Saturday, April 21, 2012

Randomday

Going to see the Cedar Tree production of The Importance of Being Earnest yesterday was a good idea.  My Saturday today has been overstuffed with randomness, but the witty dialogue acted as an inoculation and I'm better able to deal with it than last week.

Yesterday was Grandparents' Day at the school.  I think this was the first year I've ever had multiple grandparents in each of my three classes.  I will need to plan better for it next year and not even try to do anything academic with 6th grade.  I had better success in 7th and 8th grades, where we played Latin Jeopardy with a little less than the usual quibbling about the rules.  And do you know, I finally figured out yesterday why the games in sections 3 and 4 of the Latin Jeopardy don't work for my classes: they are designed for 3rd and 4th year HIGH SCHOOL Latin students who are diligently prepping for the AP exam.  I would feel smart for figuring that out, but I'm a little embarassed that it took me this long.  Maybe I'll write up my own Latin Jeopardy games to supplement the ones that I keep using over and over again.

National Latin Exam results are in!  FIVE gold medals in 7th grade, and THREE in 8th grade.  No perfect papers this year, but that's the most gold medals ever!  The kids in 5th and 6th grade who took the Intro level test did respectably well but we have a long way to go together.  I doubt we'll quite see this level of overachieving next year, so I'll just have to enjoy the moment.

I'm very tired now: here is my Saturday checklist:

  • correct my 3rd quarter gradekeeper file for 7th grade, where I had left out a makeup test.  Email the appropriate people.
  • remember to take my allergy medication, unlike yesterday
  • assignment for the Latinstudy list - translation of the part of Bede where he talks about King Aedwin's council on whether to convert to Christianity.
  • assignment for the Latinstudy list - translation of Caesar's invasion of Britain, the part where the cavalry transports get caught in some inclement weather.
  • take Tertia (and Quarta) to the Ship Shop to buy Webkinz.  Tertia picked out a unicorn with peace symbols all over it, and calls it Pinkie.  Quarta picked out a bunny and a hamster, called Hoppers and Snookie.
  • take Grandma's sewing machine to Hazel Dell Sew&Vac, and pick up a stair tool attachment and a Bissell style 8 HEPA filter.
  • fill the tank up with gas... $75.00
  • take the girls to the library
  • make a raspberry pie for dessert tomorrow
  • take Primigenitus' forgotten lunch over to the church where Steve dropped him off for the 2 performances today (he's Canon Chasuble -- the absentminded professor type in real life as well).
  • plant out Quarta's school cabbage project with her in the garden.  There had to be four square feet, or maybe it was sixteen square feet, we were a little unclear, but we found some space between the daffodils in the raised brick bed.  Quarta collects followers -- it's a good thing she's not on any social networking sites (except Webkinz).  We had a little neighborhood boy (I'll call him Bradley Carrot) following Quarta around, talking ninety to the dozen about boy stuff, mostly weapons and bugs.  I told him how to pick all the spent daffodil heads off to help the strength go back to the bulbs.  Next thing I knew he had daffodil numchuks sticking out of his fist.  I about lost it as I was planting the dill seeds that came attached to the box of Triscuits and I heard him pass by saying, "Fear my flower numchuks!"
  • finish the parent memo for the NLE.  It will get copied off Monday and I can fill in the blanks with the students' scores and put it in the parents' files sometime next week.  Oh yeah, next week is ERB testing.  That's going to mess with my schedule in ways I haven't thought out yet.
  • charge my cell phone.
  • do the ironing... at least enough of it for Steve and Primigenitus to get by next week.
  • tell Secundus to stop looking at gun videos.
  • finish grading the Latin quizzes.  Okay, this is not done yet.  Also not done yet:
  • clean the fish tank.  and the junk drawer.
  • finish the Farmer's Wife Quilt.  So close!
  • work on various other sewing and quilting projects.
And with that I leave you, Randomday, to go play some more of my Civ IV "Rise of Mankind" game in which I am Empress Wu of the Chinese and it is the year 18 hundred something.  I have pursued a policy of peace and enlightenment throughout the game and am second only to the Ottomans, with whom I am on cordial terms.

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