"The best laid schemes of mice and men..."

My class is in the middle of Of Mice and Men, and today we were discussing the theme of loneliness. Jakira, in my first period, randomly shouted out, “Ms. Mayer, you’ve had to read this, for like, five different years. How can you still be so enthusiastic about it?” I simply smiled at her and said it was because I loved the novel.

It wasn’t until fourth period when I was reminded of why I truly love reading and teaching Of Mice and Men. Again, we were discussing the theme of loneliness, and Zavia offered up the following: “I think that the reason why they are all so lonely is because they don’t love themselves enough. If they can’t love themselves, then how are they going to love and be friends with the other guys? People have to love themselves first.”

Students constantly surprise me with what they get out of this novel. Of Mice and Men is 107 pages long. Pick it up. Read it. For the first time, or for the fifth time. This novel truly is timeless.

The Accident

Lawrence walked into homeroom this morning with a peculiar look on his face.  He sat down in the desk next to me, and after we chatted a bit about how Tuesdays kinda suck, I realized he had a small green water balloon in his hands.  I asked him what he was planning on doing with it, and his response was a vague, "Oh... you know..."

He let me hold the water balloon for a little bit, which was nice of him.  I handed it back, and within one minute, he popped it all over himself.  With little to no reaction, Lawrence looked at me and said, "Well... I guess that didn't go as planned."

Utopia

My students' homework last night was to write a couple paragraphs about their own personal utopias.  What follows are some choice lines, grammar and spelling unchanged:

"If you commit a crime you will be deported to a different country with the total opposite of my utopia." - Daniel

"But for people with allergies, they will live in a different side of town with pictures of things they like in their house." - Yessica

"My utopia wouldn't be 'perfect' as most people describe it because I don't want to wake up in the morning and already know what's gonna happen, which is what could happen if your utopia is perfect." - Melanie

"Mainly I would have no racism in my utopia.  Second, with no racism from myself I would have only mexicans and non-mexican haters." - Cristian

"I wouldn't call them slaves or maids but I want people to do stuff for me." - Joshua

"The food that we sell is sushi, steak, lobster, potatoes, fried shrimp, pina coladas, and slushies." - Thiana

"There would be an animal species called Flonkas and they would be like our servants in exchange for all the chocolate they could eat." - Aaron

"I think that riding a train to Brooklyn to see my grandmother takes too long.  I would make all forms of transportation either walking, driving, or rollercoasters." - Lawrence