Last Time I Checked I Lived In the Desert!

Well, so much for warm weather! Today I was outside with the kids at recess (teachers have to do playground duty for 10 minutes during recess) and these giant white drops started falling from the sky. Some of them looked big enough to be hail but they weren't really ice. It was the weirdest snow I've ever seen. At first only a few drops were falling and then all of a sudden it was like a blizzard outside!!! All the kids stopped and started screaming and running around like idiots because they've probably never seen snow. Even some of the teachers were acting crazy and trying to catch the snow on their tongues. It was kinda cute. Then of course the kids all started running out to the grassy field to try and make snow angels. Haha. I just couldn't believe that it was snowing outside. But 10 minutes later the sun was out shining. Weather here in the winter time is kind of bizarre.

I'm super excited because I just switched my car insurance again, for the second time, and am saving a bundle. This insurance I have now gives killer discounts to teachers and I'm paying less now, for my new car WITH my accident than I was with my previous insurance on my Escort WITHOUT my accident. Pretty cool, huh? I love saving money.

Oh, and last night I watched the best show ever - "So You Think You're Smarter Than A 5th Grader". I laughed so hard watching this! The questions they come up with are hilarious!!!!! They're such simple questions to elementary kids, but they're difficult as adults. This brings me to the point that there is so much pointless learning in school. I had this conversation with another teacher last week about how so much emphasis is put on these stupid standardized tests and the kids aren't learning very many life skills. For instance, there is a huge emphasis on fractions all thoughout elementary school. The only time in real life that MOST people will use fractions is with cooking and measuring. Granted those two things are important in life, however, why do we spend weeks and weeks and weeks on fractions? By the time these kids get to be adults, everything will be so computerized then that they basically won't have to have any knowledge of math whatsoever to survive! And how about specific grammar skills? Yes, I know it is important for kids to learn how to write and speak with correct grammer, however why do they need to know what an irregular and regular verb is? When I did my student teaching, I taught all of the English to the 5th graders and before each lesson, I would have to relearn everything myself because most of it I had forgotten. It's just so silly that we pound all of this useless information into our kids, and then test them on it, and use those test scores to compare our educational systems across the US and with other countries. It just doesn't make sense to me at all!