School and the City

About a year ago, I created a monster: the Tattle Monster.  I saw the idea on Pinterest. If someone is hurt, the kids are supposed to come tell me. If no one is hurt, a student can write his or her tattle on a slip of paper and feed it to the Tattle Monster for me to read later.  #NEVERFORGET It worked GREAT last year. This year, not so much.  Today, after recess, I had four kids crowded around the Tattle Monster. I shooed them away and saw that I had 15 tattles in the box... from this morning only. FIFTEEN.  So I said, "This is the end of the Tattle Monster" and all of these things about how maybe we should all just be nice to each other so that no one has tattles to write. I may have gotten a little caught up in my not-so-kind speech about kindness that I may have made a big show of throwing the Tattle Monster in the trash can.  We're lining up to switch classes in 30 seconds, I told myself, I'll just get it out of the t...

"Can I help you?" asked the Home Depot man. "Yes please. Want to guess what I'm making?" "Ummm is it legal?" Either he didn't see my shirt that says iTEACH in giant letters or he doesn't think very highly of teachers.  I informed Home Depot man that it is very common for teachers to make fluency phones with PVC pipes and that whisper phones are in fact legal and that I couldn't get the parts to fit together like I needed them to. He said, "That's because you need a PIPE, honey." It was a little more complicated than I expected it to be.  The pipe that Home Depot man picked out for me was a 2 ft long, 3/4 in (diameter?) pipe. He cut it for me at the store... after I laughed when he asked me if I had a saw at home.  No husband = no saw, obviously. He cut the pipe into seven 4-inch pieces.   Because I had 7 pipes, I grabbed 14 of the 3/4 inch, 90 degree "elbows," as Home ...