The Shoe I Drew in 3rd Grade

Sorry it's been so long since I posted. The truth is, I got this haircut that is accidentally way too short and it makes me feel pretty (wait for it. . .) anti-social. I just hate for people to have to see me, acknowledge it, and tell me how they happen to like long hair better but it's great for me. A few people just look at me and quickly look away. These are the people I admire most. I guess this anti-social behavior has spilled over into my blogging but that doesn't make sense because you can't see me. Or can you?

I've also been spending a lot of time in my son's 3rd grade classroom. Why? No real reason. Not to brag, well rather. . . to brag: he's super smart and very nice and, honestly--most people who interact with him at church (etc) tell me that he is wonderful. I'm just saying. (He's a little different from Ben who just last Sunday threw a remote control into my step-dad's new, big, plasma screen tv. They do shatter--in case you were wondering.) Anyway, Sam was all worried about his "champ cash" (or lack thereof) which is some kind of reward system used by his teacher because apparently one must offer up champ cash in exchange for privileges such as going to the bathroom. When we asked about it, the teacher described my son as "spacey," and often in "la-la land." Now, it is true that I DO have a Master's degree in rhetoric so I am perhaps more sensitive to connotations of certain words; nevertheless, a discussion of "focus" and "concentration" might have gone over a tad better--word to the wise!

So now I'm volunteering in the classroom. Sam's teacher often tells me to go home because she doesn't need/want my help but I am persistent. I have noticed a lot of differences since I was in 3rd grade. First of all, I must have been A LOT better than my son because I just found a box of my old work from grade school and I had 100% on everything. It was, in fact, stamped on everything. "100% Good Job! Perfect!" Like on everything! Sam brings home work that is actually graded. Apparently, they don't just stamp 100% on stuff anymore. It's all, "92%" or whatever. I know for a fact people care a lot more about self-esteem now than they did then and yet here they are squelching it with scores at every turn.

And another thing they do now is self-evaluation. I didn't self-evaluate until I was in college. Even then I felt a little weird about it but I still gave myself an A. These kids have to fill out an evaluation after every single "center." They rate themselves from 1-5 (5 being the highest). I have never seen anyone give themself a 5. It's weird. The closest thing I found to a self-evaluation in my old school papers was a "get to know you" worksheet wherein I had to tell what my best subject was. My response? Art, of course. Here is some evidence of my 3rd grade art talent.
This is the side view of a tennis shoe. Quite frankly, I'm surprised that I said Art was my best subject. Art was and always has been my WORST subject. What was I thinking? I must have been in la-la land. I guess I had taken those 100%s to heart and felt invincible. Don't worry, the shame has since caught up to me.

On a scale of 1-5 how do I rate this blog? On a scale of 1-5 how hard do I think I tried?

I say 5. I totally give it a 5. (It's not like they have ever added on points for modesty.) Look at that shoe! It's awesome. I didn't trace it either. You might think I did because of some of the lines--but I didn't.