Bzzzzzzzz!

Here's a nifty little energizer for anyone who works with children. When they get cranky and need to re-focus, this is a good one:

Do this with your hands:

Tap tap (on knees) Clap clap (repeat ad nauseum)

Say:

Flee (children repeat each line after you say it)
Flee fly
Flee fly flow
Flee - fly - flow - mosquito
Oh, no no no more mosquitoes!
Itchy itchy scratchy scratchy
Oo! I got one down my backy!
Get that big bad bug with the bug spray.
Shhhhhhhhhhh (make bug spray noise)

A variation is available here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY-KjQ0ebAo to get the general idea of how it's performed.

The Thin Pink Line

Elementary school teachers are supposed to be sweet. We're supposed to be kind. We're supposed to be mild-mannered. We wear pink. We hand out birthday pencils. We explain how rainbows work.

As the Powers-That-Be continue to rain down new requirements upon my children, I find myself getting less so by the minute.

No six year old should sit in his classroom weeping because the testing is stressing him out. Last month said PTB began demands to I test my children on things that are not even in our curriculum - the curriculum I was assigned, not one I chose.

More and more, I am the person standing between the educational policy makers and my children. More and more, I stridently insist that I will not disseminate this insanity to the first grade.

This, folks, is why I need tenure. Not just to protect me - to protect THEM.