Person of the Week

Every Tuesday, a different student is highlighted in a 30-minute block of time called "Person of the Week." The child can bring in 15-20 family photos, something handmade, their favorite stuffed animal, any awards they've won, things they collect, etc. This week, I got to be Person of the Week! It was fun to pick out some of my favorite things to bring in to my classroom, but when it came time for me to present, I was actually a little nervous! Here's what I brought in:

• 15 pictures of me with my family
• the first needlepoint project I finished on my own
• 3 of my favorite CDs (Beirut, Beirut, and Beirut - mostly because I don't own a lot of CDs!)
• an Ohio State logo (because I like their football team)
• 4  keychains (I collect them)
• a mug with an R on it (to symbolize my love of tea and hot chocolate)
• my awesome Sonic Screwdriver (Doctor Who reference!)
• a little journal that looks like a TARDIS (DOCTOR WHO!)
• an award my boss gave me last year while I was working for City Year

I described each object that I brought in, then handed it to one of two helpers, who displayed my items on the carpet we were all sitting around. After I talked about everything, everyone got to ask one question, unless they wanted to pass. If you choose to pass, you get the option to come up with a question after everyone else has gone, or you can phone a friend, and call on someone else to ask a question for you. I got questions about how old I was in certain pictures, where I was from, how old my cat was when she died…I was surprised by the specificity of some of the questions! One of my brothers is in a wheelchair, and a student asked what happened to him, which I thought was really thoughtful. 

I forgot to take a picture of my Person of the Week display, but I will take one on Tuesday and post it. As for tomorrow, it's Presidents Day! Woohoo! I will hopefully spend the day being extremely productive. 

On a completely unrelated note, I've been really into the Japanese version of "Let it Go" from Frozen. My brother-in-law introduced me to this multi-lingual version of the song and asked me which singer I liked best. I was taken with Takako Matsu's voice. Her tone is so clear and beautiful! You should listen for yourself here. 

The multi-lingual video is great and everything, but there weren't any African or Indian languages in it! I wasn't the only one to notice: 

http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-01-24/no-room-african-or-indian-languages-disney-s-multilingual-version-let-it-go

I was really disappointed when I went on youtube and searched "let it go african language" and found a video called "Let it Go (Africanized Tribal Cover)." The main singer is a young White girl, and she spends most of the music video surround by a little choir of seemingly White children with tribal paint on their face. It didn't rub me the right way at all, even though the little girl's voice is beautiful. *sigh*

On that note, I'll sign off. Stay warm!