"The Crucible" and Napoleon Bonaparte... Well, maybe later.

My sweet 4th and Inches. Ever the beneficiary of my procrastinating ways. Do I have 138 ungraded essays in my bag? Yes. Do I run to you for shelter from my looming stack of rubrics waiting to be marked up? Sincerely, I do.

First, we should probably talk about the weather. Fall is hands down my favorite season of the year: the trees, the leaves, the hot drinks, the scarves, the hats, the crispness of the air, the ability to have over four sports on TV to choose from on any given day, the raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens. The problem, none of this is actually happening. "Fall" here in California really only occurs late at night, and for the first hour after the sun is up in the morning. If it's consistently 85* outside during the day, it is not Fall. I'm doing my best given the circumstances, so recently I wore a beanie with a short sleeve shirt... It didn't make sense, but hipsters woulda loved it.

As far as school goes, here are a few updates:
1. I had a student removed in the middle of class by a campus supervisor for being high. That was a first.
2. Everyday I give a different, and often random, "Did you know?" fact to start class. Sometimes the kids are not so impressed that the last time we had a bearded President was in 1893, but recently I've discovered they are suckers for animal facts. Their minds were blown last week when I told them baby giraffes drop six feet to the ground when they're born. Because that is hilarious. (They were also alarmed to find out about the "giant river otters" that live in the Amazon and are, on average, SIX feet long. Consequently, they are now the source of many nightmares to come.)
3. When asking them to characterize a girl from the play we were reading, I had a student use a word so vulgar that it totally froze me in my tracks. In a flustered state-of-mind, I had him "repeat-after-me" a credo I made up in that instant in which he vowed to never say the word to or about a real human being. I'm sure this taught him a lesson.
4. Confession... we had a few extra minutes in class, so I showed them this video in preparation for Halloween.

Here's to your week NOT involving an encounter with a giant river otter. Or a live giraffe birth.