IBD

I have decided to start a new celebration today: the International Brainless Day. A day when I will not use my brain AT ALL. I have worked so much yesterday that today I can afford/I need to do nothing that requires thinking. I'll cook, iron, run, spend time with my family, have a long bath, maybe go to the park. I plan to do it as often as possible, maybe once a week. And, since I'm a generous person, I made it and international holiday, so everyone can celebrate.
The problem is with those who have a IBD every day....

Happy International Brainless Day! Will you celebrate with me? :)

Everything is relative

This is from one of my 5th grade groups today and I found it very nice, I hope you like it.

We were working with decimal numbers and I was trying to emphasize the importance of expressing the actions in an accurate way- the link between action and its expression is quite an issue at this age, weather the action is done by them or required from them.
So, I was trying to make them say we place the comma 1 position more to the left or to the right instead of to the end (or beginning) of the number. I told them a funny true story about one student who was so used to place the comma more "towards the door" or "towards the window", that he could not solve the exercises at home because the door and the window were not in the same directions. So, I said, we must refer to left and right, because they are not relative, therefore we will always be precise.

Then, I prepared to go further with the lesson and asked: can someone please wipe the first blackboard? as they have 2 boards in the room. And they asked: which one is the first?
I found this brilliant, especially for 11 year olds. :)

Love in th air

It was almost impossible not to break their intimate moment. They were so loving!

5 X 14 = 25

We had a big class Xmas party today with my 5 graders (10-11 yrs. old). They are a nice and childish bunch, so we had lots of things to do: we played games and read stories on "Santa's website", then I had some presents for them that they drew from a broomstick, blindfolded, then we played a game called "Storm on the sea" (a kind of Musical Chairs, combined with storytelling), then we danced (just a bit- they had brought 2 players but just one CD!), then we sang carols (they had brought the notebooks just for me, I had asked for this favour)...and we ate continuously.

But the funniest moment was a trick I had never expected to work. I told them I had heard in the news that new rules had been given in Maths and 25 divided by 5 will make 14 from now on- and I "proved" it like this. There was a moment of silence, then a boy asked desperately: "Do you mean I have to learn the multiplication table all over again???" Then they started arguing on weather Math can be changed by new rules. Finally some started to suspect it was a trick and they noticed where exactly the "proofs" were false.

Only after they all left I realized I had been so busy I had forgotten about taking pictures. I'm quite upset about that.
I have no idea why I'm writing all this here. Maybe just to share a smile with you.

Teaching

A doctor was walking in a park and saw one old lady sitting on a bench smoking. He said:
"It's impossible not to notice the happiness on your face. What is your secret?"
She replied:
"I am a teacher, I stay up until 2 am, designing curricula and teaching situations, I wake up at 6 am to arrive on time at work.
I don't practice any sports, have no fun and no social life. At week-ends, I work on to review learning strategies for my students, make assessment, develop teaching materials, and on holidays too, I don't eat breakfast, lunch and dinner because I haven't any time.
I am always stressed because of reforms in education, documentation deadlines and inspectors' visits .
The doctor replied:
"It's amazing! I can not believe. How old are you? "
" 34, "replied the old lady.

Still, after 24 years, I fall in love every autumn. I'm a desperate case, I guess. Any cure for this?

Beditime reading

Actually, it's my English dictionary.
Have a peaceful night.