Daily Thoughts Tumble Drier

Food Art by Alai Ganuza

Art by Leah Gardner

positivity post 😁😁!!!!

watching bridgerton and obviously there were a lot of things wrong with the way socializing has worked in the past, but honestly the idea of a "calling hour" is so appealing. office hours for friendship. you can show up unannounced at my home between 1 and 3pm. you must leave by 3pm. I may give you a pastry. lets bring that back

The children are learning about the US Civil War. I can’t say it’s going well. (On the bright side, they’re very clear about slavery. We’re solid on that front. It’s the actual war we’re having trouble with.)

“Ms. T, why would his parents name him that?”

I frantically flip through the possible Civil War leaders they could be referencing. “… Well, you know how Stonewall got his nickname, and we’ve talked about Tecumseh, so there’s Sherman, and -”

“No, not them.” They roll their eyes at my ignorance, then pivot back to the point at hand. “That other guy. Useless.” As this describes a number of Civil War leaders, I blink uncomprehendingly at her. “You know, Ms. T, Useless. Useless Grant.”

“Um. … Well -”

Another child raises their hand. “Ms. T, I don’t understand number three.”

Number three is a question about the Battle of Bull Run, asking for explanations about a Confederate victory despite Union advantages. “What paragraph are you looking in?” I ask in a monotone, because I’ve been fielding this question all day.

The student points at the correct paragraph, even focuses in on the quote about Jackson holding off a Union advance. “It says Jackson and the men ‘screamed like furries,’ Ms. T, but why would that help?”

I cough. I cover my mouth with both hands. “That’s ‘furies,’ sweetie,” I inform them, still wheezing. “Like they’re insane with anger,” I elaborate, deciding to skip describing actual furies at this point in time. “Not … not like furries.”

So, here’s how the war is going, one week in: Useless Grant has been made general of the Union forces, but a bunch of furries are preventing him from gaining much ground.

Teaching is more interesting than I ever thought

see also, why teaching kids to read needs to include teaching them both phonics and the use of dictionaries

Unrelated but also related.

I’m a daycare teacher, and one day I’m hanging out with the last few kids at closing, trying to distract this particular set of siblings from engaging in MMA in the classroom because it was that kind of family ™.

I was talking about ducks, you don’t need the context, but I brought up duck eggs.

And this 5 year old, one month away from kindergarten, looks me in the eye and “corrects” me that ducks don’t have eggs.

I was bemused, but also intrigued by their serious conviction, so I asked them to explain.

“Well, ducks don’t have nests, so they can’t have eggs.”

As an adult, you can see the multiple flaws, but amazingly sound logic from a 5 year old.

“Why don’t they have nests?”

“Because they don’t go up trees.”

Well, 10/10 reasoning, beautiful use of logic, this is not something you just squash because of something as stupid as “facts.”

I did, however, yank out my phone to show the kids that ducks do build nests, but on the ground, and blew their tiny amazing brains.

image source

It was a good reminder for me that, as much as we as childhood educators try, we’re inevitably leaving details and context out if every lesson, just because the infinity of reality is so beyond our own comprehension, let alone a child’s.

It’s so completely amazing that birds build nests in trees, and we emphasize that fact because it’s cool, but because we know some birds also don’t do that we forget it’s not obvious to new baby brains.

Not what I expected coming from John Green

I said what I said.

@staff i want you to beg

Falin, Oil on paper and digital

Guys. The premiere was surreal. And the movie is super fun you're gonna love it. I saw Ryan right in front of me. I died. I love him even more now. Have some content (all taken by me):

Imagine a bee rn in a hive muttering "the beekeeper is not real because he is not intervening or helping me at all with this disastrous relationship I have with another bee". now imagine that's you talking about the good lord. now imagine a dog with a propeller hat on

Filing this in my memory right next to this thread:

The Beast that Bothers

Rainforest Dragon art doll

Sold

He's 1 meter full length, posable neck with plastic ball and socket skeleton inside, bendable tail and loins  with wire inside. Legs are slightly movable.

Head and paws are printed from my original 3d sculpt. Fabric fur, feathers, acrylic paint, varnish. Also used glass taxidermy eyes for him.

As I gaze at the structural column in Copley Station, cracked nearly in two and held together with zip ties that have been carefully painted over to match the column underneath, I feel my soul intertwined with that of a small Italian boy of days gone by, who also stopped to look up at a large, groaning, newly painted tank full of molasses

I feel that some non-Boston people think I may have been exaggerating this. While I did not snap a photo as I was on the train, someone else did several months ago. I do want to stress that this column is now freshly painted and therefore completely structurally sound and in absolutely no danger of causing the entire tunnel to collapse. And yes, it did in fact never cross my mind that the original post was nearly 105 years to the day of the Molassacre

This is so safe this is the safest I’ve ever felt good job mbta gold star

Official Post of Massachusetts