Today was a mini college fair at my school.    You know… every single student at my school is college bound, so we need to bring the colleges to them.  During 1st hour and home room was the time for the seniors to go to the fair.  Yes, those same seniors that by now, should already have their applications done or have a pretty good idea of what they are doing after high school.

I started second hour and noticed a familiar odor.  I don’t personally have experience with this substance, but have had enough encounters for it to be recognizable.  I tried to isolate the source of the smell, but before I could really narrow it down, the principal comes over the P.A. system to invite all of those college bound juniors to the fair.  So the juniors up and left, and so did the stench.

The remaining handful of students learned the new material with me and are now ahead of the others.  With about ten minutes left of class, the juniors returned.  Along with their return, was the return of the stench.  But this time, it was much more intense.  With the commotion of everyone coming and going, the smell didn’t completely permeate the room for a few minutes.  I tried to get something taught, all the while I’m wandering throughout the room, taking deep breaths through my nose.  (I’m sure you can picture me subtly doing this…)  Alas, we run out of time and the bell rings.

As the culprit exits the room, she leaves such a potent scent that we have to open the windows.  This is not the time of the year when opening the windows has any advantage other than some fresh air.  I have a pretty good idea of who it was, but I’m not completely sure.  I have no idea if her assistant principal followed up on my suspicion later in the day.  But it is pretty clear that she was definitely taking advantage of the college fair!

If you leave your iPhone on your desk, unattended, it’s your own damn fault if it gets stolen.

1.  Electronic devices like that aren’t allowed in school.

2.  Since you’re not supposed to have it in school, I don’t care if someone took it!

3.  If you get it back, you should be smart enough to learn the lesson that you should have never had it out in the first place!

Did the lesson get learned today?  I’m not sure.  Who was the thief?

Me.

Sometimes I just can’t resist a little joking with the kids to teach them a lesson.  Larry had left his iPhone on his desk and was trying to win a CD for New Tunes Tuesday on our morning announcements.  That involves being the 3rd caller to the room that does the tv production stuff.  So Larry had gone to the phone to call.  The iPhone is just sitting there.  I couldn’t just leave it.  It was too enticing to pass up!  So I casually walk by and grab it.  I was just going to shut the thing off, but honestly, I couldn’t figure out how.  I did see that he was on Facebook…  So I decided to just put it in my drawer under my overhead projector for the time being.

Larry comes back to his desk and realizes that the iPhone has disappeared.  He starts asking his friends and they all play along and say they don’t have it.  I innocently ask, “Larry, what’s going on?”

“Nothin’.” – he’s obviously starting to worry.

I let him squirm for a few minutes.  Timing is everything here.  You don’t want them to work themselves into a tizzy.  Once they’ve gone off the deep end with worry about losing their expensive gadget you never know if you can get them back.  Plus, his friends were going to cave.

“Larry, is this what you’re looking for?” – iPhone in my hand, twinkle in my eye.

Relief comes across his face.  He’s darn lucky that it’s me who has his toy.  But for now, it’s mine.  So it gets locked in the closet for the remainder of the period.  A small price to pay for leaving your iPhone unattended.

When do you ever really feel your core?  Lately, I’ve been feeling it a lot.  I recently took up kettlebells.  This one little piece of equipment completely kicks my ass.  As you can see, it’s 26 pounds.  There are a variety of things you can do with it.  But the beauty of it is that you don’t have to do much to see/feel a difference.

I started doing kettlebells because I was feeling like I had lost muscle strength over the last few years.  My massage therapist recommended kettlebells and there just happens to be a class every Tuesday and Thursday morning at that location.  I was only able to go to four classes in June.  But I signed up for all of July.  I have another teacher friend that is doing it.  We basically figured that if we signed up for the month we’d actually do it.

The first time I did kettlebells I was so sore that I could hardly move.  I haven’t been that sore since I hiked the Inca trail!  (~30 miles and 6000 steps over the course of 4 days).  I was so sore that I had to put my hands on the toilet seat and lower myself down. Sorry for that visual, but you have no idea how much of a workout you’re going to get.

The main thing that you do are swings.  You are in a squatting position and you hold the bell with both hands and swing it between your legs.  You stand on the upswing and tighten your butt.  On the downswing, you bend your knees and then do it all over again.  You keep doing it until you’re fatigued.  It doesn’t take long.

There’s also a lift where you start with the bell on the ground and do sort of a “clean and jerk” up to your shoulder.  After you get it into that position, you use your other hand for stability and squat down all the way.  Then as you stand you bring the bell up so your arm is extended over your head.  We do this several times.  Last week I accidentally bonked myself in the cheek on the way up.  At least it was with my hand and not the bell!  You can also do curls with it (when you hold it with both hands).

Another thing we’ve done to work our core is to be in a push up position.  Your back is parallel with the ground, so there’s a slight bend at your waist.  (It’s different from plank position in yoga.)  Pick up your right hand and bring it to your waist without shifting your weight.  Then do it with the left.  It’s amazing how much this works your core.

It’s not like we do a gazillion reps of any of this.  Just a little goes a long way.  And the beauty of it, is once you learn the different things to do, you can easily do them on your own.  Have I done that yet?  Not exactly.  I’ve done some swings at home, but that’s about it.  But I do have the knowledge.  And that’s a start.

what you’ll find during locker clean out.

Yesterday was the big locker clean out. I’ve been doing this extra job for at least 5 years now. For the job, I’m responsible for assigning the lockers in the fall, and cleaning them out in the spring. At clean out time, I also change the combinations.

This is a big job, but my predecessor taught me how to make it easier. I hire about 5 students to help. And in the last 2 years, I’ve had a few help me with changing the combinations. Every year we seem to be getting more efficient. This year, I sent the last of my helpers home a mere 3 hours after we started.

Normally we just find books, papers and clothing. But this year there were a few interesting finds…

Helper #1: What should I do with this?

Me: Throw it in the trash!

He was holding a condom.

I was taking the trash out of one locker and found an empty Plan B box. If you don’t know what that is, you can ask around…

Helper #2: Is that a nut cup?!?

It’s good that I had latex gloves. I don’t know if I would have realized what I was picking up. I was just thinking about getting all of the trash taken care of instead of the contents.

Locker clean out is a true signal that it’s the end of the year. Only a few days to go!

I’ve never thought of myself as someone with a good sense of smell.  Depending on the situation, this can be a good thing or a bad thing.  (I have a friend that is a surgeon that is very thankful for his poor sense of smell.)  It’s not that I can’t smell things.  It’s just that I’m not very discerning.

For instance, I’m taking another wine class right now.  Do I smell the peaches or apricots?  Nope.  I know that I like what I’m smelling, but that’s about it.

On Thursday morning I smelled that all too familiar smell of weed.  Some kid had just gotten high and must have walked by my door.  It was that smell that seemed to be combined with a touch of sweaty, dirty clothing.  You can’t help but make a face when thinking of this smell.

I walked into the stairwell.  Nothin’.  Every other kid in the hallway noticed it and was wondering where it was coming from.  I even innocently said to one of them, “This is pot we’re smelling, right?”  Head nods.

All day I could faintly smell this stinky stuff.  Finally when 4th hour came around I asked another teacher if he could smell it.  He could.  But barely.  I was guessing that it was in a locker.  That teacher was on prep and informed an assistant principal.  Sure enough, after a little searching…  Jackpot.  The clothing in the locker just wreaked.

I’m kind of amazed at myself.  Normally I’m not that astute at catching kids that have smoked something.  I usually consider myself pretty clueless when it comes to that stuff.  I’m quite innocent, you see.    Score one for Ms. B!