Snowed In!

We made it through Week of Survival III, and Chase is finally done with finals! He celebrated by gathering information for his upcoming internship interviews and cleaning the apartment for Jenny's Christmas present. Poor guy! Actually, he has had a little time to relax, go shopping, and watch movies with his adoring wife. Hopefully more relaxation is in store for him over the holidays.

Jenny's nonfiction research reports continue to take up all of her time. She wonders how students are allowed to go on to eighth grade thinking that Wikipedia is a credible research source, without knowing what a bibliography is, and with zero understanding of what citations are! To her, it sounds like a recipe for unwitting plagiarism. She has given personal tutoring to over 25 of her 65 students everyday at lunch, during her prep time, and after school to ensure that they go on to high school knowing how to write a research report. Jenny is thrilled to get to spend this unprecedented one-on-one time with each student but is unfortunately left little to no time for anything else such as grading and lesson planning.

Today, church was canceled due to snow. In the North East, everything is driven to a halt at the mere rumor of snow flurries. This time, however, we got much more than a few snow flurries. Today has been our first taste of a real Massachusetts Nor' Eastern! Jenny suggested that she and Chase put on their snow gear to play around on the Cambridge Common as a way to channel the famous scene from Love Story but more prepared for the snowy conditions than the actors had been. To this Chase replied, "And more in love." Jenny is still mushy over that one!

Week of Survival Part II

Chase took two eight hour tests last week and spent the rest of his time preparing for the tests he has this week. He studies at home which means that Jenny gets to see him, but he only leaves his desk for the necessities like food :) The picture below is of Jenny distracting Chase long enough to document what two weeks straight of constant studying can do to a person.

The Week of Survival

Chase finished his classes, sent out internship applications, and started studying like crazy for finals. Jenny started a new unit on nonfiction research and writing, avoided getting strep throat from the other teachers, and spent seven hours in professional development training on Friday. Two more weeks and then... vacation! The count down is on!