Your Awesomeness

Any day that the Mathemagical Wizard shows up at school is an awesome day.

He drops by our whole school meetings to deliver the new mathemagical problem of the week, and is met with the appropriate level of amazement for a real, live, purple and blue robed, white bearded, silver star pointy hat-wearing wizard. 

amazon.com

Some students are a little unsure what to make of the wizard.  Some mistakenly think he is actually Mr. Jeff, dressed up as the Mathemagical Wizard, but they are wrong.  Some students don't quite know what to call this marvel of math, but they all know he is definitely something fantastic.

Last year, my third graders were thrilled at the wizard's very first appearance at our whole-school meeting.  After he explained the math problem, the wizard bid farewell to all and prepared to head back to the fourth dimension until the following week.

As he headed out, Ahmad called after him, at full volume, "BYE SANTA!"  Clearly some clarification was needed. 

"That is not Santa!" I told him.  "That is a mathemagical wizard!"

By this year, everyone is clear on who the wizard is.  What still is not fully established, however, is the proper way to address him.  We hit upon one option, though, last week.  The wizard had finished reading off the names of the previous week's winners, had left us thinking about the new challenge, and was headed for the door.  The voice of one little boy from a younger grade rang out loud and clear through the whole room, "BYE YOUR MAJESTY!" 


He's not exactly royalty, he's certainly not Santa, but everyone knows the wizard is something completely excellent.

McSweeney's

Every day as the last thing I do in my classroom before heading home, I check my mailbox.

Fan mail today?  Nope.  Just two notes about needing a new dry erase marker and a complaint about a boy that sits nearby on the carpet.

How about now?  Out of luck.  But there is a notebook request that starts with a rather unique opening for someone asking a favor.  Plus a question about when we're going to have the pretzels for snack.

Today there's got to be some....OK--not so much "fan mail" as "petition to move to a new table."

But today, I did get some actual fan mail--not in my classroom mailbox, but via email from a complete stranger who read my McSweeney's list today.  I do love the fan mail!  Complaint notes, though--those I could do without.

Check out my McSweeney's list here!

And if you want to pre-order the newest couch from Crate and Barrel.....