TGIF 6

1. One of the small joys of coaching is the nicknames the kids give each other. I had a kid a few years back who was memorably clever in his nickname-giving. Everyone had one - Mumbles, Darkness, Mufasa, etc. This year, there's one I'm not really sure what to do with. Kid's name is Booby. Some on the team don't even know his real name. Everyone calls him Booby. It obviously pre-survives baseball. I am not going to be using it.

2. There is no budging from the mother about letting her son play baseball for his last season in high school. I am not sure what to do. Tears today. I'm going to try to write her a letter. I just don't understand how someone could be that mean.

3. It was very, very cold today, and it's going to be colder tomorrow. Not good baseball weather.

4. Today my planning period involved running up to Bradford Bank and signing my mortgage papers. I left at 10:05 (the end of 2nd period) and didn't get back until 11:40 (the beginning of 6th period). I was five minutes late coming back, and had to call in for an emergency 5-minute sub for the latter.

5. I'll be honest: I'm kind of bored to tears by my poetry unit right now with my 9th graders. Thankfully it's only 5 poems and 5 days long. We're moving onto A Lesson Before Dying next week. Woo-hoo! One of my favorite novels and one of my favorite books to teach.

6. I'm also pretty excited about teaching The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami for the first time. We're also beginning that next week.