all aboard

In the continuing saga of Good Day/Bad Day/Smart Teacher/Loser Teacher, today's Literature students (including The Defiant One) came up with brilliant Catcher in the Rye insights (such as "Holden fails at school because it's the only way he can get his parents' attention." Agh, wow) AND nobody moved to put on backpacks until a mere two minutes before the end of class; that is possibly a school record.

Then the Creative Writing class was significantly more focused on the start-of-class prompt (until this afternoon, I've given reminders daily that a) everyone must write something during the 10 minutes and b) there is no talking while writing and c) giggling, drawing, & writing notes is like talking) AND they were highly attentive during the story I read AND they nodded smartly while I reviewed the main points of putting together an interesting short story AND they carefully watched Tiny Toy Stories, laughed in the appropriate places, and completed [without complaints or shouts of I DON'T GET IT, requests for me to repeat the instructions, or blank stares] a story elements worksheet about the video.

So I busted out the always-beloved reward [second only to Pizza Party] of game time for the last 15 minutes of the day. And I played all the Ozzy Osbourne on my iPod, because it's his birthday and because it seemed so right. (For those keeping track of my fairness quotient: I realize my 2nd period class didn't get in on the reward action, but I did give them half a period of games last Monday).

Happy birthday, Ozzman.

And to you, too, Randy.

Heaven will be rocking this weekend.