Survivor

A friend and colleague sent me the following. It will probably only entertain you if you are a teacher. Most non-teachers think that we have a cushy job so if you are a non-teacher read it even though it won't likely entertain you - you need the education. Unfortunately, this is not much of an exaggeration in today's schools.


Have you heard about the next planned "Survivor" show?

Three businessmen and three businesswomen will be dropped into 3
Elementary school classrooms for 6 weeks.

Each business person will be provided with a copy of his/her school
district's curriculum, and a class of 28 students.

Each class will have five learning-disabled children, three with A.D.D.,
one gifted child, and two who speak limited English.

Three will be labeled with severe behavior problems.
Each business person must complete lesson plans at least 3 days in advance with
annotations for curriculum objectives and modify, organize, or create
materials accordingly.

They will be required to teach students, handle misconduct, Implement
technology, document attendance, write referrals, correct homework make
bulletin boards, compute grades, complete report cards, document
benchmarks, communicate with parents, and arrange parent conferences.

They must also supervise recess and monitor the hallways. In addition,
they will complete drills for fire, tornadoes, terrorists and shooting
attacks.

They must attend 100 hours of workshops, faculty meetings, union
meetings, and curriculum development meetings.

They must also tutor those students who are behind and strive to get
their 2 non-English speaking children proficient enough to take the EQAO
tests.

If they are sick or having a bad day, they must not let it show. Each
day they must incorporate reading, writing, math, science, and social
studies into their program.

They must maintain discipline and provide an educationally stimulating
environment at all times.

The business people will only have access to the golf course on the
weekends, but on their new salary they will not be able to afford it
anyway.

There will be no access to vendors who want to take them out to lunch,
and lunch will be limited to 30 minutes.
On days when they do not have recess duty, the business people will be
permitted to use the staff restroom as long as another survival
candidate is supervising their class.

They will be provided with two, 40-minute planning periods per week
while their students are at activity classes. If the copier is operable,
they may make copies of necessary materials at this time.

The business people must continually advance their own education on
their own time, and pay for this advanced training themselves.

This can be accomplished by moonlighting at a second job or marrying
someone with money.

The winner will be allowed to return to his or her former job.

puppy antics and FOs

Robbie surveys the damage done by Bentley. I have yet to meet a puppy that isn't totally entertained by this trick. I think that they are surprised and delighted that the paper just keeps unrolling. Too much fun!

I've found time to finish a couple pairs of socks. It feels good to get them off the needles.

I love these socks! It was so worth knitting the foot on toothpicky 1.75mm DPNs. Very comfy and pretty.

Socks for my sister, before washing and blocking. I was amazed at how impressed people were when I was knitting these socks in public and I told them that the yarn was doing all of the fancy work.

I have started teaching my grade 2's to knit. They're enthusiastic and each needs my two hands at the same time. It's wonderful!

Sunday afternoon

My sister Darcie and my niece Katie brought their two shelties over this afternoon to meet Bentley. Darcie had her camera in the back yard and was snapping pictures of Katie and the dogs playing. As you can see, Katie thought Bentley was very cuddly.

Katie after running around being "herded". She makes an adequate sheep when there aren't any real ones around.

This is what happened when I made kissy noises and said, "Puppy, puppy!" Darcie says that my descendents will remember me from this picture as "that crazy dog lady" in our family history. I can think of worse ways of being remembered.

Harrison is the grand master of teaching puppies their manners around other dogs. He's had a lot of experience. Puppy Kai is a cheeky boy and isn't learning his doggy etiquette very well.

Off to a good start!

I took Bentley to his first show ring experience today. A local dog club was hosting a fun match which is a practice dog show. Considering that it was Bentley's first time on a show lead, he did very well earning Best Puppy In Match! I love showing dogs (especially when we win).

fiber fix

Here are some of the goodies that have come in the mail recently.

This is the Mama Llama sock club's spring package. Very pretty! I love the way she finds the exact right fabric to make the matching sock pouch. The pattern in the package is for a two color sock with a slip stitch cuff, heel, and toe in the variegated yarn and the foot in the solid color.

Some Lorna's Laces in the Yukon colorway. Doesn't it match Bentley nicely? It took me a while to calm him down so that I could get this picture. He would rather have nibbled on the yarn.

Yummy! North Sea Superwash Merino from Blue Ridge Silk Works. This is the first time that I've ordered from this site and the package came promptly. I've never felt lovelier fiber and I'm sure that it will draft like a dream because it can't felt.

I took Pocus and Bentley to school with me this afternoon and the children loved them to pieces. It's such a good opportunity to socialize puppies and educate the kids about responsible pet ownership.

one more

Baby Bentley snoozing with Austin. Okay, everyone together, "Awww...."

Bentley has truly become one of the family. I just adore this little guy and the other dogs have accepted him totally. As you can see, the duck has been replaced by my backyard clog today.

more Bentley pics

These baby pictures were taken this morning in the back yard. Isn't he handsome?

He likes to trot around with things in his mouth. In the house, it's a little duck that quacks. You can hear him coming with its quack, quack, quack, quack, "It's me and my duck. We need some loving." Bentley is the cuddliest little guy. He's happiest when he's close to me, preferably draped over some part of me or cuddled in next to me. He was on my knee when I pulled out my knitting. His little nose was soon buried into the middle of the ball of wool. He is a scenthound after all. I quietly told him no so he snuggled down into my lap. As I was knitting, I felt a little tug on the yarn and looked down to see Bentley fascinated with the movement of the strand coming from the ball. I again said no gently so he left it and snuggled in again for a nap. It will be very easy to spoil this boy.

This one's just for fun. I didn't see the tongue until I was looking at the pictures on the computer. It looks like he's giving me a razzberry!

not knitting

I haven't done any knitting today and this is why! Meet Bentley, my new Miniature Long-Haired Dachshund puppy....

Bentley is almost five months old and is a stunning show prospect. Thanks so much to Daphne Bowering for breeding this lovely boy and allowing me to be Bentley's new mom!

Of course, while I was trying to take some pictures of Bentley, unphotogenic Robbie decided to give me the perfect headshot.

So far, Pocus and the shelties seem just fine with our new addition. Bentley is very sweet and cuddly so is not a threat to anybody else's rank in the pack order of the household.

double blah

If snow in March is blah, snow in April is double blah. These pictures were taken on Tuesday. The upside is that Saskatchewan is farm territory and a lot of the land needed precipitation. Also, snow in April doesn't stick around long. Most of it melted today. The shelties love snow any time of the year.

So not me

I started the Inside/Out Socks from the Socks That Rock club. This is mediumweight Monsoon STR. I have to admit that when I opened the package I was disappointed. This colorway is so not me. However, Geoff spotted it and announced that it would be awesome to have socks made of it. I have never made socks for him, mostly because he is incredibly hard on socks. The more I thought about it I realized that this pattern might be a good one for him. Its garter stitch toe and heel should wear well and the ribbed arch is knit tightly for good wear too. This is the first time I've made a short row toe. I decided to photograph it now before it looks like this.

We're officially on holidays. There's no school next week. Yay!

It's a small world on the internet.

This is one of those stories that just keeps going on and on. When I posted the Reach For The Top photo here I also sent it to a Regina Dog Fancy yahoo group as there was talk on the group about the local guy on Jeopardy. One of the yahoo group members noticed that the commentator in the picture was none other than Bill Stovin, a KAOS (local training and dog sports club) member who went by the stage name of Bill Gerald back then, and asked if she could send the photo to the KAOS members. Bill has worked for CBC forever and forwarded
the picture to some buddies of his who decided to interview Doug in Toronto on the CBC radio morning show this morning and they put the picture on their website here. In the meantime, Doug and another high school friend found my blog through Google and left comments for me. The internet makes it such a small world!

Here's what the dogs usually do when I'm on the computer.