After all these years, it still brings a smile to my face!

Yes, I am referring to the movie Newsies. I brought it to school to show a clip to my students when they finished their test today. They didn't know what a printing press was...so I thought what better way to see a printing press than to watch a clip from Newsies. We watched the educational printing press clip, and then I let them watch a few minutes of the beginning. I have to say that Carrying the Banner is one of my favorite parts of the movie and I can't hear it without humming or singing along. Well as I'm quietly humming one of my students notices and points out that I'm humming. To which I reply, well I've seen this movie a lot of times. He asks how many. And I proudly answer, probably 40 or 50 times. Yep, I've probably seen this movie more times than any other movie in my lifetime. My friends and I were slightly obsessed when we were in junior high. I saw it a few times in the regular theater, many times at the dollar theater, and many more times after we could rent it. We just couldn't get enough. Our lockers were plastered with pictures of Newsies and we even created our own Newsies stationary.

I look back on many of my teenage obsessions and think they were a bit ridiculous. And I may have a been a bit over the top on this one, but I do have to say that even to this day I still think it is a pretty fabulous movie. I did feel a bit old when I looked at the date on the dvd and told my students that the movie was 15 years old. I almost couldn't believe it. That means they were only two years old when this movie came out and they have never been exposed to the goodness that is Newsies. But thanks to me, now they have, and they didn't even make fun of it despite all the dancing and singing. And now I may just have to go home and finish the movie.

5 Year Anniversary

No, I haven't been married for 5 years. But I have been working at Provo Canyon School for 5 years this week! I can't believe it has been that long; I never would have thought I would still be here 5 years later. But here I am, and there are a few good things about reaching this milestone, the best of which is I earn 3 more days off a year...which translates to 3 more days I can spend at Disneyland.

From day to day my feelings about my job change, it can be fun and rewarding one day and extremely frustrating and difficult the next day, but overall I can say that it has been a good experience for me. I've learned a lot of things that I probably needed to learn, and couldn't have learned in a regular public school job. And it is a great job for me because I constantly get to be studying and learning new things...almost like being a student again.

Some people think I'm crazy for working where I do, but I've had a lot of positive experiences with my students and they make me laugh all the time. Here some of my favorite recent conversations:

Student: Mrs. Barth, she called me bulemic.
Me: Do you throw up after you eat?
Student: No...you know, when you can't see colors.
Me: You mean, color blind?

Me: After the constitutional convention, how many states ratified the constitution?
Student: 48
Me: There were only 13 states at the time.
Student: 25
Me: Again, there were only 13 states at the time.
Student: 35
Me: There were 13 states.
Student: 18
Me: ???????

A few other favorites include the questions "Is there a life-size map of the United States?" or "Were you around when Colombus came?" Or when I'm teaching about Ancient Egypt and somehow it becomes a conversation about chickens and hobbits and what kind of shoes they wore...and my professor is observing me (and laughing out loud).

As you can see, my job can be pretty entertaining at times, but I might have a new career ahead of me. A student informed me this week that he plans on writing my name in on the ballot for president (we haven't quite gotten to the part about requirements for being president, specifically the age ones). But maybe I can get an early start on my political career...slowly working my way to the White House one vote at a time.