False alarm...I'm not sick, actually. I think it was work-related physical fatigue. I'm really excited to go to work today, though, because I'm acting out school verbs with the newcomers, we're going to take pictures, and then make our own books :)

Sometimes I forget the traumatic realities that my students face at home. I was doing a vocabulary visualization activity with third grade students, when one asked me, out of the blue, what "sheriff" means. I told him it is the boss of the policemen and he suddenly looked really upset. He then explained to me that he had to translate for his mother yesterday when she was talking to their landlord (it was so lucky I remembered that word in Spanish). But when he translated "the sheriff is going to come lock your door in three days," he didn't know what sheriff meant, so it didn't seem like a desperate thing, I guess. I started to cry in class (but I hid it- I did a fake sneeze) because he has to deal with that kind of pressure. So his teacher and I worked together to get the Latino liason and our social worker to intervene or at least try to do something. No wonder he has trouble paying attention :(

As soon as I feel better, this weekend is going to be so much fun! I have a posh teacher conference at the Radisson downtown on Saturday...I may smuggle out some danish in my purse. Then, I want to see "Walk the Line," "Harry Potter," and maybe "Rent." I also want to go mitten/scarf shopping and lay in bed for hours...I wish I could do that simultaneously;) And I want to eat at The Black Forest Inn sometime on Saturday. I love sauercraut! I think it's my eastern european roots. I hope that two days will be enough time for all of that.