Thursday Thirteen

I honor of my dear friend's new baby girl, Paizlei Kaiton Ross, born yesterday morning, I am highlighting 13 of the most unusual names that I have loved hearing over the years. Of course you will recognize my #1!!

• Alexandra Hunter
• Copper
• Beckett
• Atticus
• Harper
• Ella
• Ava
• Dax
• Thomas (for a girl)
• Dickens (I know a girl with this name, love it!)
• Max
• Legare (Leh-gree, if you know your Charleston history)
• Tradd (again, old Charleston!)

SO...here's your assignment, comment back and leave your personal and original favorites!!

Psalm 113

You just gotta check out God in the flesh....my friend Michelle is finally pregnant. It is a miracle and I can't wait to nestle in and read all about it. She has another blog, Infertility & Adoption that she also posts to, however, with this NEW MIRACLE....a new blogging life has begun. Check it out here, Psalm 113. Thank you Michelle for sharing this hope with us all. Love you Sweetie!

Ten Things Tuesday...

Ten things I like (love!) about teaching all boys!

• bathroom break after lunch takes all of 2 minutes!
• no nail polish fumes during silent reading time
• note-passing days are history!
• constructive chaos is the norm
• no spend the night drama to deal with after a long weekend
• recess is actually filled with sports
• gossip...what's gossip??
• parasites, pillbugs, and worms....YES!
• being the ONLY diva in my classroom now
• seeing their smiles each day b/c they know they're having fun learning

You teach all what?!?!

Boys...you got it, the other sex. The ones that don't get it right until they're 40. We are the only school piloting single-gender 5th grade classes this year in our district of 17 elementary schools. There is one class of girls (too much drama for me!) and a class of boys. All mine, 17 perfect gentlemen. Or atleast they will be when I'm done with 'em!

Actually, I am loving it, having always been partial to boys and the male brain my whole life anyway. NO...get your minds out of the gutter people. Even my parents will tell you I had closer guy friends my whole life. Boys for me never had the cattiness that girls enthrall themselves in as kids, adolescents, teens, young ladies, women, old hags, etc... I could tell my mother that I was over at Grey and Eric's house, no problem. Over at Resa's...be home at 11:30pm sharp. Point being, my brain, stereotypically speaking is not of a female. I'm serious. Looking back I was ADHD as a female and undiagnosed. I was loud, creative, afraid of nothing, fear fueled me and competition gave me an inner drive. I was crazy about math and science, hated books, and wanted to try anything....once. Humor and being the class clown gave me an edge to being liked by random walks of life. SOoooooooo with all of that said, when it comes to teaching, I throw that and the kitchen sink into my bag of tricks. When I think of the teachers that I had growing up, and the times I was actively engaged in my work, it was moments where I had teachers that understood my antsy-ness and used it to my advantage. When teachers took my level of energy and put it to good use, not to mindless worksheets and diagraming sentences (bless Patty Barron's heart!) I was unstoppable. I am thoroughly enjoying coming home exhausted each day, it's fun all over again for me.

I guess for the many people that are against separating genders, I have this to say about that. We are not regressing as a nation to a time where girls and boys are made to be separate but equal. Single gender and what we expect of the two differences are everywhere, whether you realize it or not. If you have children of both sexes, single-gender lives in your house. You know what I mean here. If you are married, single-gender still lives in your house, and you know what I mean here as well. Our standards for teaching doesn't change. The expectation for ALL students to learn doesn't change. The paths that we decide to take our single-gender classes down is different, but our destination is the very same.....mine's just a lot noisier.