Thanks guys, I really appreciate it. I'm completely heartsick over this.

Or else I use it to reinforce learning about our nutrition topic, and give each kid a different thing - but some of them are vegetables, some of them are carbohydrates, some of them are proteins, so when I call 'proteins' I'm expecting the kids who were told 'fish', 'beans', 'bacon' etc etc to jump up.

Fay, I think this is the made of awesomecakes with awesome sauce. What a great tool to help them identify and name things. When Joe and I win the lottery, we're going to fly to the states, put you in a great awesome place and pay you a ridic amount of cash to teach our kids.

And speaking of great tools, your co-worker needs a serious smiting.

Oh, Aimee, shit. ~ma, thoughts, and prayers headed their way, and yours too.

And speaking of great tools, your co-worker needs a serious smiting.

What. She. Said.

((Fay)) that's so uncool. You sound really clear on the issues though. Is there some way to stuff your co-worker in a closet? Or ask your principal for help? No matter what pseudo-experience he has, it can't compare to 'I've been the one working with these kids. And I know them.'

ETA: Better yet. Tell co-worker he can have the parents all to himself.

Aimee, lots and lots of ~ma to L's husband and to their whole family.

Fay, there has to be a way to... something. Get the information out of this guy that you need, or get someone to pound it into his skull that his job with you is to help you develop your SKILLS rather than replace yours with his own. Can you explain to him that you need to understand the rationale behind what he says, so that you can handle it yourself in future, rather than merely being told what to do? If I had been in your shoes with the maths planning, I would have said, "Ok, you want me to have them go back to the simple addition that they have already mastered - is that because it is standard UK procedure to spend x days on that particular concept and I spent x-1, or is that it is standard UK procedure when the kids are having trouble mastering one concept to abandon that concept and go back to the previously mastered concept and drill them on that without working on the one they are not getting? Is that specific to this set of concepts or a general principle?" I'd bombard the guy with mounds of respectful, innocent, trying-to-learn-from-your-wisdom questions that also demonstrate that you have a brain and a fair bit of competence of your own?

Someone in work just sent me this with the subject header "here's what we all assume you do in your lab all day..."

[link]

It's funny, because it has my face.

Oh, Aimee, that's so scary. I'll be praying for L and the entire family.

Jars, I'm trying very hard to not ask how your glasses stay on without a nose, but apparently it's not working.

Jars, I'm trying very hard to not ask how your glasses stay on without a nose,

Um, the weed keeps them stuck on? Or physics. Yeah, maybe it's physics...

Lightning catch-up of gronk:

Aims, how scary! All the ma in the world for Family-de-L.

Fay, I agree with Sox. Better yet, put the cow-orker and the French parents in a very small box together and don't unlock it until the kid is actually the right age for year 3. (In the mean time, get yourself transferred to another year.)

I can cook, loot, and fight with a blade like a pro, but I'm unqualified for the apocalypse because I'm much too fond of lying on the couch and making the minions do it for me. Or rather, fantasizing about having minions who might do it for me. (This is also a pretty good description of my current game character, actually. But she only exists in the playstation and not in a world with actual GM's and human contact.)

- can reassemble a querty keyboard (though, really, I think there's a better one out there).

We may need to appoint someone else for this job. Just sayin'.