there are some interesting things i learn while i substitute. last week, for instance, i taught 2nd and 3rd graders Spanish. Yep. A language I know very very little about, and I was up there leading a class using very nicely put together lesson plans left by their Spanish teacher. With 2nd graders I learned (while they reviewed and practiced) animals names, most interestingly that the woodpecker is called pájaro carpintero, which literally means "bird-carpenter". With 3rd graders we went over some common Spanish food names (a lot of which we all already knew) and then I learned how to say "I like ..." And this all is very useful as I am learning Spanish on my own right now using the Nintendo DS's "My Spanish Coach" and Anki. So far I'm really enjoying the studying and am actually remembering things. Sometimes I slip into Japanese, though, which makes things a bit confusing but fun.

Another interesting things I learned about last week are tree frogs that hibernate during winter by freezing solid. That's right. Little frog rocks litter the forest floors of Northern America, as far north as the Arctic circle, and they spring into action as soon as the ice starts melting and within hours of thawing they start mating. I learned about them by watching a video along with the Biology classes I was subbing for last week. I think we were all equally mesmerized by watching a frozen solid little creature come to life. First, its heart starts slowly beating and then other organs warm up and within hours, his limbs start twitching and then awkwardly spring into action and the next second is off and hopping away. It's a very cool thing to see and I was completely mesmerized by this amazing natural wonder. How does a frozen frog rock go from solid to action ready you ask? Well. Here are a few place to check out the answers. I'd try to explain, but I wouldn't do a good job.
PBS video and Wiki link should be good places to start if you, like me, had no idea that these fascinating frogs existed.

This week just started but I subbed yesterday and once again, learned something new. I learned that a lot of us, Americans, are made out of corn because of the diet we eat. And I learned this by watching an interesting documentary with an Econ. class I subbed for, called King Corn. Two college grads decided to move to Iowa and grow an acre of corn to learn more about the process, the farmers, and how the corn they grow ends up in our food and in our hair. I didn't finish watching the film, 'cause class ended and we stopped when the guys started exploring how corn feed effects cows' digestion, so I'm hoping to catch it sometime on PBS in its full run. It was broadcast on Independent Lens so check your local listings.

Oh, and something not as fun but that did happen recently was that our lovely little dog, named Molly, ate my SD card. Sounds like a funny thing to have happened and am sure it was when it did, but I wasn't there to observe it--all I had were two shattered bits of a 2gig card and a dog full of photos from Greece and England that I didn't upload to my Mac yet. >.<

best
-e