Busy...

I've been so busy the past few weeks!  I can't believe how time flies by.  Before I know it, August 24th will be here, and on that day my baby will be turning 14 years old!  He is growing up so fast, and is just 1/4 of an inch shy of being taller than me!  He's a good kid though, and I am so happy to be his mom.

I had a whole idea for this blog post, but my mind is basically fried at the moment!  So, instead of a long post about whatever subject I had originally planned (I really can't remember!), here are some pictures and little blurbs about the past week...

I love that you can find poetry AND art in the New York City subway system.  This was posted in a subway car.

Gorgeous walk home from a tutoring student's house.

Even though my son loves the dog, and he takes good care of her, she glues herself to my side on days when I'm gone longer than usual.

I tried to get a better picture of this little bird.  I was sitting outside the school where I teach and the little guy kept hopping up to me.  I am sure that if I'd put my hand out, he would have hopped into my palm!  I normally don't like birds (allergic!), but this guy was so cute!

I am now the proud owner of a New York Public Library account!  My county's library system can go suck it (excuse the language!).  After the getting kicked out of the local library system, I found out that you can get a NYPL account if you live or work in the NYC area.

When I see things like this, I really wish I wasn't allergic to dairy products!  These cakes look amazing!  They are at the bakery and cafe in the building where I teach.

This week, I had my short story literature class read "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin.  It is such an amazing story!  I started the class tonight with my favorite passage from the story.  For our discussion, we spent some time comparing "Sonny's Blues" to "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver.  We talked about how the narrators of each story end up seeing their situations, and life in general I suppose, in a new way.  We talked about different ways of seeing from the literal to the figurative too.

 

For each story my class reads, they have to identify the point of view, main characters, setting, tone, themes, and symbolism.  They were struggling with "Sonny's Blues" a bit - it is the longest story I've had them read, and most have only been speaking and reading English for 2-3 years.  I have a wide variety of ability levels in my class.  So, today, I wrote a lot on the board, and had them copy it down.  We are going to talk more about it next week.  I also told them, "If you ever see me take a picture of the chalkboard, you better have that information in your notes!  Those pictures will likely be the basis for most of your final exam questions!"   ........but, can you believe that my school doesn't have dry erase boards?  I learned not to wear black to work pretty quickly. :)