Bucket List

Laugh-out-loud teacher moment of the day:
We just finished reading The Odyssey. Yesterday we read a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson called "Ulysses." Basically the poem is Ulysses/Odysseus (same person, different language, confusing, I know) as an old man, musing about the boring state of his life now, reminiscing about the "good ol' days," and remarking that he wants to go out on adventures again.

We decided that one theme of the poem is that you should life life to the fullest. Being the stellar teacher that I am (any administrators from Millard West out there reading this? :), I started today with a journal reflecting on yesterday's theme. I asked students to write a paragraph about what things they would like to do, see, buy, be a part of, etc., that would make them feel like they are "living their life to the fullest."

"Write your 'bucket list' for those of you who are familiar with that movie, " I directed.

A hand shoots up. The hand belongs to a slightly immature, sort-of nerdy, really hardworking, polite, I though naive, student that I taught last year as well. "Does it have to be school appropriate?" he asks.

"Yes...." and I tried so hard to maintain a straight face and move on, but I just couldn't. Of course we all knew what he meant. Laughter ensures...and he doesn't even seem to be embarrassed by it!

In my attempt to regain order I said, "You can put down that you'd like to get married. You can say that you'd like to have kids. We can fill in the gaps from there."

On tap for tomorrow's journal: using Latin roots in sentences. That should be a boring, tame choice, right?