grading Thanksgiving

this was only the second time i haven't been with my family for Thanksgiving.  the first was four years ago when i was in Canterbury, England.  they don't have Thanksgiving in England.  they don't even sell canned pumpkin innards.  however, i was with a good amount of American foreign exchange students, and the Uni (Canterbury Christ Church University) was very supportive, so i had a Thanksgiving dinner against all odds.  we even brought non-US citizens along... somewhere, I have a video of Sarah Vitty attempting to sing the Star Spangled Banner...

so.  two days off work, coupla thousand miles from home, what to do.

i had options, but i'd sorta avoiding committing.  it was Thursday, and I was in class outlining the homework on the board for the last week. it went something like this:
Friday - review
Monday - test
Tuesday - ch 23 read summarize annotate
Wednesday - ch 24
Thursday - foodfamilyfootballican'tgohome

i didn't really plan to write the "homework" for Thursday, i just decided to, then i thought it would be funny to keep going. you know, a pathetic-cry-for-help type funny.  and i was right, my 7th graders thought it was hilarious (i've recently become aware that they don't really think i'm funny, just strange.  well, a few in each section think i'm really funny, and the rest don't get my humor, or, they get it and think it's weird.  so, basically the same as the rest of the world. but that's a different post).

then, as you might expect, i had a student invite me to his family's thanksgiving.  i said thanks, but i'll be okay.  i have a few offers.

next day.  my daily "duty" (have i mentioned this?) is from 7:30 - 8 a.m. every day in the "multi-purpose" room, monitoring dozens of 5th graders as they're waiting for school to start.  i've only recently started befriending them (it's way funner to interact with students you DON'T teach), and a girl i knew came up to me.

"my brother invited you to our Thanksgiving yesterday, and my mom wants me to tell you that you're really invited."

i was surprised, and i thanked her and said i'd think about it.  stalling.  it would be weird to take that offer, right?

next day.  soccer game.  the same kid's parents approach me.  re-invite me.  by this point i'm seriously considering it.

by Sunday i'd decided to go. i'm weird.  i don't really know this family, but they were having 10+ family members over, they are really involved at the school, and believe it or not, this particular student is one of my problem students.  he's smart, but he gets in trouble a lot.  my 8th-grade self identifies with him, but my life now would be easier if we got along better.

i went.  obviously when there's no precedent it's impossible to know what to expect, and it didn't go as expected, but it was good.  i talked to the parents about Hillsdale a little bit, about Great Hearts a little bit, i compared college adventures with a few relatives, and i beat my 7th grader at darts and promised his 5th-grade sister to start a weekly poker game in the multi-purpose room.  his dad was amused that i pretended to bet a letter grade on his next test over the outcome of the 49ers/Ravens game; his mother wasn't.

overall it was a good day.  Scottsdale's head football coach invited me to play football in the morning with his high school buddies, and i hung out with a few other teachers after my big dinner.

my family has the big Thanksgiving dinner on Saturdays, since my dad almost always is working in the Emergency Room on the actual holiday.  as a result, it was much lonelier to be in Phoenix Saturday than it was Thursday.  three weeks until i'm going home!  i promise i won't let any students convince me otherwise...