Friday, January 27, 2012

Interrupted Conference "Period"

Ah, the cherished conference period. The 30-50 minute block of time where I can get anything and everything done—or nothing at all.

Today ,I was in the midst of checking emails and the teacher next door knocks on my door.  “I need to bring a distraught kid through your room,” he says. He opens the door to our shared storage closet and brings in the kid.

Well, the distraught kid (who I assumed was a girl) is actually one of the nicest boys I have in my Interactive Media/Game Design Class. I had both of his sisters last semester—and while they are awesome, he is awesome x 100. He always responds with a “yes ma’am.” He proudly told me the second day he was in my class that he was “the smart one” out of his seven siblings.  

So, this darling boy is sitting in the closet sobbing. I have no idea what to do.  

Finally, he starts to compose himself.

I tried to find out what was going on.

In between the sobs, he tells me, “Someone put a pad on my shirt during lunch.”

I look at him incredulously and ask, “Like a maxi-pad?”

Seriously, what is wrong with middle schoolers?

I asked him the usual questions…”Do you know who did this? How long was it on your shirt? How did you know it was on you?”

I did not ask if it was a clean maxi-pad. I assumed that it was. (Gross, I know.) I told him that he was really fantastic and that whoever did it was not the sharpest tool in the shed.

I think the tears were caused from the sheer embarrassment of the situation.

He is such a great kid, I have a feeling someone did it thinking they were just hilarious.

Thank god his teacher had the ware withal to let him come into my room so he was not even more embarrassed by his classmates and their questions and stares.

So, when my student had calmed down enough, I told him since he was there--I needed him to help me out.

He actually told me that would be a good idea, “because it would help him to take his mind off things.”

I had put some websites together to introduce my next unit on robotics and I truly did need a student to log in to see if they would work.

After he checked them out for a bit, he seemed to be in a lot better spirits.

He told me he was ready to go back to his other class.

I had him next period and he was in fine spirits.

I hope he doesn’t spend any more time thinking about the “incident” this weekend.
For me, I didn't really think of it as a conference period lost. It was just something that needed to be done. Period.



Sunday, January 22, 2012

Vote for our LEGO team: Or Mike Leach might lock you in a closet!

OK, I am going to do a shameless…maybe a shameful plug here.

The LEGO League Team that I have been volunteering with all semester has an opportunity to win a First LEGO League Global Award.

We need your vote. As I write this, we have 25 votes. We need 2,500 more to catch up to the leader.

I think it can be done. But, I need YOU to vote for our team.

You can click on the link below and vote for us.


So, why should you vote for our kids?

Well, here are 10 reasons why.

1.       If our team wins, the kids will get a trip to Rhode Island to present their project. Out of our whole team, only 3 of our 10 kids have ever been on an airplane before. What an opportunity for our kids!

2.       People don’t even know we have a LEGO League Team at our school. Most of the schools in our district received grants to start teams, but because there was so much work involved, only 2 middle schools even have a team.

3.       Our kids learned a lot about UV lights and even performed a “real” science experiment that they are going to enter in our district science fair.

4.       Because we did more than just play with LEGO’s all semester.

5.       Our kids couldn’t come from more different backgrounds, but LEGO League has made them friends.

6.       We hold our practices in a closet—and while it is not a Mike Leach situation, it is not fun to be so cramped for space.

7.       I really have no other way to figure out how to get people to vote for our team.

8.       I can only vote for the team once every 24 hours, and even with all of my electronic devices, I am only one person.

9.       Because our kids are just awesome and deserve a little recognition.

10.   If I can spend 100+ hours of my time to volunteer with a group of kids—you can click on the link and vote for us to win this award!

Here is the link again.


Vote early and vote often…well, vote once every 24 hours.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Don't be a nube--you, noob

So, we have officially been back in school for a week. I am starting to learn some of the new personalities in my Interactive Media (aka Game Design-- but the kids sign up for the class thinking they will get to play games all day) Classes.

 So far, so good.

After five days, I am happy to say that I have not had anyone argue with me. No one has talked back to me—in fact, I have heard more yes ma’ams than I did all last semester.  I know the honeymoon will end soon, but it makes my day go by a lot better.

Yesterday the question was posed to me, “Mrs. Campbell, do you know what a nube is?”

Automatically I am thinking to myself, nube, sounds a lot like pube ( the shortened form of a word that rhymes with rubric), but I don’t go there.

I say to my lovely 7th grader, “Is that like a newbie?”

Tonight, as my husband and I are heading back from one of our favorite restaurants--No, not HEB Café Spoons, but rather Wingstop, I decided to ask him if he knows what a nube is.

He told me it was referenced from a Call of Duty commercial—which is the game that all 7th and 8th grade boys are obsessed with, and that, yes, it was similar to a newbie.

Just to check my sources, I decide to look it up on Urban Dictionary.

Apparently there are various spellings of nube/n00b/noob.

The first definitinion I found of nube—spelling errors and all:

Someone so pittiful and idiotic the they have not even the megar skills to be titled a noob, they are now a nube, derived from the word nub, dervied from stub. Yes they are nothing more than what remains of a dismembered p**is. -Urban Dictionary.com.

Great. I can’t let them call each other nubes. That is so NOT appropriate.

Hubby says he doesn’t think they call each other that because of the dismembering part.

But, really, with middle schoolers anything goes.

Moral of the story: Don’t be a nube.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

A Taste of Home...Hotdogs for the Holidays

My mom and dad came to Texas over the holidays bearing gifts of Koegel's.

For those of you who don’t know what a Koegel is, it is a brand of hotdog that is made and sold in Michigan.

In my opinion, it is the best kind of hot dog.
(Disclaimer: I am not obsessed with hotdogs, but to me, a Koegel's hotdog is similar to prime rib. It is a rarity, something to be enjoyed from time to time.)

Koegel's logo is, “Serve the Curve.”

In the Flint area, where I am from, there are billboards all around town advertising Koegel's.

Anyway, my parents brought about 16 pounds of different types of Koegel's. They brought hot dogs and pickled bologna for all of the family here in Texas.

These Koegel's hotdogs aren’t just any type of hotdog—oh no, these are actually called Viennas--they have the natural casing and are fully cooked. They are 100 Delicious.  Seriously.

And then add in the pickled bologna. Truly, I am not a bologna fan. I gave up bologna when I was in 1st grade.

But, pickled bologna is another story.

 I have never eaten any other type of pickled bologna and I truly don’t think I can. Add a Ritz cracker and a nice piece of cheddar cheese and…heaven.

Or as I like to think, it is a little taste of home.

Since my parents will be moving to Texas, I had a slight concern that my hotdog connection would be lost.

 BUT...I just checked online and Koegel's has a shipper.

I think that will be the new gift I will give to my Michigan-transplanted Texans.

Oh, and guess what is for dinner.

A Koegel hotdog!

My mouth is watering already.


Monday, January 2, 2012

Christmas Break in Review

Whew! The holiday break flew by--as it always does, but it really was an awesome vacation.

I am sitting on my couch and the Christmas tree is staring back at me. I am debating--should I take it down or not? I know, it has been up since the middle of November, but I hate to see it go.

I think it is one of the nicest trees we have put up in years. I convinced the Mr. that we needed a new tree this year.

Our old Christmas was six feet tall. I bought it at Wal-Mart for 30 bucks. I went to pull it out of the box this year and only 100 of the 300 lights would work. After five years and three moves, I think I got my money's worth!

Anyway, we traveled to Garden Ridge--the mecca of Christmas decor, and found a nice seven and a half foot tall tree (pre-lit). I knew I had to have it!

I kept the old tree and put it in the dining room, I bought a string of lights to put on the old tree so it didn't look super ghetto.

Druing the two weeks off, I got to see a lot of friends and family members I hadn't seen in months/years.

We ate way too much and put way too many miles on our car going back and forth from Austin and San Antonio--but it was worth it.

My sister and I went to help my parents pick out different optiions for their new house. They will be moving to Texas in June and it will be so nice not to have to say goodbye to them--and not know when we will see them again.

We went to Fado's, Waterloo, Austin Java, Highbowl for trivia (it really was fun ;), Third Base, the Alamo Drafthouse (twice), and the LBJ Presidential Museum.

We celebrated New Years Eve with a fondue party at my sister's house. The white chocolate fondue was my favorite!

Today, we dropped my parents off at the airport and now I really am going to take the tree down. I hope I don't break any ornaments.

I am kinda ready to go back to work. 46 days til' Spring Break. Yep, the countdown continues.













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