termite food and sam paper

tonight i'm working on grading a few more practice tests. it's the last of the high class...scores were low. (but i personally think it was one of the harder release tests i've given-there are about 3 questions that could really go either way). it's been depressing grading, so i'm saving the low class for tomorrow when the majority of the class will be out on a field trip, that way perhaps i can avoid the grave demeanor before they show up. i really expected them to do so much better.

oh well, as my friend bmayes would say,sing, 'you can't always get what you want..' (and then she'd come up with some clever lyrics to match the occasion).

on the way home i stopped into the family dollar store to get sandpaper for a project, hoping they'd have it so that i could get in and out real cheap. well, i went in and didn't see it, but there was a young man stocking the shelves, so i asked him, "do you know if you carry sandpaper?"  he acted as if they did and he came down toward me, then turned from the little bitty tool area i was looking at to the shelf behind me and started reading the labels. "there's wax paper..foil paper..no, i don't see it here, but wait.." and as i was following him to the next aisle (where i had just checked), i said, "you know, it's used to sand wood, and make things smooth." he kinda nodded and kept walking to the envelopes, posterboard, notebooks... "i don't see any 'sam-paper' but i'll ask just to make sure." and he came back with the answer i expected, (so i had to go to tom thumb, because it was next door and on my way home as well-i really didn't want to go too far out of the way)...and because i don't want my students to end up being that young man, i try to show them things and teach them as much vocabulary as possible.

of course the problem with going into tom thumb is that i knew i would have to purchase some other things...honeydew melon to dehydrate..steak to make more jerky...soy sauce to marinate the steak, to make the jerky (did that sound a little like the old woman who swallowed the fly? because that's the effect i was going for)...and diet coke because i don't want to go all the way over to bed bath and beyond for my soda stream diet coke mix...and what a rip..they changed it to 20 cans and they cost even more. jerks. so i got 2 snickers bars to make me feel better.

and i have decided that it's a shame to sharpen all of these pencils at school and not recycle the wood shavings, so i have decided that maybe we can package it to make and sell "termite food" i mean with the graphite in it, maybe it would kill them..

or it could backfire and they could grow a lead shell that makes them unstoppable little tanks..ok, maybe just throwing it away will have to do for now.

well, i'm off to finish grading, then use my 'sam-paper'
have a fabulous evening!

julie