Adventures in Teaching

Most of my current teaching is in a middle school. If you ask anyone in the know about teaching, most of them, upon hearing you teach in a middle school, usually say some variant of "I'm sorry." And I've found that to be true. Many of these kids are sweet as can be, but many are evil, soulless, and miserable excuses for human beings.

Case in point: I teach music as part of a set of cycle courses. I see a part of the school for eight weeks, then those kids move on and I get a new group. Yesterday was the last day of the first cycle. One kid slipped a note onto my cart (yep, I'm one of those teachers) before she left that said "You are the best mucie teacher ever." Awwww. In another class, some kids had these parting words for me: "You'll last here. We never made you cry!"

To change the subject slightly, I also spend a half hour each week with a handicapped pre-k class. This week, when the class was close to ending, I didn't turn off the CD of children's music I was using fast enough, and the song "Skinnamarink" came on. Instead of turning it off, I kept the kids in their circle and had them follow along in the song with me while I did the arm movements, which I don't think I've done in 20 years. If I did them wrong, I thought, I'll change it next week and the kids won't even remember. Imagine my surprise to go to YouTube and find out that I had them right. Woo!

Intentional or not?

I watched the beginning of last night's hockey game between the New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers at Jarret's house. Jarret lives in that part of New Jersey that gets New York and Philly stations, so the game was beign covered on two channels.

The interesting thing about this game, the Flyers' home opener of the season, was that the ceremonial first puck was going to be dropped by "America's favorite hockey mom," Sarah Palin. Jarret and I were eagerly glued to the tv, waiting for the crowd's reaction.

On the Philly station, there were no mics picking up crowd noise. You just heard the ceremonial music as she walked out. On the New York station, you heard what we were waiting for: Booing. Lots of it.

The question is - did Comcast (who owns the Flyers and the tv station that broadcasts their games) intentionally mean to block the sound?

It's official: The entire country's been RickRoll'D.

Ever since the RickRoll meme has become popular, more radio stations have been adding the song to their rotation. At least the ones I listen to anyway. More people are becoming reacquainted with the two decades old Rick Astley pop tune, but I think we're feeling a little more exuberant about it this time around.

Last weekend, Jarret and I were wandering around CVS, waiting for the nearby Chinese takeout place to complete our order, when that familiar drum machine beat kicked in over the speakers. We turned to each other, giggling, whispering "hey, we're getting RickRoll'D." Then we looked around us and realized that everyone in the store, men and women of all ages, had stopped what they were doing to dance in the aisles. And I am not kidding.

A middle couple were undertaking some ballroom swing by the still-too-early-to-be-on-shelves Halloween candy, while some teenagers were bouncing up and down by the cash registers. My boyfriend and I stood by the tissue boxes, confused as hell.

(The second presidential debate is going to start in about fifteen minutes, in a town hall style format. If one of the questioners manages to start with "We're no strangers to love. You know the rules, and so do I," they'll be my new hero.)