Wow, ridiculous ridiculous day yesterday. Started out, I had a fantastic day with the kids. In our small groups (extra small because it was friday, I only had 2 kids in mine) we were working on multiplying fractions, and I really think that I was getting through to them in a way other teachers hadn't before. Before going through the formulas and "numerator" and "denominator", we were trying to get them to understand the concept by using recipes (double a recipe for pizza, for one pizza you need 3/4 cups of sauce, how many cups for 2 pizzas?). I didn't think that my final quadrilateral lesson went well, but our Faculty Advisor said that he thought it went over very well with the kids. I started reading "Holes" to them, and they loved it.

Then came the downside: due to district cuts, it looks like my class is going to be eliminated. Because we've only had around 9 kids or so every day, our class isn't a useful allocation of resources or something, so the kids will be split up and placed in other classes, our FA is going to teach 6th grade in another school, and I'm not sure what I'll be doing Monday. TFA folks told us not to panic, they're working on a way of trying to keep the class together, maybe with TFA people serving as the accredited "teacher" in the room while my collaborative and I are teaching. The principal is going to try to pull some strings with the district office. My collaborative and I are hopeful, we left all our charts and posters and stuff up on the walls, and are going in on monday with lesson plans, ready to teach somebody.

To celebrate the end of the week (and to de-stress), the TFA corps from CES 70 all went to happy hour at a little bar that I think serves as a Fordham student watering hole during the year. The bartender (grateful to have business this time of year, i think) extended Happy Hour until 8, and added to the fact that we were all exhausted, a lot of people there were pretty sloshed when we headed home. After a brief stop at White Castle, where I had to remind my colleagues that loud cursing was not particularly social behavior, I was basically hauling four of them home, having to stop now and again to peel them off the ground where they were trying to sleep. Three of the four at one point all offered to sleep with me (2 female, one male... which was interesting if awkward). I plead prior commitment and told them all to go to bed. Should be interesting running into them today, I can only hope they were blacked out at the time. Things stayed interesting for the rest of the night, I got back to my room and was taken by another crew to a TFA social at this salsa/merengue club somewhere near the GW bridge. (The rave thing i mentioned the other day was deemed not viable due to the fact that it ended at 4 am) I had a really good time there, although I'm absolutely wretched at salsa dancing. Danced several times with a very attractive girl who seemed to not mind that i was whacking her in the head with my arm every time we tried to do the spin parts of the dance. Subsequently, she convinced me to go on stage with her for karaoke. Quite appropriately, as this was a latino bar where even the call to come up on stage was in spanish, she had signed us up for the Offspring's "Pretty Fly for a White Guy" which the crowd seemed to enjoy immensely. Best part of the whole weekend was not waking up at 6.