"I don't have any questions, I don't think it's gonna rain. You were right about the end, it didn't make a difference. I'm here to take you now, out among the missing sons and daughters of the SoHo riots. Out among the missing sons and daughters of the SoHo riots, I'm here to take you now. How can anybody know how they got to be this way?" ~the national

As a teacher, I find pleasure in the smallest things. On Friday I did a social studies activity on the Chinese zodiac calendar. The kids worked in pairs, and each pair made a small poster about one of the animals from the calendar. I gave each pair a worksheet featuring a detailed explanation of their animal for them to use.

Necessary Sidebar: D is one of my most difficult students. She has a huge attitude problem. She talks constantly (seriously, you've never heard someone talk this much). Her mom has had to come in numerous times to talk to me. One of my biggest challenges is trying to balance my desire for D not to blow up at me and have a huge meltdown in the middle of class with my desire to be able to teach the class without having to yell over her.

Anyway, during this lesson D asked me if I could give her copies of the worksheets for all of the animals. I didn't have extras, so I offered her a worksheet with a shortened explanation of each animal. She said she wanted the longer ones, and wanted the pictures to go along with the writing. She wanted to take them home and show them to her mom. I told her I'd bring her a packet on Monday. I cannot tell you how excited I was. The girl who has a complaint about every single lesson I teach ("This is boring!" "Why should I care about this?" "I know this already," etc.) was actually interested for once. I didn't even care that a portion of the class spent the period wreaking havoc (throwing paper, running around), because at least one person (the most unlikely person) got something out of it. And she and her partner made a really good poster about their animal, the Dog. A bunch of the kids did like the activity, especially when they got to learn about their own animal. I am a Rat, and it was cool to read about that.

I went to a new church today. It's called the Journey Church and the services are in the Grand Ballroom at the Manhattan Center (the site of the Hammerstein Ballroom). The congregation was made up almost entirely of young people (in their 20's). It was very casual; the pastor wore jeans and he goes by his first name. Today was the first message in a new series called Embracing My City. The sermon wasn't bad; it was very practical. The music was the best part, though. It's contemporary music. The band played Christian songs, but they also played Death Cab for Cutie's "Marching Bands of Manhattan" and Ryan Adams' "New York, New York." I was so excited when they began to play "Marching Bands of Manhattan." I love that song. Any church that plays Death Cab and Ryan Adams is awesome in my book. I know music shouldn't be what I focus on when I'm looking at a church, but good music inspires me.
Whenever I hear Ryan Adams' "New York, New York" I always think of the fourth of July, 2003. Ryan Adams performed in Battery Park for free, and of course he performed that song. It was pretty cool. That was before most people knew who he was.

My friend Gen posted a cool activity on her LJ, so I participated and I'll share it here. Feel free to try it yourself and post it to your blog/LJ/whatever or in the comments here.

Create an Album Cover
Follow these easy steps!
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

2. http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

3. http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4. Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together, and post the result as a comment in this post or in your own journal.

My album cover (I know it's not the size of an album cover, but I was having too much trouble):

I like it. Maybe when I start a band, I'll use it. I'm not sure about the band name "List of Rugby League Incidents," though. I already have my band name picked out and, believe it or not, it is not "List of Rugby League Incidents." But the album artwork and title aren't bad.
And, because I felt like procrastinating, my second try: