I Want a Hippopotamus

for Christmas! Its true, I do! Or, at least I want to sing along with/listen to the fabulous Christmas song of that name. I was introduced to this song while teaching in Taiwan and have been in love with it ever since.
Today I sang the song to my students (yes, I sang, even though normal I avoid singing alone in public). They were quietly writing about Christmas trees and I just broke out in song. In testament to my fabulous classroom management skills they did not interrupt my strange out burst, and they even applauded at the end.
After my impromptu concert I asked if they had heard the tune before. They hadn't and I promised to bring the song in so they could hear the real thing. This got me thinking that maybe my 8 year old "friends" weren't the only ones who were missing out on this classic. So, check it out!

Ratys Named

I should have posted this a long time ago, but I am nothing if not a good procrastinator.
After a week of getting to know them, and after being fairly certain that they were both girls, my class chose names for our rats. In an effort to avoid names like Poopy and Bob I gave my class two rules 1)the vote would be secret (so I could discard any names I hated) and the majority would win, and 2) they must be named after a president of the United States. At first rule 2 threw them for a loop because there aren't any girl presidents, but after a few suggestions from me they were able to think of some cute names.
So, with out further ado we now have:

Quincy

named after President John Quincy Adams
and Rosynamed after President Theodore Rosevelt