The joints are getting achy.

There's nothing like being around children to make you feel old.

--When we studied place value in my class, the kids had to show the year that they were born using place value blocks (you know, like the small cubes to show 1, then 10 of those cubes in a line to show ten, then 10 of the sticks to show 100, etc?). As I gave them paper for homework I thought, "How fun! I want to do it too!" But then their homework came back the next day, and all but a few who were born in 1999 just drew two big squares, for 2000. Most of my class was not alive in the 1900s!

--One of my students was reading a biography of Rosa Parks, and jumped out of her seat to come over to me. "Ms. Gross! There's a picture of President Clinton giving Rosa Parks an award in 1996! That's before even my brother was born!"

--I told my class that I didn't have a cell phone until I was in high school. Their jaws dropped open. Despite the fact that I teach in a very low income city, more than half claim to have a cell phone.

--Today in the computer lab my class was looking at an historical society website for the city I teach in. There was a massive fire in the early 1900s that destroyed more than half of the city, so most of my students spent their time reading about the fire. I still have a lot to teach them about our city's history, so this was mostly brand new information, and they were fascinated. One of my girls came over to me, so excited to make a connection, and told me it was like when the Twin Towers fell down. She told me with amazement that her mom was actually alive then (like I had no idea...) and had told her how everyone was so sad.