Musings of the Middle School World

Graduation went well. I didn't cry, which is good, because I thought I was going to bawl. The slobbering, hiccuping, snot-full type of crying. That would have been embarrassing.

Almost as embarrassing as forgetting to put up the flags and not realizing it until my student said, "Please stand, turn around and face the flags..." oops.

I packed up my classroom on Saturday, took kids to the beach on Monday night for a bonfire good-bye party, put my library books away on Tuesday, and turned in my keys. I got onto the 5 freeway and headed north, and walked into my new house in time for dinner!

I'm not sure it has quite hit me yet. I lived in LA for six years, and contrary to most Northern Californians who move down south, I actually really loved it. And I'm going to miss my kids! I hope some of them end up coming to the wedding.

So to my dear students who are reading this, I miss you. Thanks for allowing me to be a part of your life for the last two years. Make good choices, and follow your dreams!

I love you!

1. My fiance and I bought my niece and nephew a little Bible for Christmas. I was taking care of them this weekend, so I read them a bedtime story. It went something like this:

Story: An angel came to Mary and told her she was going to have God's Son. She was to name him Jesus. This is Mary and her baby. Do you remember his name?

Lea (4): CHEESE!

Auntie: Close, it's actually "Jesus."

Caleb (2): Esus!

Auntie: Yep, good job, you two!

 

2. We found a place for the rehearsal dinner! It's wonderful!

3. Our house is rad. The bedroom is now Basil green, and I love it!

4. Graduation is Friday, and my last day of school is TOMORROW. This year has gone by SO quickly. I'm going to miss my kids a ton :(

5. 59 days until I'm an Ashley :)

"Miss Florendo, I looked you up on-line. You have a website where you talk about us!"

It's true. But I don't mention names, I don't post photos of the kids, and I don't even have the name of the school! So have fun, ladies, as you read about the fun stories I share with my friends. See if you can figure out who wrote some of the funny things I quoted in here. But don't spend too much time on here - you need to study for finals coming up!

Back in the Spring of '96 I went to a little camp called the Web of Life Outdoor Field School for science camp. Though it was 13 years ago and I was in fifth grade, I still remember their theme song, two of my counselors (though not their names, I just distictly remember them), some of the things we learned, activities we did, and definitely some of the inside jokes with the girls in my cabin.

I just got back from three days of science camp, and boy has in changed in 13 years. Instead of fighting mosquitoes and cold, wet rain, we fought sun, wind and crowds - because we had science camp at SEA WORLD.

That's right, folks, Sea World. We stayed in dorms designed specifically for this purpose, and had three days JAM-PACKED with fun.

Some highlights of the camp program itself:

• went behind the scenes at a couple exhibits
• saw several shows, including Shamu and the Dolphin show
• fed an aquarium of tropical fish (including my favorite Nemo and Dory fish!)
• touched a sea anemone and held sea stars ("star fish" technically aren't fish, so they call them sea stars)
• disected a squid and wrote our names with its ink
• touched dolphins, sharks, and an alligator
• talked to dolphin and whale trainers
• played sardines in the theme park after it was closed (super awesome)

Some highlights of chaperoning the experience:

• being asked no less than FOUR times where the chaperone in the group was (not sure if this is actually a highlight, but it was funny every time)
• getting a student who is DEATHLY afraid of roller coasters on "Journey to Atlantis"
• my favorite quote from her that ride: "OH MY FREAKING GOSH! HOLY JESUS HELP ME!"
• getting my own bathroom for the week - chaperones and kids have different restrooms/shower rooms in the dorms, and I was the only female chaperone!
• watching the counselors make fun of my students. Very funny.
• I paid a student a dollar to peel my oranges the entire time we were there. I love oranges, I just hate peeling them.
• playing brain teasers and riddle games with the kids
• playing Phase 10 with wo seventh graders and a sixth grader in the dorm while we were supposed to be in lights out
• the "fashion" show my girls put on in the dorm after we were supposed to have lights out the last night. They were so cute!

Some fun facts I learned:

• You are more likely to die from a coconut dropping on your head, getting hit by lightning THREE times, or dying from a vending machine falling on you while shaking it to get out a snack that is stuck, than you are to die from getting eaten by a shark.
• Sharks have conveyor belts in their mouths. Not literally; but each time they lose a tooth (which happens at every feeding), a new tooth will move from behind into its place in about two weeks. Sharks go through 30,000 - 60,000 teeth in a lifetime, but have an unlimited supply.
• The blue whale (average 90 feet long, but I forget its weight) is the largest animal. Ever, and not just for the sea. Bigger than any dinosaur that ever lived.
• The manatee's closest relative is the elephant.
• The sea otter's closest relative is the weasel.
• Sea otters do not have blubber to keep them warm in the frigid waters. Instead, they have 600,000 hairs per square inch on their bodies. Humans have about 1,000 per square inch.
• Dolphins know nothing when they are born, short of swimming. They don't know how to stop - mom has to teach them that. Sometimes, mom gets mad at the babies and needs a babysitter. Older, experienced dolphins will take over while mom has a break.

Definitely a fun experience! I'm a little sun burned, but feeling great otherwise :)

I feel like this is better alliteration, anyway.

Thumbs down:

being sick

whiney children

standardized testing

long distance engagements

losing at the reading challenge to two seventh grade girls (but better than sixth grade boys, I suppose)

 

Thumbs up:

Chris!

our house

hanging out with old friends

not being at work today

cooler weather

Student quotes - my favorite kind of post!

If I were in charge of Miss Florendo's class for one day, I would:

8th grade girl: "Make a tent out of all our 8th grade sweatshirts!"

8th grade girl: "Not let anyone speak correct grammar. It would drive Miss Florendo crazy, but she wouldn't be in charge I would."

Things on Tuesday (which I sometimes do with my students)

8th grade girl:

Things I loathe: I'm not getting new shoes until like Christmas. I'm not going to get new clothes until like school is over. I really don't like catechism. I HATE that everyone says I'm spoiled.

Things I love: I love that my mom bought me new pants for school. I love that my mom bought me sandals. I REALLY love that I'm going to watch the Jonas Brothers 3D movie!! I also REALLY love my ipod. I love that I go to the mall with my cousin like all the time. I love that I go to the theaters almost every weekend with my cousin."

Other random quotes

6th grade boy: "The Bible has mountains in it to explain their majesticness."

6th grade boy: "A sea lions have dog face. A Walrus has a ugly face."

8th grade boy, on getting the extra credit antidisestablishmentarianism spelled wrong: "'-tarianism!' How do I not know how to spell '-tarianism'?"

6th grade boy, on Valentine's Day word association: "Candy, love, nasty, girls"

6th grade vocabulary test today. Reviewing beforehand:

Miss Florendo: "Here in the United States the type of economic system we have is called a..." [waiting for students to call out the correct answer]

6th Grade Boy: [absolutely serious] "FAILURE!"

Miss Florendo: "Actually, I was looking for capitalistic, but I suppose that works, too."

I caved.

All my students were doing it! I had to see what the fuss was. So I picked up Twilight... and the next day when that was finished I picked up New Moon... and two days later Eclipse... and right after that Breaking Dawn... and I enjoyed them. Not the best writing ever, but Stephenie Meyer has a way of bringing the characters to life and you kind of fall in love with the main character. Oh well. I'm just as bad as the eighth grade girls, apparently. At least that makes 8 books so far this year! And I promise the book I'm reading now is not a middle school reading level :)

In other news:

1. I caught a student plagiarizing on her book report. Nearly word for word from wikipedia, and she is denying it to the death of her. She is a straight-A student, and even failing her book report takes her grade from a 99% to a 91% in my class. She is brilliant. I'm really disappointed that she cheated, and even more disappointed that she is denying it.

2. My sister works at Office Max and buys a bunch of supplies for my students when they go on clearance. She bought a bunch of notebooks, most of them with flowers on them, but a few male-friendly ones with sports themes (though some of the guys chose the flowery ones to be funny). There was one baseball notebook, and one of my sixth graders LOVES baseball. It's all he ever writes about in his journal, so I saved that notebook for him even though sixth grade gets last pick. He wrote to me, "Thank you Miss Florendo for my notebook I feel very special like you like me more than my other classmates." How cute is that? 

3. I love my students. Very much. But I really want to quit my job and marry Chris already.

Assignment: Developing paragraphs. Students choose from a variety of topics presented in their books. This topic: "Mondays are bad days for me because..."

8th grade girl: Monday is a very bad day for me because every Sunday I sleep very late so on Mondays when I have to get up for school I can't get up because I get very sleepy, then if I don't get up in like five minutes my mom wacks me with the belt, but it doesn't hurt...Then my dad comes from work and starts screaming because he can't find the control for the tv, so we have to stop what we are doing and look for the control when it's right in front of his face. That's how lazy he is.

Assignment: Wite a paragraph about someone who has influenced you.

8th grade girl: Miss Florendo has taught me well in things like prepositions and self-confidence. She taught me that inner-beauty is a lot more important than outer-beauty.

Awww...

Assignment: 8th graders doing group grammar excercises in their workbooks. This section was on the difference betwen "lie" and "lay."

Student 1: What did you get for number four?

Student 2: I got "lay."

Student 3: I got "laid." [Hand imediately covers her mouth and her face turns bright red. Meanwhile, I am laughing so hard I can barely breathe. A few students look confused, but the majority find the humor.

Student 1: Miss Florendo, your face is turning red.

Me: Someone please explain why this is funny to those who aren't laughing. As the teacher, I can't do it. 

Student 2: Have your parents had "the talk" with you?

The Rest of the Class: Ohhhh.

My future sister-in-law is doing a really cool reading challenge this year. She is taking pledges for each book she reads, and at the end of the year she's donating the money to Blood: Water Mission. She gets to keep reading, and she helps a cause she really supports and believes in. Read her blog, she explains it better there than I do here.

Anyway, last year she read 60 books, and this year her goal is 75. I didn't keep track, but I think last year I read around 20 or so, which I feel is still more than most people my age (if they are out of school). I've decided to keep a record of the books I've read this year, too. No particular reason, I'm not taking pledges like she is (so if you want to participate, give her the money), I just want to try and keep up!

A week into the new year, and I'm at three (and in the middle of the fourth)!

1. The Last Battle, by C.S. Lewis: Though I have yet to read the first six books in the Chronicles of Narnia series, I have a group of students reading this for their book report and I wouldn't be able to help them had I not read it. I can't wait to read the first six!

2. Pictures of Hollis Woods, by Patricia Reilly Giff: About a girl in foster care who constantly runs away from her foster families. A former student read it for her book report and it sounded interesting. Interesting, but definitely a "young adult" (i.e., teen) book.

3. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L'Engle: I've had the book since fifth grade and never read it, so I thought I'd give it a shot. A little too much fantasy for me, but not a bad read.

4. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison: Huge fan of Morrison! I'm only in the third chapter, but there are so many different ways this book could go. I'm excited to keep reading!