Sunday
Guest
Clover began barking aggressively around eight this morning.
She rarely barks, and when she does, it's not an aggressive bark.
The cause: a visitor -- a sweet huskie named Phoenix with a calm demeanor and a tag with a phone number and an email address.
The owner was out of town; someone was supposed to be stopping by to feed Phoenix.
We kept him in our backyard until early afternoon.
Clover was not at all happy about it at first. She was terrified for a good half hour. We kept them apart with leashes during that time, then decided it might be a good idea to take them for a walk together. By the time we got back home, Clover was no longer scared. Indeed -- she just wanted to play herding with Phoenix, who was not too eager to take the role of a sheep.
Endings
They dread and fear it all year. It’s always lurking under every question, every assignment, every activity. It’s the biggest and most significant English test they’ve ever taken: the End of Course Exam, or EOC. A state-mandated, state-created test that counts as 20% of English I Honors students’ final grade. A truly high-stakes test. It’s a stressful test for them.
And for me: a previous principal reassigned a teacher’s English I Honors classes to another teacher because her classes’ scores weren’t to his satisfaction. That’s the rumor, at any rate. While I’ve never worried that my students’ results would be dismal enough to merit such draconian measures, I always worry. The test is, in my eyes, a measure in part of my success as a teacher. Sure, it’s more the students, but I have to present the information. I have to guide the kids through the mandated standards.
Today, we got back the scores. With a mean of 89.04 (one point shy of an A), it meant that a lot of kids left with smiles. It’s not often that I deliver such good news.
Photographing for Scouts
Friends’ troop had their graduation. I had the fun of photographing the event tonight.
Playing in the Creek
Playing in the Creek
The Boy
Visitor after a Ride
The Boy, for Tata/E time, chose again to go for a bike ride, and we began the ride in a similar fashion: the big downhill in the neighborhood across a couple of streets, the downhill that I keep encouraging him to turn into an uphill.
“I can’t ride up this hill!” he explained with exasperation. “It’s huge!”
But we rode up other hills, which are often as steep as The Hill but not as long. On one, the gave out quickly. With some encouragement, he got back on his bike and continued the climb.
“Remember: lean into the climb,” I advise as we churn our way up.
“Remember: forget about how far it is to the top. Pick a point in front of you and make it to that point. Then pick another point. And another.”
We made it to the top, and the Boy exclaimed rather stoically, “That wasn’t bad at all.”
When we got back home, we discovered some visitors have returned.
Moving Up
Morning: playing in the carport/covered porch. Bubbles and leftover candles.
Late morning: a ride with the Boy.
Afternoon: the final pack meeting. The Boy got his Lion badge and moved up to a Tiger.
Sports and Ice Cream
The Girl had her first volleyball game today. It was as one might expect when the majority of the girls playing haven't had much experience on the court. Most volleys were one of three types:
- A serve that doesn't make it over the net or lands outside.
- A serve that plops in front of a player who, through a lack of experience and a bit of accompanying fear, made a slight effort to go for it.
- A serve that is returned and then plops in front of a player on the serving team, through a lack of experience and a bit of accompanying fear, made a slight effort to go for it.
Not a lot of action. But a lot of excitement: the girls were all thrilled when they managed to make a serve (which actually happened quite frequently); they were shouting encouragement and joy when they managed to return a serve; they encouraged each other when someone messed up.
It was a beautiful thing to watch.
While the Girl was playing, the Boy was having soccer practice on the other half of the court due to the unpredictability of the weather this week. He finished his hour-long practice drench in sweat and as eager as ever to play more soccer.
It was a beautiful thing to see.
The afternoon brought the Boy's birthday party. We had an old-school, kids playing in the yard party. There were water balloons, brownies, sprinker antics, chips, volleyball over the sprinker, soda, soccer in the sprinker's mist, ice cream cake, trampoline flights, pizza, and endless laughs.
It was a beautiful day to experience.