Seeing Red

The title is a funny pun, see, because I have pink eye....and I'm mad about it. There has been an ongoing pink eye epidemic at my school for the past few weeks and I thought I had successfully avoided it through obsessive hand-washing, but apparently my eyes are just an irresistible environment for infectious disease. Gross.
So I was pretty unhappy about that when I woke up today, but then I was able to get an early doctor's appointment this morning and get some eye drops, and then Fer and I went to brunch together at Lokal, and it was a beautiful sunny day, so I'm actually feeling pretty good right now. Nice try conjunctivitis, but you can't keep Jessica Butler down.

It's Never Too Early for Cake

That was the title of an e-mail sent by my school principal this morning announcing that a student's grandmother had brought in a pineapple upside-down cake for the staff. Yes, the love just kept on coming for Teacher Appreciation Week. I felt like this showed extra special appreciation for me, as pineapple upside-down cake is my absolute favorite cake. (I know I'm such a 1950's housewife.)
So yes, I had a large, sugary piece of cake at 9:30 am today. I'd like to think the carbohydrate rush had a beneficial effect on my teaching, but there's probably no evidence for that.
And this is an ACTUAL picture of the cake. Don't be too jealous.
I will also include a link to a pineapple upside-down cake recipe in case anyone is feeling inclined to make me a belated birthday dessert.

Feeling the love

So I'm not going to provide you with any inspirational quotes about teaching here, because this just isn't this kind of blog (a serious one that is). But it WAS Teacher Appreciation Day on Tuesday, which has been extended into Teacher Appreciation Week at my school. We've been spoiled with a lot of special treats, including these beautiful flowers from the Parent Association. Yay!

Middle Schoolers Keepin it Real

Not much to report today. My middle school students have some big state tests coming up this week. Today I tried to work with them to develop positive self-talk and some messages they could use to encourage themselves during the test which feels interminable to them. They were supposed to make bright, colorful little signs with shiny messages like "Keep going!" and "I know how to do this!" I don't think too many of them bought it though. Probably the only honest one was the boy wrote "After I finish this I can do something else" and drew a picture of himself hanging out with friends at a Chinese restaurant.

*Trumpet Fanfare*

Announcing......the return of Rate Jess' Day!!
For no real reason other than feeling the need to share more of my daily life with friends and family through the interweb, I have decided to attempt a reentry into the blogosphere. I thought they had taken my page down due to some "objectionable materials" or "copyright infringement", but turns out that it was just a punishment for my extreme blogging laziness.

First big news of this new blogging era:
I'm also making another attempt at learning to play guitar (since trying to squeeze a piano into our apartment is unlikely at this point). Today I learned to play a slow and somewhat less than smooth version of Matt Nathanson's "Come on Get Higher." Check it out here:
Come On Get Higher on Youtube

And welcome back faithful readers!