Wishing Upon A Star





January 27
Swamped, Swamped. SWAMPED!!!




Listening to: Whistle Down the Wind

Reading: Once Upon A Star Nora Roberts et al

Weather: 22, sunny

Trivia: What can we learn from rock art in the Sahara Desert?

Until about 4,000 years ago the vast Sahara of northern Africa had abundant wildlife and grassy meadows. By studying rock artworks of various ages scientists have reconstructed some of the history of the tribes who lived there. The oldest art dates to 12,000 years ago, when humans saw themselves as part of the natural order, and nature was seen as a friendly force. In later periods after the adoption of domestic animals,people saw themselves as superior to nature, as shown in their rock art. After 1650 BC, when the Sahara was conquered by humans riding horses,the art changed again. By this time the Sahara had turned into a huge desert and human life there was very difficult, which was reflected in the kinds of images drawn on the rocks.

Cool word: Thursday [n. THURZ-day]

Thursday was originally called Dies Iovis (Jupiter's Day) in Latin, a name still reflected in some modern languages like French, in which the day is called Jeudi. The Latin name, a translation of the Greek hemera Dios (day of Zeus) honored Jove, the supreme Roman god of the sky and master of the planet Jupiter. The Latin name was replaced by the Germanic people with a name honoring their own sky god, Thor, the god of thunder. From Germanic Thonaras daga came Old English Thunresdaeg and modern English Thursday, as well as German Donnerstag. Thor's old name also gave us modern English thunder.




I am absolutely swamped with work. I have somehow lost all sense of time and suddenly discover that I have meetings and deadlines that are looming and that I have no hope of making. I don’t know exactly how that happened. I’m usually far more efficient and not running around like a maniac trying to get kids tested and reports written.

Maybe it was the week I was out with the flu. I somehow didn’t manage to get it into my head that time was zipping by.

I think I’m operating a week behind.


I didn’t get home until six-thirty tonight. This was the afternoon that I had to go to that stupid two-hour seminar for the reading program that’s being crammed down my throat.

I still hate it.

The two-hour seminar is generally useless, and I find it almost unbearable to sit through. I just don’t see the benefit of the program and I so resent the drain it is on my time.

And it means driving home in the dark.

I hate that.


One of my kiddos was in a really awful mood today, and I’m the one who set it off. Why? Because I started the dragon unit today and we were checking out our Chinese horoscopes. Three of the kids in the group were born in 1988, making them born in the year of the dragon. This kiddo was born in 1989, making him a snake.

He was royally pissed off at me.

it goes to show how low some of the kids I work with are. He couldn’t get it through his head that I couldn’t change the Chinese calendar that had been in existence for 4000+ years. All he knew was that we were going to be reading about a dragon ("My Father’s Dragon" by Ruth Stiles Gannett) and he was the only one who wasn’t a dragon. He only felt minimally better when I told him that I wasn’t a dragon either.

He did perk up some when we started finding the signs of family members and he discovered that his father was a pig. I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing that he was cheered by this. He thought it was a hoot, though.

I’m sure he’ll be fine once we start doing some craft activities and start reading the story. If he’s not, this could be a very long week!

I love doing fun unit things like this. I’ll probably get killed for abandoning the anthology. I hat the anthology. I think the stories are stupid and very disjointed. I love reading fun books with them, especially as I see their reading fluency and comprehension improve.


I have two reports needed for the morning, so I have to get cracking. I don’t think they’ll both get done. I don’t have the energy to get both written, I’m really tired and longing for the electric blanket.

It’s still really cold here.

previous next Home

Horoscope

ARIES

It will prove highly stimulating to exchange ideas with your more knowledgeable and even opinionated friends and colleagues. They can pass over some information, even through a chance remark, that fires off your thinking and makes you realize you have more options on how to play things than you had realized. It never hurts to get another point of view, do not be too proud to ask for ideas.