End of October Update

October is officially over and gone. Friday was a nutty and crazy day which I'm glad and happy is over. My students came into the classroom candy crazed and ready to celebrate. This year two of my students gave me a treat which was cute. My one student bought one of those minature pumpkins and drew a face on it. They also gave me a little eraser in the shape of a ghost and pencils. Another of a student gave me a candy necklace. It was sweet. The Intermediate Unit consult person entered our classroom, the Itinerant Teacher of the Deaf / Hard of Hearing of the district entered my room. So my students were a bit more shy than usual in the morning when it came to getting work done. We had a celebration with cake, brownies, story time, and a board game activity. Each of my students got their own candy container with candy. A small gift from my husband and me.
I made sure to get photos of my students with costumes on. It was adorable. I had a cow,vampire,skeleton,superhero,and princess. I dressed as an egyptian goddess because it was the only costume in the adult section of Walmart that was appropriate for an educational setting and didn't seem to require too much. Although I agree with my one paraprofesional, it looked more like a Greek goddess than Egyptian. Oh well. I told the kids it was an Egyptian Queen. It was easier than going into gods and that kind of a discussion.
After school, I drove to Panera Bread and met with a close friend in the district. We had a small bite to eat and something to drink. When I got home, I changed back into my costume for the trick or treaters. My husband was not able to dress in his prisoner costume because he was stuck in Philadelphia. The Phillies won the championship for the first time since I was like born. The city had a parade and a celebration. He was in the city for class and got stuck at the train station because of the crowd.
He missed the trick or treaters with their costumes and smiles. I am now officially ready for Thanksgiving. It is time to get all of my Thanksgiving stuff out. I found out that the teacher next door to me teaches the trueth of Thanksgiving to her students. Not the real violent parts, but she doesn't do the whole pilgrims and indians were friends. Last year, I taught that Thanksgiving was a time to be thankful and barely mentioned indians and pilgrims because to me teaching a lie is a discredit to all those women and indians who suffered.
The true story of Thanksgiving in relation with pilgrims and Indians is a sad story. It is a story of harming native American women, it is a story of force. Friendship can't occur when force and harm occurs. My husband agrees with me, as he does with the whole Christopher Columbus thing.
We are keeping busy and always on the move. Weekends are our time together. The cats seem to be sad by the changes that have occured, but are adjusting.