Silly putty, sticky hands, and fart goo...

Apologies for missing the past couple of days. This was the first genuinely beautiful weekend of the season. It was sunny and warm. I spent most of the weekend with my boyfriend tooling around in our convertible. That alone is a good thing.

My enjoyment of the good weather actually started on Friday during the school day. Friday we had our spring Renaissance assembly followed by a celebratory event for the students who have maintained awesome attendance, grades, and discipline or who have made substantial improvement.

Because my student teacher is fully engaged with my classes and I had not scheduled any observations for the day, I wandered down to the Activities office early to see if there was anything I could do to help.


The amazing teacher who runs our Renaissance program looked a little frazzled. She was speed walking from one area to another trailed by an ever-changing array of student helpers.


I volunteered to help and headed out to the track where the celebration was to take place. I missed most of the assembly. But I did get to see the orderly and excited mass of students roam down the hill from the building to the field.

I got to see the kids swarm the silly carnival games and mock-fight for even sillier prizes: silly putty, sticky hands, fart goo, stickers, and plastic noise makers.

I watched them laze about on the field or walk the track.

They mobbed the popcorn and cotton candy machines, crammed against the counter for thrown candy, and chased the Assistant Principal handing out pretzels.

Despite all this chaos, it was a pretty orderly group, clearly having a good time. It was nice to see them relax, eat, and laugh. It was awesome to see the teachers and students who volunteered to help work without complaint to set up and clean up.

It was gorgeous afternoon made special by getting to hang out with students being rewarded for making good choices every day. It was a good weather thing and a good school thing.