(no subject)
Jun. 12th, 2014 04:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckLast night, instead of Babylon 5, we had ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cherydactyl over. We played a round of Sentinels of the Multiverse, picking a relatively easy villain to take on. Then we tried Forbidden Island. We realized, when we were nearly through the game, that we'd been doing it wrong. The mistake was in our favor. I'm not sure we'd have won without it. Scott thinks we would have, but I'm not so sure.
This morning, I went in to work in the school library. The librarian asked me to weed the picture books. I had to make two stacks, one of things needing repair and one of things too old or beat up to be likely to get checked out. Everything else stayed on the shelf. I pulled out some stuff that the librarian may choose to keep after all-- a couple of Clifford books and a bunch of Arthur books-- because I was going mainly on what the books looked like. I did leave all the Jan Brett and Eric Carle because I know that some teachers do projects involving those books.
The librarian gave me a thank you card with a $50 Amazon gift card in it. I'm boggled. That's an awful lot. I didn't do that much. I only gave her two hours a week. I was expecting a $5 or $10 card once I realized there was a card.
I will miss this librarian. She and I had things to talk about. She's in science fiction fandom, and she and Scott follow each other on Facebook.
She says that the new librarian for the fall is excellent, though, so I'm hopeful that that will work out well. I'll offer the new librarian two hours a week and say that it doesn't have to be with Cordelia's class (Cordelia's embarrassed to have me around now). I will miss knowing the name of every kid in Cordelia's class, though.
I came home for a quick lunch before heading back to the school to set up for fifth grade graduation. I don't think the other mother really needed me there. I asked the cafeteria worker for a bowl and a tray and serving utensils, and I helped carry the bins with the decorations, but mostly, I stood around. A bunch of younger kids helped with setting up, putting out the chairs, moving the tables and such, and one father who came early mopped part of the floor (this was just after the kids had had lunch in the room).
The ceremony itself was nice. Each kid got a chance to say thank you to whoever they wanted and to talk a little about what made school special for them. I think most kids took about thirty seconds. Then the class sang a song, three parts with an assortment of solos. Cordelia sang a verse on her own. After that, the teacher played a video he'd put together of photographs of the kids. Each child had two pictures, a baby picture and a picture taken earlier this year. There were more photos after that, pictures from field trips and classroom time. Then they gave out the certificates, calling each child up individually. After that was done, a boy did a solo song, and a girl presented their teacher and the principal with flowers.
This only worked because the class consisted of twenty-six kids. If there'd been two classes, something would have had to be skipped in order to fit everything in. The principal almost broke down in tears a couple of times. This is her last fifth grade graduation, and that matters. She also nearly cried when she mentioned Mr Dekeon, the teacher who died last fall.
After the ceremony, there was cake and cookies and fruit and pretzels. Cordelia's best friend's parents supplied the cake, and they had all the kids' names written on it.
Cordelia is kind of depressed that the school year is ending and that everything will be so different next fall. I wish we had more to do with her this summer. She's refused to sign up for science center camp (all the camps either have an overnight or sound boring to her), and we don't have any family visiting this summer. I'm hoping we can make it north to visit my grandmother, but I don't know if that will happen.
cherydactyl over. We played a round of Sentinels of the Multiverse, picking a relatively easy villain to take on. Then we tried Forbidden Island. We realized, when we were nearly through the game, that we'd been doing it wrong. The mistake was in our favor. I'm not sure we'd have won without it. Scott thinks we would have, but I'm not so sure.This morning, I went in to work in the school library. The librarian asked me to weed the picture books. I had to make two stacks, one of things needing repair and one of things too old or beat up to be likely to get checked out. Everything else stayed on the shelf. I pulled out some stuff that the librarian may choose to keep after all-- a couple of Clifford books and a bunch of Arthur books-- because I was going mainly on what the books looked like. I did leave all the Jan Brett and Eric Carle because I know that some teachers do projects involving those books.
The librarian gave me a thank you card with a $50 Amazon gift card in it. I'm boggled. That's an awful lot. I didn't do that much. I only gave her two hours a week. I was expecting a $5 or $10 card once I realized there was a card.
I will miss this librarian. She and I had things to talk about. She's in science fiction fandom, and she and Scott follow each other on Facebook.
She says that the new librarian for the fall is excellent, though, so I'm hopeful that that will work out well. I'll offer the new librarian two hours a week and say that it doesn't have to be with Cordelia's class (Cordelia's embarrassed to have me around now). I will miss knowing the name of every kid in Cordelia's class, though.
I came home for a quick lunch before heading back to the school to set up for fifth grade graduation. I don't think the other mother really needed me there. I asked the cafeteria worker for a bowl and a tray and serving utensils, and I helped carry the bins with the decorations, but mostly, I stood around. A bunch of younger kids helped with setting up, putting out the chairs, moving the tables and such, and one father who came early mopped part of the floor (this was just after the kids had had lunch in the room).
The ceremony itself was nice. Each kid got a chance to say thank you to whoever they wanted and to talk a little about what made school special for them. I think most kids took about thirty seconds. Then the class sang a song, three parts with an assortment of solos. Cordelia sang a verse on her own. After that, the teacher played a video he'd put together of photographs of the kids. Each child had two pictures, a baby picture and a picture taken earlier this year. There were more photos after that, pictures from field trips and classroom time. Then they gave out the certificates, calling each child up individually. After that was done, a boy did a solo song, and a girl presented their teacher and the principal with flowers.
This only worked because the class consisted of twenty-six kids. If there'd been two classes, something would have had to be skipped in order to fit everything in. The principal almost broke down in tears a couple of times. This is her last fifth grade graduation, and that matters. She also nearly cried when she mentioned Mr Dekeon, the teacher who died last fall.
After the ceremony, there was cake and cookies and fruit and pretzels. Cordelia's best friend's parents supplied the cake, and they had all the kids' names written on it.
Cordelia is kind of depressed that the school year is ending and that everything will be so different next fall. I wish we had more to do with her this summer. She's refused to sign up for science center camp (all the camps either have an overnight or sound boring to her), and we don't have any family visiting this summer. I'm hoping we can make it north to visit my grandmother, but I don't know if that will happen.
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no subject
Date: 2014-06-13 06:33 pm (UTC)http://makezine.com/maker-camp/faqs/ for the info - it starts next month.
I am betting Cordelia is a couple years younger than their target and would have to use a Google+ account you registered for her (the Maker Camp doesn't mind, but Google+ requires you be thirteen), but....
no subject
Date: 2014-06-20 11:03 pm (UTC)I'm not clear what a Maker Camp would involve.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-13 02:24 am (UTC)Also, I'm thinking about asking my kids to do some free online classes, maybe from Khan Academy -- just to pick something they are interested in and do some learning about it. And some cooking. Maybe a point scoring system, though I'm not sure what they would be able to do with their earned points, so I'm not sure this would work.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-20 11:14 pm (UTC)I wonder if I could get Cordelia to take a class of some sort...