Oh where, oh where...

has our little remote gone? Oh where, oh where can he be?

So this one time... I had some friends of the male gender who were searching for their tv remote in a hotel room. Unfortunately they decided it would be a good idea to call their sleeping friend, in another state to ask for help (Pretty sure there were a few beers involved).

In a parallel story, my roommate and I have lost our remote. I realize that this isn't a highly tragic event, but when one has searched under all couch cushions, in all drawers, in laundry baskets, under furniture, and even in the freezer (twice) it becomes rather frustrating. 2 days down, who knows how many more we will go....

Roommate quote: "It would make a much better story, if we had both been drunk when the remote was lost."

Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

I taught Order of Operations on Wednesday of last week. Actually, I should say my great aunt Sally taught order of operations. I realize it has been awhile since most of you worked sixth grade math problems, so here's your refresher course: parentheses, exponents, multiply/divide, add/subtract. Thus, Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.

Ms. Dean happened to have a "emergency math meeting" that morning, because we ALL know how often those happen.

Here's a picture of my Aunt Sally as well as the Aunt Sally for both the Explorer's and the Pro's teams. What a coincidence!
Now, I must emphasis that I had several students who genuinely didn't realize that it was me behind the pillow butt and grey/blue hair. When I walked into school on the following Thursday one of my students says, and I quote,

Andrew -- "Ms. Dean! Your grandma was here yesterday!"
Me -- "Nope, it was my Aunt."
Andrew -- "Oh yeah, Aunt Sally!"

And he was NOT joking. Oh kids...

Ms., Miss, and Mrs.

If you're ever feeling confident about your single lifestyle, just mention it to a group of sixth graders. I dare you! You will never quite look at the situation the same way.

I was teaching letter writing in my reading class a couple weeks ago, and in an attempt to teach correct Openers, I made the distinction among Ms., Miss and Mrs. Oops. Since then, I've received several interesting and humorous suggestions:

• I'm not going to call you Miss Dean anymore, I'm gonna call you Single Dean!
  
• Miss Dean, I need a picture of you, so I can set up your E-Harmony Page!
• Yeah, if you don't find a match in the first 6 months, the 2nd 6 months are FREE!
  
• You should get married this year, so you can have the wedding here [in my classroom] and we can all come!

They crack me up, and I just needed to share.
Signing out,
- Single Dean

Love My Job!

Last year on Tuesday September 25, I blogged about the fabulous-ness of parent/teacher conferences. And OMG, I just got home from the first night of conferences (yes, it was a 12 hour day) and I'm giddy. I absolutely love meeting the parents and families of my kiddos.

And oh, the glimpses into culture... There really are different concerns of parents depending on their cultural backgrounds. My white parents demand good grades, my Hispanic parents want respectful behavior, and my Marshallese parents just want everyone to be happy. Beyond that, the language barriers actually excite me, as they force me into small usages of my Spanish.

This is what we've been doing recently in math. Graphs, graphs, graphs.....

Survivor starts this week too, like it did last year. What a fabulous week!

I am just THAT cool.

Well, apparently I've got some hidden pop singer genes in me. I really think I would be a hit with the Hispanic middle school girl population. Why the absurdity, you ask? Well Dulce told me this week that my new do makes me look like Rhianna!

So rather than bother with an accurate picture of my new hair style, I thought this would work.


And yes, Brian, Dulce means "sweets" en espanol. I think.

See the resemblance?

No lie. Today, I met Blanca, and she said: "MizDee, you remind me of Mariah Carey." After the shock and laughter, I realized she was serious, and she likes Mariah Carey, so I said, "Thanks, I think."

Back-to-School

At church this morning, our pastor spoke that the good deeds of Christians should pave the way for the gospel. Sometimes I forget that my desire to see justice cover the world is really God's desire to spread his grace over people. (Okay, it is more than just forgetting. I still have serious issues with understanding/accepting that my God, who is love and goodness..., can allow some of the evil and hardship in this world. I get it, when you're talking about Christians suffering, but when you're talking about children who don't know Christ -- what's the point?! ) All that to say, I'm not faking great understanding here, but rather commenting on the great responsibility that has been placed on my shoulders.

Tomorrow's the first day back to school (with students). Although I don't know the specific needs and hurts of my kids yet, I already feel a great burden to make sure these kids see love this year. I found myself praying this morning that God would make it obvious which kids I need to focus on this year. That by week 2, I'd be finding ways to meet their needs. I will continue to pray that anything these kids see in me this year they would attribute to the provision of God. Although I want my kids to succeed in math and reading, I really desire to see them find relationship with Christ. Don't really know what that looks like in public school, but I know my God is capable of much more impossible situations.