Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

What did I spend most of this day doing? Dithering around about whether I wanted the red lines in my figures to be cranberry or maroon and how thick the lines should be. Sounds like someone with an editing or design background! (And if you're not, then good for you anyway. Except for the whole &quo...

I was going to make this amazing pho-type soup yesterday (which is sort of similar to this one , but with just chicken meat and stock instead of beef), but I didn't have some of the needed ingredients, so I decided to make a variation that included ramen. I sort of went halfway between the first rec...

For the record, I actually had misgivings about giving this thread the name it has, and specifically for the things Vorpal mentioned. It's just that the title of "acceptability of going out with someone who is dating someone else at the same time" doesn't have quite the same ring to it. :)...

Tally M. wrote:"Add instant credibility to whatever you say online by adding quotes around it."

I did this in my class! I had an inspirational thought in my head, so I wrote it on the board in my classroom and then put quotes around it. Mwahaha.

Emiliana, have you heard of the English Companion Ning ? It is pretty much my favorite website ever for lesson ideas, asking questions, and random professional development ideas. You should check it out. Here are some random ideas from me: *Forbes has an article about billionaires that says that &qu...

Thanks for your thoughts! I am going for it and will see what happens. :) Of course, today this was complicated by The Other Guy posting a link to some "dating facts of life" article on Facebook that included something (among many other points) about people stealing other people's girlfrie...

My question is, what is she going to do when one or both of you decide you want to be exclusive and how many dates until it gets to that point? :P Yeah, that part will be awkward. It'll be like that episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch where two guys want to ask her to the dance, and she accidental...

(I'm not really looking for vindication of my decision or for someone to dissuade me--I'm just curious to know what this looks like to you from an outsider's perspective.)

So, I thought this girl was interested in me (she asked for my number when we met). I moved a little too slow and saw her holding hands with another guy and thought, "well, I blew that." I thought about trying anyway but I have seen them together at a few social functions (game nights, etc...

I can give some feedback on school districts in general and (possibly incorrect) things I've heard about them: * I attended Nebo School district and did student-teaching there. Overall, I'd say they're pretty lax, so teachers have a lot of control over what they get to do. On the other hand, there's...

Maybe it's time to finally figure out how the phones work so I can send them to the principal. Or call their mothers. Blarg. If you've got a long enough run with these kids, give them a seating chart and be firm. I wish I was amazing at classroom management, but I'm not. But I've definitely seen wh...

1. "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World 2. "Nothing Without You" by Vienna Teng 3. "Shasta" by Vienna Teng 4. "Keep Your Head Up" by Andy Grammer 5. "Best Day of My Life" by American Authors I am guiltily including several songs that came out a long time ...

One of my students tried to look up information online for a worksheet about Cyrano de Bergerac and accidentally referenced a Japanese video game where "Deinos sacrifices himself to give Cyrano Darkblood to let him get revenge," or something like that. That kind of made my day.

Check out this Washington Post article for yet more reasons (including some of the aforementioned) why tickets to the Sochi Olympics sound ridiculously overpriced. After reading that, I'm not even that excited to watch the Olympics on TV, something I have traditionally done with my family for every ...

I can't believe skinny jeans are still a thing seven years later. Ugh. I guess since my cohort are now in our late twenties, boot-cut, blue, low-rise jeans are "Mom jeans," and hip kids wear high-waisted skintight de facto leggings in horrifying colors. I could not let this post go withou...

I think if you can find people who share a common interest and joy in the child--or simply in your joy--then that's "bragging" at its most acceptable. For example, one of my best friends has cute kids, but I don't necessarily care about many of their developmental milestones--but he is suc...

Ooh, I like Whistler's idea of comparing it to rap battles. One of my coworkers said that a huge percentage of her students apparently think they are going to become rap artists, so they will definitely identify with that concept. Good point to compare it to other period-y-type novels, vorpal. Most ...

I'd be the mean teacher collecting cell phones in a basket at the beginning of class. I'd wear my hear in a bun and matronly cardigans to boot. (We all know what such teachers are like in their off time.) I'm a teacher too, and I would totally steal this idea if I didn't think I'd have a revolt on ...

I teach high school. I'm going to have my seniors read/perform Cyrano de Bergerac , and I'm excited! I want to prep them for the novel (and get them ) excited) by explaining the duellist/fencing culture of honor that permeates that novel and time period. Many students might not quite understand why ...

My parents never specifically told me that Santa was real, as far as I can recall. Whenever I asked about him, they would give a roll-your-eyes-up-and-start-whistling-and-ask-"What do you think?" type of response. "Santa" only stuffed our stockings, so my parents got credit for a...