th lesson, and short five minutes breaks between the other lessons. And still we don’t deny our kids bathroom breaks. At the most, they get some extra work (I have a whole book of extra work that “fits the crime” where the kids have to reflect on their behaviour). Some classes have a system where you automatically move to “yellow” if you go during the lesson. In most cases we use common sense. The kid who asks to go five minutes after the end of their break needs to learn that yes, going to the bathroom is part of their “during the break” activities, same as eating*. The kid who asks to go after 30 minutes probably couldn’t have known during the last break.
*You wouldn’t believe the amount of kids who return to the lesson and then take out their breakfast. Many of them react angrily when you tell them to put it away and feel treated unfairly because they are hungry.
Although the school issued a retraction (see below), this isn’t the first time an American school is in the news for “strict”* bathroom policies.
On Twitter, while many people shared their stories about peeing/vomiting/etc. in class due to similar practises, many people replied that they didn’t see the problem and that it would teach kids discipline. It’s a dangerous gateway to the authoritarianism we currently see.
*strict as in dehumanising, cruel and completely fucked up.
Retraction letter from school
Jack with a bit of seaglass, ©voyager, all rights reserved
Jack and I are leaving Perce today on our way home. We’ll likely go as far as Mt. Joli today, which is about a 6 or 7 hour drive and then on Sunday we’ll make the rest of the trek to Montreal where we’ll spend a few days with family before heading home.
The leaving is difficult. We must say goodbye to the mountains and the streams and the beautiful beaches full of treasure for another year. It’s been a good year, though, and we’re leaving with pockets full of happy memories and a big box of rocks. There’s even a bit of seaglass to add to my jar at home. Jack is sitting beside my jar of of seaglass that lives here. Year by year it grows and someday I might even have it filled, but it’s the hunt that keeps me coming back. It’s taken 25 years and a lot of bending over, one piece at a time, to reach this level. I consider it time well wasted.
Moth Tyta luctuosa on the platform and during takeoff. Gotta love those engines blasting!
©Nightjar, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Today’s Monday Mercurial is a Carpenter Bee, who are rare and amazing creatures. This is the only thime I saw one and had a camera at hand. They are quite big, easily the size of my thumb and can give you quite a start when soaring past you when you don’t expect them.
©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
©Giliell, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
I do not think I could make this a regular feature, but possibly an irregular one – some random snippets from the Slavophone world whenever I notice something interesting – be it art, traditions, languages, politics. Let me know if you would be interested.
I instantly fell in love this song (and some others from this band). It is so cheery and silly. And I love violin.
And yes, the text is silly, although my Russian is not so good so I could understand it all instantly. But I was able to parse some and with help of online translators translate the first half for you. Unfortunately I cannot translate all, because translating it into English was not only much more time consuming than I expected it to be – but above all I started hiting on phrases that are probably Russian idioms whose meaning I do not know. Being able to understand the gist of something and translating it into another language is not the same thing I am afraid.
I ain’t no poet in addition to my rusty Russian, so take the translation with a grain of salt. The Skobari (скобари) is an ethnic group in Russia and I could not find any proper anglicized word for them. And you probably won’t be able to sing along the translation with the original.
Who goes there, who goes there
have a look at who goes there
riding on a crippled mare
that sems to be our Skobari.
Skobari are a jolly nation
going home from a fare
one bare naked, one bare footed
and one with an injured head.
Play me such one
Skobar funny
so my tummy doesn’t hurt
tummy mine, the sinner’s one.
Play me such one
thats good for dancing
but not for every
snot nose prancing.
Smashhing up, smashing up
I feel like smashing up.
And truth be told you
I feel like brawling too.
Who’s that lad
prancing knees
hasn’t got hands on
aspen sticks.
Pennies for a party one
daddy collects his loot.
Mom whispers in his ear:
“Don’t you get drunk you silly fool!”
I was born hopeless
with no respect too –
should the heads roll
I’ll tie the rope.
I am breaking, back is arching,
I’m not really feeling well,
give ne just one half a litre
and I no doctor is needed.
We saw the grave of the one
who called us drunkards.
We did drink for our own money
nobody was serving us.
…….
Angus is a lucky boy, ©voyager, all rights reserved
This is not Jack. This is Jack’s best friend, Angus, who is a very lucky dog today. Earlier in the week Angus ate part of a carpet that got stuck in his gut. He was sick for a few days before we figured out what happened and we only figured it out because by accident I found a bit of carpet fiber vomit in the long grass at the back. I’m sure that’s already way too much information, but here’s a few more details. The vet gave poor Angus barium and then for two days we fed him mashed potato in little bits to help push it all through. He was scheduled to have surgery today if it didn’t work. Well, early this morning it worked! Out came about a meter of wound up carpet fiber and now Angus seems almost back to normal. He’s weak, but hungry and for the first time in 5 days he barked. I have to admit I’m surprised it worked, but it’s hard to argue with success. Welcome back, Angus.
Today’s Friday Feathers are some of my holiday pics.
i need tore4start the Barcelona series, but for now there’s a young Mediterranean seagull. I love how the juveniles look completely different from the adults
©Giliell
More perfect shots from Nightjar, this time Hummingbird Hawk Moth Macroglossum stellatarum.
©Nightjar, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
It reminded me of a fun anecdote – during my studies at uni, one of my half-classmates mentioned one evening in the pub that he has observed a beautiful hummingbird in his garden. Pedantic killjoy as I am, I have pointed out that there are no hummingbirds in Europe, so what he has in fact observed was in this moth.
It was mildly embarrassing moment, because he was his half-classmateship was the biology half (me studying Biology-Chemistry, him studying Biology-IT). But there was no real reason for him to be embarassed. Nobody has perfect knowledge about everything and their similarity to hummingbirds in flight is really uncanny.
I have seen these beautiful moths occasionaly in my garden, but never when I had camera in hand.
There will be more spiders from you! In the meantime, I think this green spider looked lovely when it waved at me from our plum. The way it was running around on that leaf it looked like some sort of dance routine.
©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Shake it to the left…
Shake it to the right…
Oh, didn’t see ya there. Hi!
Inukshuk on the Portage River, ©voyager, all rights reserved
This is another section of the Portage River and if you look closely you can see that someone has taken the time to build a few inukshuk on the shoal, probably while waiting for a fish to bite. The water here is very clean and these are bring home to eat fish if you can catch one.
Since we’re apparently running spider week, here are mine. I took the pics last year at my parents’ place.
The pics are shot with the magnifying lens and each spider baby is about the size the head of a pin.
©Giliell
©Giliell
©Giliell
Or “never trust a recipe over experience”.
Last year, the blackberries fell victim to a hungry deer that ate all the flowers. This year, they#re getting ripe and are delicious, so I decided to make muffins.
I googled a basic recipe for cream cheese and blueberry muffins and came up with the following:
OK, I exchanged the oil for butter and the buttermilk for Greek yoghurt (which was only a quarter cup), yet still it seemed to be a lot of liquid, but well, that#s what the recipe said. The taste was delicious, but they did what muffins do when they are too wet: they crawled all over the baking tray.
Next time, less yoghurt.
Looks good
© Giliell
Tastes good
©Giliell