A Very STEPpie Halloween

As if my whole life isn't consumed quite enough by Stanford and teaching, somehow my entire Halloween ended up being completely STEP-tastic. It was like all I could think about was STEP, STEP, and more STEP. Which, sadly, is pretty reflective of my actual thoughts.

It started with my non-school Halloween costume. The only thing I could think of that would be funny, creative, and easy was to dress up like our Director of Clinical Work, Ruth Ann. It won't be that funny for anyone who doesn't know her, but she's a ridiculously coordinated and classy dresser. When I found an Ann Taylor pantsuit at Goodwill, the deal was sealed.



And to give you an idea of what our director looks like, here's a picture with me, Ruth Ann, another STEPpie and a STEP staff member--all dressed up as Ruth Ann.



Obviously, to make it a proper Halloween, I had to engage in the tradition of pumpkin carving. We even went so far as to go pumpkin picking, but it turned out that the "pumpkin patch" was actually some pumpkin vines with large pumpkins (clearly from other plants) strewn about so you could feel like you were picking pumpkins without actually doing it.



It also turned out that the pumpkins at the patch were ridiculously expensive, so we went to Safeway instead.

I bet you can't tell from my design what I am totally consumed with all the time.





Here are some group shots of our pumpkins. I have to say, we're a pretty creative group.







And now, the costume I know you're all waiting for: my school costume. I did have a lot of trouble figuring out something good AND math-related. I'm an algebra tile (the x tile to be exact)!





I got a much better reaction than I expected. There was definitely a lot of eye-rolling from the kids, and a lot of questions about "What's your real costume?" I asked why they assumed I wouldn't wear this out with my friends. One kid thought I'd bought my costume. I asked what Halloween stores he goes to where they sell algebra tile costumes.

My favourite comment? While I was talking to one group, a kid who I had my back to (the red side) asked "Ms. L., why are you so negative?" Later (when I was yelling at him in the hall, of course), I told him something and he asked "Are you positive?" Of course my answer was yes.