Sloth: The Man with the Hammer

[Mrs Van]

17 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

There are a lot of kids like that too. Mrs. Sloth signed us up for the next dog.  Another one rescued from a southern Puppy mill.  I thought she'd want a break since Bumblebee drove her to distraction with all the counter-jumping butter eating. 

 

I accidently made the STEM teacher cry today. She feels really badly about their poor performance. 

Too true about the kids. Good luck with the new puppy.

However bad their performance is, it is way better than South African public schools. We are now officially at the bottom of the world science and math rankings for schools. Hope things improve for her.

17 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Thanks.  My plan B was a sand crawler.  That would have gotten stuck in the snow for sure

These sled talks make me think back to the one high school I was in, in a farming community. They had an annual "kaskar" (I think you would call it a box kart?) race. Each class had to make one, take turns in pushing it around the track, and the class with the most rounds completed by the end of the day, won obviously. At some stage I think hubby and the boys wanted to make a go kart, but then forgot again. Maybe I should prod them again.

[Sloth the Enduring]

1/17/17 Tuesday

It was a good day. An artist started working with my class. He'll be using motion and theater skills to reteach baby physics. He came in last year and is really solid.

Slothgirl had a friend over after school. It was her naughtiest friend so I couldn't keep a low profile like I normally do so I didn't get a Shovelglove workout in, but I did scrape ice from my mile of sidewalk and did a short Yoga afterwards to keep the back healthy. My plan was to train in between friend and dinner, but she didn't get picked up until almost 7:00 (our dinner time). Further evidence that I need to get back into the 5 am training habit.

Training: Yoga.

Eating: Still on track.

[shaar]

Pirate Yoga.  YES.

 

(psa: it's not really talk like a pirate day.  sigh.  someday.)

[Big_Show]

Pirate Yoga.  YES.

 

(psa: it's not really talk like a pirate day.  sigh.  someday.)

September. We shall be ready.

[Lightning]

On 1/13/2017 at 3:51 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

I've lost track of when I posted last. Since then I've had good days, but I've been an insomniac mess.

 

Training: Yoga, nothing strenuous. 

 

Eating: still eating on the plan. It's getting easier, but I really want a chocolate chip cookie right now.  That's the insomnia talking. 

 

1

 

My carby, sugary cravings are always strongest at night.  I've started to go to bed earlier just so I don't eat.  It works but my kids keep calling me "Grandma".

[Sloth the Enduring]

On January 18, 2017 at 4:27 AM, elizevdmerwe said:

Too true about the kids. Good luck with the new puppy.

However bad their performance is, it is way better than South African public schools. We are now officially at the bottom of the world science and math rankings for schools. Hope things improve for her.

These sled talks make me think back to the one high school I was in, in a farming community. They had an annual "kaskar" (I think you would call it a box kart?) race. Each class had to make one, take turns in pushing it around the track, and the class with the most rounds completed by the end of the day, won obviously. At some stage I think hubby and the boys wanted to make a go kart, but then forgot again. Maybe I should prod them again.

 

That at comment sent me down a rabbit hole of articles about the SA school crisis. It's sounds terrible. Kaskar building and racing sounds like a lot of fun though. 

 

On January 18, 2017 at 0:56 PM, shaar said:

Pirate Yoga.  YES.

 

(psa: it's not really talk like a pirate day.  sigh.  someday.)

 

19 hours ago, Big_Show said:

September. We shall be ready.

 

When you teach middle school, you can make any day talk like a pirate day. 

 

45 minutes ago, Lightning said:

 

My carby, sugary cravings are always strongest at night.  I've started to go to bed earlier just so I don't eat.  It works but my kids keep calling me "Grandma".

 

I'm with you.  I try to avoid eating anything after 8:00. It's never because I need nutrition and the choices I make are always awful.   It helps that I usually go to bed by 9:00.  

[Lightning]

12 minutes ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

 

I'm with you.  I try to avoid eating anything after 8:00. It's never because I need nutrition and the choices I make are always awful.   It helps that I usually go to bed by 9:00.  

 

 

Yup.  I tend to hit the sheets at 9:30. Sometimes I read for an hour but once I get under the covers I struggle to keep my eyes open.   I have to eat a small piece of protein, like cheese or an egg before bed otherwise I wake up at 3 am with hunger pains.  Since I've started this I've been able to get 8 hours regularly.  I know eating before bed messes other people up but it has been like a magic potion for me.

[Sloth the Enduring]

2 hours ago, Lightning said:

 

Yup.  I tend to hit the sheets at 9:30. Sometimes I read for an hour but once I get under the covers I struggle to keep my eyes open.   I have to eat a small piece of protein, like cheese or an egg before bed otherwise I wake up at 3 am with hunger pains.  Since I've started this I've been able to get 8 hours regularly.  I know eating before bed messes other people up but it has been like a magic potion for me.

 

I should try that.  Sleep is always elusive for me. 

 

1/18/17 Wednesday

 

It was a good day. Wednesday is always tough because of the kids' schedule. There was big drama at school right at the end of the day. One of my students was filming the girls at the next table. He gave up his phone but refused to delete the pics so I wouldn't return it. He had a meltdown and wouldn't leave my room and missed his bus.  I gave the phone to another teacher who knows his mom and she made sure it got deleted. Another girl lost her phone out of her locker and was wailing and thrashing on the floor until she hyperventilated and passed out.  I hadn't seen anything like it since I worked with special Ed preschool aged kids decades ago. Cell phones have not made teaching easier. 

 

Training: DDP Energy (22 min.), nothing strenuous. 

Eating: Still on point. 18 days is a world record for eating clean. 

[Mrs Van]

6 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

I'm with you.  I try to avoid eating anything after 8:00. It's never because I need nutrition and the choices I make are always awful.   It helps that I usually go to bed by 9:00.

I also try not to eat after 8h00, but I don't get to bed by 9h00. Last night was around 10h00 and I was hungry when I got in bed, but I told myself: "Myself, you would have been fast asleep by now and not felt any hunger pangs, so get into bed and sleep." It worked. But I just wolfed down my breakfast!

 

6 hours ago, Lightning said:

 I know eating before bed messes other people up but it has been like a magic potion for me.

Eating wakes me up, but I do sometimes have a small glass of warm milk. Oldest sometimes have a slice of cheese.

 

4 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

I gave the phone to another teacher who knows his mom and she made sure it got deleted. Another girl lost her phone out of her locker and was wailing and thrashing on the floor until she hyperventilated and passed out.  I hadn't seen anything like it since I worked with special Ed preschool aged kids decades ago. Cell phones have not made teaching easier.

Wow! I can't believe it! I don't know what the cellphone situation is in our schools. Our one friend is vice-principal at a primary school (gr.R-7). He said that cellphones aren't allowed to be taken out of their school bags, it is for emergency purposes only, but then there are private schools who make use of tablets to do school work and internet research, reading of their school handbooks (e-format), etc. I obviously don't have an issue at home because my boys don't own cellphones, and they aren't allowed to use ours. I actually want to change that in the sense of teaching them to phone emergency numbers with my phone. Computer can be a bit of an issue at times with the boys though.

[Mrs Van]

4 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Eating: Still on point. 18 days is a world record for eating clean. 

Woot! Woot! on eating clean!

[mightstone2k]

Following, despite immensity of task required to catch up

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[Marauder]

It's good to have goals.  The world record for eating tacos is 103 in 8 minutes.  

 

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

12 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Another girl lost her phone out of her locker and was wailing and thrashing on the floor until she hyperventilated and passed out.  I hadn't seen anything like it since I worked with special Ed preschool aged kids decades ago.

[Sloth the Enduring]

12 hours ago, elizevdmerwe said:

 

Wow! I can't believe it! I don't know what the cellphone situation is in our schools. Our one friend is vice-principal at a primary school (gr.R-7). He said that cellphones aren't allowed to be taken out of their school bags, it is for emergency purposes only, but then there are private schools who make use of tablets to do school work and internet research, reading of their school handbooks (e-format), etc. I obviously don't have an issue at home because my boys don't own cellphones, and they aren't allowed to use ours. I actually want to change that in the sense of teaching them to phone emergency numbers with my phone. Computer can be a bit of an issue at times with the boys though.

 

Officially our students are required to keep their phones in their lockers, but enforcement is really spotty. Today in cell phone drama: we had our school spelling bee.  One of the contestants got bored in the middle and took her phone out on stage. Just having a phone is considered cheating so she was sent off. She went ballistic, yelling and knocking over stage decorations. 

 

12 hours ago, elizevdmerwe said:

Woot! Woot! on eating clean!

 

 

6 hours ago, mightstone2k said:

Following, despite immensity of task required to catch up

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I'm glad to have you, but don't try to catch up. Here's a synopsis:

0ld guy who wants to relive his youth by mountain bike racing. 

I've been fighting a bad back. I like to cross-trAin with kettlebells and sledgehammers, but my back hasn't let me lately. 

Instead I've been doing Pirate Yoga. 

I love to eat like crap, but my bad belly won't let me. I'm 2/3 of the way done with a 30 eating clean experiment. 

 

4 hours ago, Marauder said:

It's good to have goals.  The world record for eating tacos is 103 in 8 minutes.  

 

 

 

Oh man,  that is a much better goal than longest span of eating clean.

 

4 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

 

Oh Em Gee! It was exactly like that until she got worryingly still. 

[Sylvaa]

3 minutes ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Officially our students are required to keep their phones in their lockers, but enforcement is really spotty. Today in cell phone drama: we had our school spelling bee.  One of the contestants got bored in the middle and took her phone out on stage. Just having a phone is considered cheating so she was sent off. She went ballistic, yelling and knocking over stage decorations. 

 

This is the official rule at our schools too, however enforcement at grades lower than high school is very consistent. My high schoolers know which classes they can have their phones out. Then again, my kids know that if they get caught and lose their phones for the day, I'm going to support their teachers. Please tell me that the knocking over stage decorations was a lower grade student.

 

16 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Another girl lost her phone out of her locker and was wailing and thrashing on the floor until she hyperventilated and passed out.  I hadn't seen anything like it since I worked with special Ed preschool aged kids decades ago. Cell phones have not made teaching easier.  

 

My daughter did this as a baby. It is very frightening to watch. Hopefully there were no negative impacts - I think this would be super hard to try to explain to a parent.

[jstanlick]

17 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Eating: Still on point. 18 days is a world record for eating clean.

This is awesome! Way to go!

[Shello]

My kids' schools have similar cell phone rules about the lockers but security is an issue,  Crap gets stolen from lockers so the kids can't actually keep their phones in their locker.  Actually, crap gets stolen in classrooms too.  

 

Great job sticking to the clean eating and the yoga.  I've fallen off the yoga wagon again.  I can feel the difference.  You should keep doing it. 

[Mrs Van]

1 hour ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Just having a phone is considered cheating so she was sent off. She went ballistic, yelling and knocking over stage decorations.

I know what I would have done as a parent if my child acted like this, after scolding myself for not teaching my child proper manners and respect. Grumble, grumble.

Seriously, teachers nowadays need to receive medals for having to handle such bad situations.

[Sloth the Enduring]

9 hours ago, Marauder said:

It's good to have goals.  The world record for eating tacos is 103 in 8 minutes.  

 

 

 

If I mathed right, that's about one taco every 5 seconds. I could do that. I imagine the trick is keeping it up for 8 minutes. 

 

3 hours ago, Sylvaa said:

 

This is the official rule at our schools too, however enforcement at grades lower than high school is very consistent. My high schoolers know which classes they can have their phones out. Then again, my kids know that if they get caught and lose their phones for the day, I'm going to support their teachers. Please tell me that the knocking over stage decorations was a lower grade student.

 

 

My daughter did this as a baby. It is very frightening to watch. Hopefully there were no negative impacts - I think this would be super hard to try to explain to a parent.

 

The students generally know that they can't get away with stuff like that with any of the sixth grade teachers so it usually isn't a problem.  The girl who had a fit on stage was a seventh grader, but she wasn't here last year. 

 

There red seemed to be no negative impacts.  She woke up quickly and went into crying mode and I got the Hell out of there. I'd had enough drama for one day. I was more annoyed than frightened. No sixth grader should act like that.

 

3 hours ago, jstanlick said:

This is awesome! Way to go!

 

  Thanks. I have a bit of a belly ache today. I'm not sure what I ate. First one in 19 days. That's a huge change. 

 

2 hours ago, LadyShello said:

My kids' schools have similar cell phone rules about the lockers but security is an issue,  Crap gets stolen from lockers so the kids can't actually keep their phones in their locker.  Actually, crap gets stolen in classrooms too.  

 

Great job sticking to the clean eating and the yoga.  I've fallen off the yoga wagon again.  I can feel the difference.  You should keep doing it. 

 

We issue locks to every student. The problem is they give their combination to their bestie and soon anyone can open their locker. Or they're too lazy to use it. We also will lock up their phones in our closets if they feel their locker isn't safe. Yes, lots of crap gets stolen at school. 

 

Thansk. The Yoga is really helping my back. Now I just need to get in the rest of the work. 

 

2 hours ago, elizevdmerwe said:

I know what I would have done as a parent if my child acted like this, after scolding myself for not teaching my child proper manners and respect. Grumble, grumble.

Seriously, teachers nowadays need to receive medals for having to handle such bad situations.

 

Thanks, but a salary and a pension is all I ask. 

 

I don't know what I would do either. I'm sure every generation has said this, but behavior and manners are getting so much worse. 

[Sloth the Enduring]

1/19/17 Thursday. 

 

It was a good day. The artist-teacher was there again playing games with the kids. It's funny my students who demand constant attention and movement shut down when asked to come to the front of the room and demo their game. One of my most attention-starved student actually stormed out of the room rather than show off his game. It seems weird, but my students tend to have almost no academic confidence.  My own kids were super tired and crabby so we just chilled and watched PBS Kids and went to bed right after dinner. 

 

Training: I woke up at 5:00, but my back was tight and twingy as it is every morning reminding me why I stopped morning workouts. I did DDP "Red Hot Core" and rode the trainer for a bit more than half an hour. 

 

Eating: Still on point. 

[mightstone2k]

It's good to have goals.  The world record for eating tacos is 103 in 8 minutes. [emoji3] 

 

 

Hard or soft?

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[Elastigirl]

Way to go on the eating! Hopefully Slothbelly will soon only be a distant memory

[Marauder]

5 hours ago, mightstone2k said:

Hard or soft?

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Soft. 

this makes me a bit sad actually. Tacos should be savored. 

[Sloth the Enduring]

1/20/17 Friday

It was a good day. Not much of note to report. Except we went to a Vietnamese place for dinner. The TV behind me had a show on that included Shaolin (looking) monks, a wizard, a samurai, a robot, and an ancient temple. My command of Vietnamese is weak, but I had a hard time from keeping my head swiveled behind me to watch. It looked like a serial I may have to go back next week.

Training: DDP Energy 22 minutes, no other training.

Eating: Still on point.

ETA: The hot & sour soup tasted impossibly sweet. It didn't make sense to me until I figured that 19 days without sweets has altered my perspective.

[Bearlee]

Here is how my brain works. You say you are doing pirate yoga, and you say you're doing DDP yoga, so therefore DDP is a pirate. Mind blown. Great to hear about the clean eating. Told you you bring up the average.