furry toes

i wanna be your otter

HOLY. CUTE.

from Wikipedia [emphasis added]:
"To keep from drifting apart, sea otters may sleep HOLDING PAWS. Note the high buoyancy of the animals' bodies."

JESUS FLIPPING CHRISTMAS!



and what did my partner have to say about that?

"wha? they just float there? no wonder they're endangered. they're FLOATING MEAT. [shakes head] evolution failed them."

i feel like i hardly knew you.

MORE OTTER FACTSSS!!!!
did you know that otters spend most of their time floating around in the water grooming their fur? they comb it with their paws and BLOW AIR INTO IT! they catch fish with their paws! (agile! dexterous!) and they possess pockets for keeping those fish for later!
and a group of otters is called a raft! (i want to float around in the ocean suspended in water only by a bunch of bustling otter bodies, holding their paws and nuzzling my face into their clean furry bodies...)

also: the only reason otters are endangered is because humans once hunted them for their furs. what heartless beasts are we?

happy holidays

sometimes i think i teach the cutest group of 6th graders in all of Los Angeles. (or maybe just the cutest ones at my school...) and the other times, i think they're little terrors whose only goal in life is to make my life hell. but today, they were nice.

below, a Christmas card from one of my students, Victor:

and what it said inside:

and this is my personal development class, my 6th period, one of my favorite groups of characters:

even though they're sweet and cute, i'm still looking forward to this 3-week break from them. we need a little distance.

-stephan!e

stories from personal development

two of my girls come in early, giggling and gushing about something. Jasmin says, in a sing-song voice, "Ms. Lee, Niria has a boooooyfriiiiieeennd!"

i start to laugh, and ask about him ("is he cute? is he funny? is he smart? that's the most important thing...")

Niria buries her head in her sweatshirt, too shy to talk about it. Jasmin turns to me, puts her hand up to her face, whispers while making a grimace, "i don't like him!" i ask her why, she responds, very matter-of-factly, "he litters!"

i laugh. what a good answer! i tell her, "that's a good reason, too."

Jasmin responds that Niria doesn't care, "as long as he's hot."


kids. they're so cute.

PUPPIES!!!!!

i realized that my blog has been somewhat of a downer lately (like, the last 4 months...), so, i thought i'd post something different for a change:





aaaaawww... furry faces!!

I WANT.
-stef

p.s. i like to think that new visitors might see the hot pink, the confetti, and the puppies and come to the conclusion that i am a 12 year old girl, not realizing that just below this are posts struggling with teaching, authority, identity, grad school, etc. it's a great moment for my online persona, don't you think?