When I grow up, I want to be...

Another week in Maine, several 'only in America' moments.

On Friday I went to watch the Greely girls varsity basketball team play their final home game of the season. Amy, an ed tech who works with me in the afternoons, has two very tall daughters who are stars of the team so I was assured it would be a good game and that it was, with Greely (and the Storey sisters) scoring plenty in the final quarter to ensure a comfortable win. Only I could manage to sit in the bleachers with the away team supporters, however, it was a fun game to watch and I learnt the finer points of yet another American sport.

Yesterday was Valentines day and so school was rather crazy. All of the children made their own Valentines day post box and bought or made cards for the whole of the class.

A pumpkin pie mailbox...

and a mailbox with a unicorn and pony (complete with a mohican) standing guard.

We spent a good half an hour delivering cards, opening them and inspecting other bounty...lots of candy and some lemon cookies made by their wonderful teacher. Of course the home made cards were the best. I particularly loved the origami boat complete with mini eggs. I'd go as far as to say it made my day - I'm easy to please!

 This week also saw me take my first trip on a yellow school bus. Very exciting! When I said this to my class, their response was "so what colour are your buses?" They looked very non-plussed when I explained we didn't have any buses. Anyway, the novelty soon wore off as I supervised the majority of my class at the back of the bus. No seatbelts meant if we weren't careful, we went flying when the brakes were pressed and we felt every bump. I've come to the conclusion that blaming our obsession with risk assessments on the Americans is unfair!

The reason for the journey was an outing to the WMTW news studios in Portland. Marnie, a mum of one of the children in my class, is a tv reporter who uses their office space and managed to wangle us a tour. It was great (although not that glamorous). First we met the morning news anchors who explained about the equipment they used and their daily routines, then the kids got to sit behind the news desk and read the morning's stories from the autocue whilst appearing on the TV screens around the studio.

Then we met the weather man who explained all about the green screen and showed us the tricks of the trade on how to know where to point. Children then had a go at presenting the weather with the true highlight being making one of the boys disappear and become a floating head because he was all decked out in green clothes.

Being a big kid, I had to have a go at the weather. I could definitely have played for longer!