School
Although taking the positions called Instructional Assistant, Special Education is not usually my first choice of a way to spend the day, I thought it might be a good choice for the day following the amazing end of the World Series. (That link is to the Globe's front page - I think it won't stay live past today.) I wasn't necessarily alert enough to be completely in charge. Today, I sat behind one boy while he took a test; I went to their class party; I sat next to another boy while he pounded a keyboard -- er, took keyboarding class.

During the block I had off, I found two cool librarians, one a CUA grad I met previously at a function. This week, they began a team-teaching lesson with some PE teachers: find and read three books about sports. The kids need to read one bio, one fiction book, one non-fiction book. I helped by doing an OPAC search for "sports fiction," "soccer fiction," "basketball fiction," etc, and putting the books I found on a cart. Then, once the kids started tearing around the library, I helped several figure out the difference between fiction and non-fiction books. One boy remembered long enough to turn around and explain it to his buddy. That was cool.

Reading
I fell prey to my bookclub's free shipping offer and treated myself to The New Yorker's new cartoon collection. They boast -- they hope -- that thanks to the inclusion of two CD-ROMs that it is a complete collection. I am very, very happy to have it. It's pretty; it's funny; it's cultural history, at a glance. I have yet to answer the first question that came to mind when I saw the disks: How searchable are these caroons? Can I look for Roz Chast and cats, say? I'll get back to you.