The Bits is Back!

My blog is fixed! My blog is fixed!

Thank you to Mr. McCartney from Sydney, Australia for your help on the Blogger help forum.

I thought The Bits was going to be in bits forever.

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!!

A Toxic Culture

I think I've mentioned on more than one occasion that our students do not like running.

Well, today is Wednesday.

Wednesday is Mile Run Day!

yippee...

As usual, 99% of kids whipped out mommy notes excusing them from running for various made-up reasons.

In an odd twist that I think should be studied by the medical community, many of them found the realization that they must sit out of recess if they aren't healthy enough to run surprisingly healing and mustered up the strength to drag themselves around for a mile.

(I'm contacting The Journal of the American Medical Association to see if they'd like me to whip up an article on this groundbreaking cure for "I-Don't-Wanna-itis.")

My favorite note was written by a student and it read:

I would like to be excused from PE today. Running makes me breathe hard.

Another kid came up to me and said that his parents did not want us to use a marker to track his laps on his palm with dots.

It's toxic and could get into his bloodstream and kill him.

Do they honestly think we would do anything to KILL HIM?!?!?

If Vis a Vis markers were toxic, we all would have been dead loooooong ago.

I don't know about you, but I can't use a marker without inadvertantly smearing ink all over myself like a toddler.

On second thought, maybe that IS just me...

That is neither here nor there. As the marker-poisoned student was "running" his laps today (with masking tape on his palm on which he could collect his dots), he decided to sharpen his thespian skills.

I spied him approaching me, arms outstretched in front of him, weaving and stumbling and looking in distress.

Me: You ok?

Him: Whaa? I...I can't really see you. Eh...every...every...everything is all blurry and going dark.

Me: Well, then head towards the light, but do it at a jog 'cause I want these laps done in under 15 minutes.

A "Little" Blog Problem

Hi Folks,

Sorry about the wonky-looking blog. I'm not sure what's going on. I didn't change anything, but somehow over night my blog header and wrapper have gotten smaller. I tried increasing the width in the html, but it had no impact.

Maybe they're just standing farther away and simply "look" smaller.

Anyhoo, I have no idea what's going on and no answers about when things can get back to normal around here. Blogger is being decidedly unhelpful. I am open to any suggestions, if anyone has any.

I am sorry about this. I try so hard to look professional...

(Haha! Even I don't believe that one!)

Tough Day?

Finish each day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.


Some blunders and absurdities have crept in;
Forget them as soon as you can.


Tomorrow is a new day.
You shall begin it serenely 
And with too high a spirit 
To be encumbered with your old memories.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Etiquette 101

FOUR!

Or do golfers yell, "FORE"??

"For," maybe???

Why on earth did they pick a homophone?

(Which leads me to think that "TWO" would have been poor choice as well...)

But I digress.

The field trip we took took on Thursday involved learning how science and math play a part in golf. It was a unique opportunity for our students to participate in hands-on STEM activities AND do so in a swanky country club in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Southern California.

NOT our usual digs.

We did some schoolin' at the Chevron World Challenge!

Thank you to Chevron for sponsoring our visit!

The kids LOVED it, and the activities were exciting, well planned, and engaging for the students. They even got to walk the course a bit and see a professional golfer in action.

To be honest, our kids were p-e-r-f-e-c-t! They could not have been better behaved, and we could not be prouder of them.

You don't realize how stressful it is to take 90 kids to a super-fancy country club where athletes are competing for millions of dollars and one little kid's inability to contain his desire to loudly crunch leaves under his shoes can cost a golfer millions of dollars. Where people who paid lots of money for tickets glare at your loooooong line of students because, well, they're KIDS and are probably going to ruin the whole grown-up golf spectating experience.

The kids were so wonderful that strangers, spectators, and people working the course couldn't resist smiling at them and complimenting them on their fine manners and good behavior.

In a nutshell, we were

SO!!!!

PROUD!!!!!

But my favorite part happened as they ate their lunches in the shadow of the luxurious clubhouse at white tables with white folding chairs, and REALLY rich people walking all around them. One of our boys said (a bit too loudly):

Wow! This is REEEAlly nice. 


This is the kind of place where you should chew with your mouth closed.

Livin' the Unhigh Life

On a field trip with our kids today, our bus drove down a street with huge-normous mansions. The kids all oooo-ed and ahhhh-ed over the opulence.

At lunch, I overheard a table of kids talking about them.

Molly: I would LOVE to live in one of those houses.

Mark: Not me!

Molly: What?!?! Why not?

Mark: I want to live in a normal house so people think I'm normal.

Hey, kid, whatever it takes!