2/09/11: A Compliment, A Masterpiece, and an Ugly Spool (Blog 2)

Miss Q was feeling pretty awesome today. She told me.

She probably also might have shown you a picture of two of her babies and stopped you to have you read an AHmazing piece of writing.

But first things first.

Today, Miss Q got to observe Big L and Socrates do their thing with Crossroads.

'Nice projection voice, Big L' wrote Miss Q.

Socrates speaks articulately. Duh. You can tell he's gone over the material and when answering a question, often goes beyond it. His sarcasm and sense of humor serves him well here.

"Mr. Lancaster is quite the ladies man back there." Giggles. He had a bit of of a rapport (as in resonance, compatibility, accord; a sympathetic relationship or understanding) with a few of the males.

They also did a good job with getting the younguns to think and to challenge each other during the drug trivia game. However, Miss Q questions the team's basic counting ans spelling skills, as pointed out unanimously by the class.  Not that it made them lose credibility.

Miss Q smiled as she watched Big L correct the kids when all of them got it wrong.

"No! It's steroids."
"That's why they're the Crossroads Teacher's and ya'll can count." added Miss Q.

Fun. Fun. Fun.

Then, Miss Q went over to Anderson to see her kids, escorted by Ms. Scoutticus and Miss R.

Q-tip of the Day: Q-tips In Their Ears refers to Miss Q giving daily examples and life lessons, not grooming sessions, and certainly not that other thing you were thinking when you first read it.

After wishing Air-bear and Stewbeef (Los Compadres Profesoros) good luck on their teaching with the 3rd graders, Mrs. R came with me to Miz Boss' room.

Miss Q didn't take two steps through the door before stopped by a wide-eyed Zefron.

"I did it Miss Q. I did what I was supposed to do."
"Glad you manned up."

This was refering to his binding obligation to escort the redheaded Mariska exactly one lap and say that he liked her. Of course, this was Nancy Drew's doing, along with her best friend Princesstard.

"I didn't hold her hand, though." Miss Q's disappointment was written all over her face.

Miss Q thought she noticed CP had new glasses. No, I've had these said CP. Miss Q can be a bit unobservant at times. However, she did notice the Miss Beiber had straightened her hair, usually blondish, thick, and wavy.

Mrs. R likes 4th grade. I introduced her to a few of him.

"There's Dubby. He's got a trick." 
Dubby can stick his tougue out and touch the back of his head. He can also stick his head through a a little tiny hole.

As Miss Q and Miss R watched them do cursive, Miss Q caught some of their eyes as they worked. Either to say hi, or to get em' back on task.

When they lined up for Spanish, Fruitbat made a come-over gesture. Fruitbat is quiet, quirky, and at times cuttingly insightful. Miss Q sometimes has to ignore her when she has these 'little secrets', if only to keep from laughing too hard.

"Pssst."

Miss Q walks over.

"You're a good dancer."

Aww Fruitbat, you're making her blush! Fruitbat of course announced earlier that she had seen Miss Q onstage for Hairspray. It was strange for her to think about her kids, watching her in the audience.

In Art, they were weaving little tapestries. You know the ones with a weft and a wight or something like that? Miss Q took a photo.

FruitBat's art piece.

Speaking of masterpieces, Nancy Drew wrote the most amazing paper. The assignment was just to write a sentence including each of the vocabulary words. Not Nancy Drew. Her paper is typed and ... well, see for yourself.

To get a better view, right click, select open link in new window, then click that. Then the text will be larger.

The Gage didn't seem to be in a good mood today, because he was acting a bit smart alecky.

"Who wants to sit by themselves?"

"I do!"

Finally, when Gage got told to sit by himself he said "Thank you."

"Your welcome." replied the Art Teacher, not missing a beat. Miss Q came over and asked him how he was doing and he said fine. He was happy to explain how the weaving worked. Miss Q loves The Gage.

The art room was layed out with colorful spools of thread. Yarn was everywhere. Walking around, Miss Q admired all the colors and patterns being used, but she couldn't help but notice a lonely spool of tan and pink thread.

"Why is no one using this one?" She asked, playfully.

"Cause it's ugly!" said Idaho. Fate agreed wholeheartedly.

"No it's not." Miss Q defended on behalf of the poor spool. Everyone at the table seemed to agree that it was Ugly, though. Who knew what was going on in Miss Q's head, but she felt a touch of sympathy for the poor thing.

"Hey Uniqua (formerly known as Monet)"

"Yeah?"

"Wouldn't you want to use this thread?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Cuz it's ugly Miss Q. You know it's ugly."

Oh, but Miss Q pretended not to know. Eventually, she got Memphis to use it. She has a picture of Fate and Zefron holding the Ugly Spool but I told she 'sho nuf' better not post them without permission.

That's it for today. Isn't that story AHmazing though? Miss Q read it to a certain employed adult who prefers to remain anon. Her reaction?

"She writes better than some of my staff!"

Miss Q agrees. It's that good.



2/04/11: Puxatani Field Day? (Blog 1)

'Hopefully the stick I put in the door will still be there' thought Miss Q as she left the Ashley building.

The door was usually locked from the outside. You couldn't get back in and therefore you had to walk all the way to the front of the school to get back in for lunch. Not Miss Q. Hopefully, no one would remove the stick and no insane shooters would sneak in.

As always, the Anderson hallways were brightly lit and there was plenty of cheer to go around. Like a disease, it had even spread to the custodians. Elementary staff is like that.

By the time Miss Q arrived, Miz Boss was about to line the kids up for lunch. Miss Q wondered what would happened if she tried to walk in sort of nonchalantly. You know. Incognito.

"MISS Q!!"

Not Happening. When they lined up, Miss Q got to observe a great moment though. The Boss was not happy.

"I am sick and tired of gum chewing in this classroom. Really! I'm tired of asking. Miss Beiber, Monet, you have an N now." Aww man. Monet gave a huff. Miss Bieber as always had her usual sly look. The whole class was silent however. Miz Boss's bad side, though never loud or abrasive and carried out in a business-like tone, wasn't a comfy spot.

"I stopped Miz Boss. I haven't chewed any gum." said Beancurd, deciding it a good time to clear his name.

"No. Actually you did. I saw you yesterday."

'Shouldn't have said anything, Beancurd' thought Miss Q.

There would be some drama for her to try to sort out at lunch. However on the way to lunch, Nancy Drew had a fact to deliver.

"Happy Puxatanifield Day! (AKA Groundhog Day)" Miss Q made sure to write that down...

Isn't Groundhog day in the Spring?

"Miss Q, why is your hair so puffy?" CP (that stands for Class President), always with tons of enthusiasm, wanted to know.
Good question. Miss Q's curly afro was indeed something worth assessing. Miz Boss saved her though.

"What dya think happened to my hair. Yeah, wind. Wind." Haha.

Miss Q ended up dealing with plenty of drama at lunch.
Beancurd and Miss Beiber have an ongoing, intense, malicious and backbiting rivalry. Despite this, the two still prefer to always be near each other. Kind of like two cats who try to walk away but always go back because they refuse to leave their backs open.

Monet was also mad at Beancurd for being a 'snitch'. Miss Q felt she did a pretty good job of handling that one.

"...So who's fault is it you got in trouble?"
A huff.
"Mine." she admitted. Miss Q was proud of Monet's humility... odd as that sounds.
"So can we give Beancurd a break?"
"Yes..."

After that, Miss Q was kept busy all throughout lunch trying to distract Beancurd from his focus on Miss Beiber. He actually came and sat next to Miss Q to explain what was going on. She did her best to point out that for every three "she did this"s he had sneakily snuck in something he had done to keep the drama going.

"So what should you do next time?" asked Miss Q
"Tell the teacher. But I did and she kept..."

So then Miss Q decided to help him calm down by distracting him. Turn around Beancurd. That's right. So, you go to the Mustard Seed?

The Mustard Seed is where Miss Q wants to work during the summer. She considers it an extenstion of her childhood afterschool program, the Brigade Boys and Girls club, because it's run by the same people. Fate, who sat across from me, simply wasn't invested in all the drama. We did get some discussion in about the Mustard Seed (Fate goes there) and she said she would beg the people to let me work there.

Miss Q loves Fate very much.

Fate loves attention, but at least she interrupted politely. Lately, Miss Q had been teaching the chilluns to say "Excuse me", when they simply can't hold in their statements.

Miss Q ought to watch Miss Bieber though. By almost all accounts she seems to be the center of most of the trouble. By the time she gets to her, she's all sly smile, half-lidded eyes, and a shrug.

Miz Boss had one last message for everyone when they got back:

Don't get mad because you got caught. Tattling, chewing gum, and name-calling are not cool. It's wrong to tattle but it's also wrong to break the rule to begin with. Now, were done. I'm very upset with you.

Now notice why Miss Q loves Miz Boss. The kids look at her almost like you would a court judge or someone completely trustworthy. She doesn't go for excuses.  Miz Boss often becomes the Overseer of Justice in sticky situations. But just from watching her, Miss Q has learned to imitate that quality. During lunch, Miss Q began to pull out kids to talk to them, and she became the Overseer of Justice. But the most amazing thing was that Miss Q, despite only being Miss Q, had earned the right to judge somehow.
Somewhere along the way, she had become trustworthy enough to handle the great complaint of She's Talking About Me.

Even now, Miss Q sort of puffs out her chest. "Of course they come to me." she insists. "They know I watch them. They know they better have their stories straight."

Of course, Miss Beiber and Beancurd will probably still be at it the next day.

"I saw you say something to him, Miss Beiber. I hope it was nice!"