I'm warnin' you...

this will be a post full of random floofy schmoopers. (Okay, I think that phrase is from "Friends" and for some reason, I can't get it out of my head. It's just funny.)

Anyway - as I said, on with the randomness - expect bullets thoughout the post.

First off, I have been remiss in not adding my friend Jaime's blog to my list at the right. You've got to check her out - great photos, great videos. I used to work with Jaime at the Eagle (photo chicks!) and her reading blog really is like hanging out with her. Or, the closest I can get to it from three hours away.

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Today at school was a great day. All my classes went well, and we had something called the "Arts Potpourri." It was basically like a two-hour pep assembly of sorts, only people were watching/visiting the drama students, choir students, drumline, jazz band, painting students and ceramics students. It's really a chance for students to see what all those classes entail, so that when enrollment comes around in a few weeks (god), they might decide to sign up. There was even a video describing working on the newspaper and yearbook.

Imagine my chagrin when the VERY FIRST student quoted in the piece said "Newspaper's really fun, and stuff, we like, celebrate everybody's birthdays, and have lots of parties. It's just...it's really fun."

Um, okay. Yes, we DO have food days. But the last thing I want is for every slacker in the school to join newspaper 'cause we like to party...we like...we like to party...

The biggest irony in all of that is that we have sort of put a moratorium on parties for the time being because the kids can't clean up after themselves. Literally one hour before the TV piece aired, we had a hee-uge talk about it during newspaper class. The come-to-Jesus meeting must have worked, though, because at the end of worknight tonight, all were scurrying around throwing away trash and closing up the food.

Oh, and the one time during the video that they mentioned my name, it came out like this: "So, if you're interested in joining newspaper or yearbook, talk to your counselor or see Mrs. Cheeetum in room 450."

But I digress. The real reason I mentioned Arts Potpourri is because I continue to be amazed at the talent level of high school students. The visual artists, musicians and singers put on an incredible show. I think that's part of why I like teaching high school so much. At this point in their lives, students are still doing so much exploring of things they like to do, and things they are good at. I suppose I've always been surrounded by creative people, working for newspapers, but the raw talent you see in teens is a sight to behold. I hope that all of the "working" stiffs I know still take as much pride and joy in their jobs/careers/lives/whatevers. Even if what your favorite thing to do isn't necessarily what you get paid for (i.e. knitting) find the time to do it. It'll make the bad days on your job so much better.

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One of my former students, Trina, is in KC this weekend, passing through town. She's stopping by school for a visit tomorrow. I'm so glad we were able to connect while she's here.

She's the one on the left. That's Sami (in green) and Bonnie (with her arm around me). They were my senior editors last year, and Amy took this photo of us on the convention trip at the Gaylord Hotel in Nashville. It was a wonderful trip - can't think of three better students to travel with. As journalism advisers, a lot of times, you hear horror stories about groups of students on these trips - smuggling "drinks" sneaking out, etc. I'm lucky to have been blessed with good kids so far along in my career.

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It seems like there were a million other things I wanted to post about today, but I guess I'll have to wait on most of them. I do have one more thing, though, since all of my friends are posting photos of their kids dressed up for Halloween:

Here's a photo of my "KID" dressed up for Halloween.