SchillsBloodySox

The Day My Neighbors Get Jealous

2008-06-27T21:33:00.002-04:00

This day is here. It's today! I just heard this day described this way. Why do neighbors get jealous today? Not because I'm driving a new car. Not because I have a new toy in the yard, such as a boat or something. Nope, today is the start of a nine week break from school. In other words, summer vacation is here! Of course, if neighbors knew what kind of hours and work go into my job during the year, they should not be jealous. But as far as appearances go, I am now as carefree as the uncaged bird. Or something like that...

Weeping with those Who Weep

2008-05-21T21:08:00.005-04:00

I just learned today that the father of a current student of mine died yesterday. I had known the family received bad news about his health a few months ago, but had no idea he was about to go. I can't imagine the pain this student is going through now, and weep with/for her. Lord Jesus, have mercy on that girl and her family.

Lessons My Students Teach Me

2008-05-15T17:02:00.002-04:00

I think my relationship with students is a little bit like how God relates to us. Don't worry, I'm not being blasphemous. I am not calling myself God. But the idea has been impressed upon me recently that God feels the same way about us as I sometimes feel about my students. I suspect similar things could be said about how parents relate to their children. Parents hurt when their children hurt. Parents hurt when their children do hurtful things, to themselves, to their siblings, or to their parents. Parents want the best for their children. Parents want to see children grow up to bigger and better things. They want them to experience as much joy and happiness, fulfillment, etc., as they possibly can.

Now to teachers. Teachers hurt when students hurt. Teachers hurt when their students do hurtful things, to themselves, to other students, or to their teachers. Teachers want the best for their students. Teachers want to see students develop intellectually, emotionally, socially, to be able to tackle bigger and better things. They want them to experience as much joy and happiness, etc., as they possibly can. They want them to be a success in life.

I think this is why it can be difficult for teachers when students say and do hurtful things. This is a good thing and a bad thing. It is good, because the day I stop caring how my students feel is probably the day I should stop teaching. An apathetic teacher is a bad teacher. On the other hand, it also means that students can do hurtful things to a teacher. Today I experienced a little of this, in the form of some rude comments. It has left me baffled, and somewhat hurt. Why this outburst? Doesn't this student realize I only want the best for them? What is the reason for the irritable behavior? Did I do something that triggered such a response? Is the issue one I should worry about or is it something they need to work out? Are they simply stressed by school work, tired, stressed by a relationship gone awry, or what?

I cannot stand tension when I am unsure whether there is a problem on my end. Even when I know I have not done anything wrong, it is difficult to know that someone dislikes me. Thus I analyze things to death, and ponder the cause of, and the best way to deal with, the tension. Obviously God has no such questions to consider when He is affronted. But I can relate a little bit to the hurt He must feel when His law is violated. After all, the offense is one that cuts against His perfect plan, which is designed with our best interests in mind. "Can't you just realize that I have your best interests in mind, and you have no reason to resist or dislike the program?" is a question I wish students could learn to answer with a resounding affirmative. I suspect God feels similarly whenever we sin. Thankfully there is plenty of grace and mercy sprinkled in with His feelings of disappointment and longing that we get it right! I am thankful for the model we have in Him, because it inspires me to also let my speech and behavior be sprinkled with grace and mercy, despite the insults that fly. And because He has modeled forgiveness, and forgiven much, I can do the same in dealing with the petty insults of my students.

Spring Break

2008-04-24T21:30:00.002-04:00

I shall now pontificate on the wonders of Spring Break, especially when it is more of a break than usual. For the past three years I have had loads of research papers to grade over break, which meant that it was never the "break" that I wished it was. However, this year, two days before their major project was due (right before said break began, so I could correct them over it), some students begged me to extend the deadline to after break.

I pondered this a bit. The more I thought about it the more attractive the idea became. Not having piles of papers to feel guilty about if I wasn't spending every last minute of my break correcting? I liked it! In fact, I liked it a lot. So I decided to allow it, provided students agreed to certain conditions. Those conditions shall not be mentioned it, except to say that some of them were meant to be rather humorous, and were for some of the students. But anonymity forces me to refrain from mentioning them specifically...

Anyway, about 80 percent of my students decided to meet the conditions, and turn in their projects after break. Which left me with a week of no school and much more time on my hands to do things in it! This has been rather delicious, though I know I will pay for it next week. And the week after. And the week after that. Etc. But for now, I am free!

So, how have I spent my first ever relatively unencumbered Spring Break? Here is the list:
Corrected the first 20 percent of student projects. Done. Corrected 50 or so quizzes. Done.

Watched many movies, including but not limited to: He Knew He Was Right, The Way We Live Now, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Red Dawn, I Am Legend, The Kite Runner, and Juno. Some of these films are NOT to be recommended, so please do not take this list as an endorsement of them. At least one was more for enlightenment purposes regarding today's youth culture, with which I obviously interact a lot, so it is helpful to gain some more perspective. One was World History related. Others were pure entertainment.

Read a U.S. History related book on the 1945-1974 period. Somewhat torturous, as the writer is prone to be critical and more effusive in his praise of people or events about which I have a very different view. Also is a bit snobbish and fancies himself an intellectual, I think. Not very "pleasant" reading. Not my first choice for reading. But still helpful to broaden my knowledge of these events. And since I am teaching many of them in U.S. History now, or about to, I thought it would be good to learn more. Done about 400-500 pages (can't remember for sure how far I was into the book at the start of break), probably will aim for another 75 or so in the next day...

Read for pleasure. Much more enjoyable. Currently reading my first Brad Thor thriller. So far so good.

Watched Red Sox and Celtics. Celtics good, Sox bullpen bad. Shame on you.

Got a haircut.

Watched parts of some softball games in which current or former students of mine participated.

Slept more than usual.

Took time to watch info on local access tv regarding school budget issues. The politicking this year is especially fascinating. Our mayor is calling for millions of dollars less than the school board wants to spend, which has resulted in a dire scenario being presented by the school board, under which many programs will be cut, teachers laid off, all athletics cut, etc. The political circus that is unfolding is interesting to watch, to say the least. And it is leaving me to wonder whether I'll have textbooks on hand for the expanding numbers of my AP class... How fun/ridiculous would it be to teach a college level course without an adequate textbook? Oh wait, been there, done that. So maybe I could survive, though it wouldn't be as fun for the students or for me.

Future plans:
More reading.
Watch Lost and not regret staying up late to do so! (No early start helps that!)
Relax more.
More movies.
Prep classes for next week. (Sometimes I can't believe how much fun I have planning/mapping out a week's worth of classes. Is it wrong that work can be this much fun?!)
Plot out how I will make students conform to school rules...
"Celebrate" a birthday?

Integrity Wins (I hope)

2008-04-18T20:23:00.003-04:00

Lest anyone be left hanging any longer after my last post, I am glad to report that things are better than they were awhile back. I won't go into detail here, as it is somewhat sensitive and not worth trying to explain in this forum. The issue that led to my integrity being challenged has not gone away. In some ways it is still a day to day battle, which leaves my nerves a little more frayed than I wish they were. Having said that, I think things have reached a point where those who would wish my behavior were less integrity-driven have realized that I will not alter in my vision or behavior; thus they are less inclined to do things to test it, which removes some of the stress. This is not to say I can't still use prayers. I am glad to enlist the continued prayer support of any who prayed before. I feel that the war is not really over; but detente seems to have set in, so things are a little more calm (I've been teaching the Cold War, so a Cold War metaphor it is!) than they were.

Integrity Challenged

2008-04-01T17:38:00.002-04:00

Tempted to be discouraged, tempted to be a bit (or a lot, I'm undecided on this) depressed. This is because I had an incident at work today where it became apparent that some students were questioning my integrity, or perhaps being manipulative and trying to get authorities to suggest that I compromise my standards in some ways. Either way, it has been a day where the enemy is on the attack. So if anyone believes in prayer, or putting into action James 4:7, please do so for me. This is NOT going to keep me down, by the grace of God. But I'm feeling that I've been put on the ropes a bit, to use a boxing metaphor. So I'm in need of plenty of grace...

Pacifiers Are In: Do You Have Yours?

2008-03-18T16:47:00.003-04:00

Ladies and gentlemen, here is my latest advice on how to be cool: get a pacifier. A baby's pacifier. Put it in your mouth and walk around with it in said mouth, in public. This is the way to achieve instant recognition as the coolest person on the block.

I learned this is the cool thing to do about two months ago, when I saw a girl of about 15 years of age walking down the hallway with one in her mouth. I did a double take. Yup, she had a pacifier in her mouth. I mentioned this to another teacher, and she was like "Oh no, they're bringing that back?" Apparently this was a fad that came and went some time ago. I had no idea. Perhaps this girl doesn't either. She's either out of the loop, and doesn't know that pacifiers for teens are definitely not cool anymore, or she is cutting edge and is way cool, as few have yet to get back into it. Maybe she's the first to reintroduce the trend? I have to say I haven't seen any more pacifier laden teens in the hallways since then. Nor have they wandered into my class yet! I mean, how awkward would that be, having to institute a "no pacifier" rule in class? Anyway, this random memory popped into my head, and I felt the urge to pass along the coolness tip to you. So be cool and get a pacifier!

And if you think I work in a zoo, apparently I do...

Our Mutual Friend and the Death of Culture

2008-03-01T21:42:00.005-05:00

For Christmas over a year ago I asked for and received a DVD collection of BBC productions of Dickens novels. I started Martin Chuzzlewit around that time, but for whatever reason never finished. I guess I wasn't engrossed by the story, or maybe I was too tired when I started it, so it never gripped me. Anyway, this last week I watched Hard Times, and was interested in it, though I wasn't greatly impressed. Last night I started Our Mutual Friend, and was ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED by it! It's almost 6 hours long, so I had to pull myself away from it last night and go to bed. But I finished it today, and was greatly pleased by it! The story is very moving and engaging, and the acting is decent enough. Though it's not quite as good as the BBC, Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle version of Pride and Prejudice, or another BBC production, Wives and Daugthers, it is definitely close. But for a 20 second segment that most readers would probably want to skip, I would give my unqualified recommendation for it! So if anyone has 6 hours to spend sometime, give it a shot (and if you live close enough to me, I'll even lend it! And if you want to know what you might want to skip, e-mail me and I'll fill you in...)

I know I have "cheated" by not reading the book first, but unfortunately I'm at a point in my life where the 10 hours or so, maybe more (I'm a slow reader) that it would take to read it is not going to happen anytime soon. So I figure it's better to be somewhat cultured by getting a taste of the story (and it's long enough that it has to be somewhat close to the book!) than to be totally ignorant of this Dickens classic.

Relating to the theme of total ignorance over classics, a very sad thought recently occurred to me. If I were to survey my students, I can almost guarantee that less than 5 percent of them have ever read Pride and Prejudice, or any Dickens novel, or any of a number of classics. How SAD is that? I am so grateful for the background I have in reading some of the literary greats when I was a young un. Or at least younger. I have to credit my Dad for much of this. The summer between 9th and 10th grade, or thereabouts, he initiated a competition among us siblings. He gave us a list of great classics, American and others, and said the person who reads the most pages from them wins some prize. I think it might have been something as lucrative as 50 dollars, but I can't remember now. Anyway, what I do remember is really getting into that competition, and devouring books like Pride and Prejudice, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Sherlock Holmes, and many others. I also did a lot of literature reading for English as a homeschooled youth, so which books were read for what all blur together. However, I credit much of my eventual success in the intricacies of mastering the English language, at least as a writer, to this reading I did. And I believe I am much more attuned to many allusions as another result.

In short, this reading was a GREAT investment in my education! But how many young people, especially in public schools, have the same background? I think very few read for pleasure. And when they do, it is certainly not Twain, Dickens, Austen, Tolstoy or Hugo. This is surely a sign of the impending death of traditional culture. Maybe there will be a revival sometime soon. But for now, blank stares are the common result of a mention of many great books.

I also know that most students would think me weird for having read most everything Austen or A. Conan Doyle has written, or that I have waded through an unabridged version of Les Miserables . Why is this? I think it's because current mainstream culture does not promote reading. And it stifles diversity in literary tastes. I find this second fact very ironic. In an age where everyone is supposed to be tolerant of everyone else, few guys are reading great works of literature. I think it's because many of them are perceived as too "girly." And because guys as teenagers are developing their identities, and are very afraid to be seen as "girly," they shy away from being stereotyped as "girly" or, worse yet, "gay," because of their tastes. Of course, this shying away from certain books only happens if a guy is reading much for pleasure in the first place, which is rarely the case.

In contrast to the mainstream, because I grew up sheltered from it, I was able to branch out into reading whatever works were interesting, unlimited by the fear of being called "gay" by my ignorant and uncultured peers. So I read. And read. And read some more. Oh, and I played plenty of Nintendo too, but that didn't seem to hurt me too much. Except, of course, I didn't read as much Dickens back then as I might have, so maybe it did! And the result is that I don't mind reading some classic works, even if their "girly," and I don't mind and even enjoy watching some "girly" movies! And I believe I am a better person for it.

Maybe this is all to say that I hope parents will be encouraged to push the reading of great classic literature among their kids. Some sort of lucrative reward might help (at least it did for me!) The long term benefit is worth it. And now I really want to poll my students to confirm my theory about their cultural ignorance...

Reasons I Am Happy

2008-02-28T12:37:00.003-05:00

There are several I've been mulling over recently, or would like to dredge up here:

1. I'm on winter vacation. Hooray! I have been vegging quite a lot, staying up to an ungodly hour most every night (I would like to know the origin of the phrase "ungodly hour." Isn't it an oxymoron, since God doesn't sleep? So how can a late hour be "ungodly?"), sleeping more than usual, and yet also being somewhat productive, by reading some history stuff and watching hours of film from Ken Burns The War series, on World War II. Oh, and I also got papers and tests corrected somewhat early on in the week, so I am not feeling guilty all week long about not doing them and putting them off. All in all, it has been a GREAT change of pace.

2. Related to number 1, I'm happy for break, even though I'm not paid for it. This, sadly, is a little known fact about teaching. Since I'm the consummate professional teacher, I feel obliged and determined to enlighten all of my readers to this fact, even though I'm on break, and thus could stop educating others if I felt like it. I think many think thoughts along these lines: "teachers' hours, they're great, you get so many vacations, and loads of time off in the summer!" While this is partly true, those possibly jealous people do not realize that all vacations, holidays, summer time, etc., is UNPAID. Yup, that's right. I don't get a single cent for any of this "time off." And yet much of it is spent doing school-related stuff (correcting papers, reading more history, etc. etc.) The fact is that I am paid for 183 days of work. That's it. None of these days are on breaks. I only get paid for time I am physically at school. Now, I'm not complaining about this at all. But it is a fact to take into account for anyone who thinks a teacher's work schedule is sweet.

3. My mood changes little, despite the weather. It has occurred to me recently how glad I am that weather has little impact on my moods, especially given the weather my area has experienced recently. I think I would feel very differently if I worked outside on a regular basis. But since I don't, I find that rain, snow, cold, lack of sunshine, etc., all of them have little influence over how I feel. While I enjoy the sun, I think I can be just (or at least nearly) as happy with cold, clouds, and ever threatening snow for a month straight, maybe even two. I am grateful that God has allowed me to have such an imperturbable personality.

4. The Red Sox season is around the corner! Enough said on that.

5. I am still loving my job! This despite the fact that the next couple of months will likely be as busy, if not busier, than any other part of the year. It's the season for big "research" projects and all that, and the final push to prep my World History kids for the AP exam. And it's the time of year to start being very sad about the fact that most of my current students will never be in my classroom again. Sigh.

6. Related to number 5, it's also the time to start to think and be excited about the new bunch of kids coming in next year. I'm really excited about the increased number of signups for my AP World History class. Students must write an essay for this, requesting entry into the class and stating why they think they would like to take it. I've received about 40 essays, mostly from current freshmen! It delights me to see the earnestness of intent evident from their language, even though I know some (or much) of it may be superficial, written simply to sound good. Still, hearing many students say they are intent on taking the most challenging classes, and that World History will be a chance to do that, etc., is really nice. And they will certainly be challenged by it! I have also cracked up over some of the language these freshmen incorporated into their essays. Things like "I am assiduous in my studies." If my juniors used words such as these freshmen in any of their research papers, I would immediately wonder about possible plagiarism. But I know that these freshmen simply have better vocab skills, or at least would like to think they do, and are trying to show off... Maybe you have to be a teacher to relate, but it is really funny reading essays where young students use vocabulary that is beyond the norm for their age group, especially when such vocab is of questionable appropriateness for the context! (Andrea, I hope that at least you can relate to this!)

7. I finished my taxes this year. Thank goodness for Turbotax, which kept the amount of time spent on taxes to something around 4 to 5 hours (but who's really counting?)! Another profitable thing I did over break. It's a relief to get this behind me. Uncle Sam gets his chunk of change once again, though once again he got too much to begin with, so I got to take some of my hard-earned cashola back!

Ok, enough said for now on why life in general, is just plain good. Oh, maybe I should add one more: God reigns, and nothing can stop that fact, as much as any current events might stir us to be tempted to think/feel otherwise.

Pizza, Utter Terror, and Scaring Freshmen

2008-01-28T17:15:00.000-05:00

Random facts in my life:
I think I must have set some sort of record for most dinners and other meals consisting of pizza in one week. This was the result of a lot of leftover pizza from the Patriots party I hosted last week. I then ate pizza for two lunches during the week, as well as dinner Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evening! And I still enjoyed the last piece! Gotta love Pizza Hut pizza! And the freedom to be able to do such a thing without being scolded about how unhealthy it is (Mom, if you read this please hold off on the scolding)!

On to another fact. I wish I could say I am over getting frightened. I am not. I experienced utter terror last evening. It was AWFUL!!! What made me so frightened? Auditioning for Beauty and the Beast. Sounds crazy, right? How could I, after having performed in front of tens of thousands (I was just trying to think about whether this is an exaggeration; but I don't think it is. A good estimate of total audience members of various shows I have performed in over the years would number in the tens of thousands) of people, get so scared about auditioning? I don't know. Even after practicing my monologue umpteen times, and singing my song through oh so many times, I still faced incredible fear, nervousness, anxiety, etc., as I waited to perform in front of a panel of people, most of whom I did not know. I was panicking so much I had a hard time remembering my monologue just minutes before I was on to perform it. That's a bad sign, especially after having rehearsed it for the already mentioned umpteen times. This panic may have been compounded by the fact that I had to wait maybe an hour and a three quarters after arriving before I was called to go before the directors. Such a wait isn't very good for a case of already-somewhat-jittery nerves. Then, as I was in the audition room with four other would-be actors, my heart was literally racing as I sat there. I had to consciously make myself breathe. Still my heart raced. It didn't help any that I was supposed to cut most of the song I had been practicing. Though I knew this in advance, it was still a little bit of a challenge, especially since I hadn't practiced it with a live piano that way. So the intro the accompanist gave me (and what I had asked for) caught me totally off guard, and I missed the entrance. Gulp. Start over. Much better this time, though the tempo was way slower than I had rehearsed, and it was a bit annoying to try and keep with it. I know in theory that I could have sped up and the accompanist should have followed, but thinking about it afterward I'm not sure he would have been able to keep up, which could have been even more disastrous, so it's probably as well that I didn't try to control it.
After the song came the monologue. It's probably a good thing I was cut off after a bit, because I probably would have forgotten the rest of it, amidst the ongoing grip of terror I was in. Of course, if I had forgotten it I probably would have jumped around a bit and still been able to cobble something together, probably well-enough that it wouldn't have been too obvious that I had messed up. Still, it was a bit of a relief to be done that. (Note to acting neophytes: being cut off is not a bad sign. When there are many people auditioning, as there were last night, directors often cut you off after getting enough of a sense of your ability, whatever it may be.)

And then the dancing routine, which had just been taught us a while before. I chose the easier routine, which was actually quite basic, and about all I can manage. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.

Now there's the waiting period, to see if I'll get called back, be cast, or be left home to shrivel up in my hole and pretend I never went through such a horrific experience, and try to forget it. I think I'll be quite happy with the last option, except for the questions that would linger in my head about whether rejection was based on mistakes I made in the audition, or simply lacking the talent/connections to land the role. I decided not to accept just any role, but only a couple of specific ones, which are rather juicy. I can't justify to myself putting in the time and energy that a show requires, amidst my rather busy teaching schedule, unless it's a once in a lifetime kind of role that I would be foolish to turn down. So I continue to wait, curious to know whether I am way out of my league, whether I am close and might be given another shot, or whether the stars are properly aligned this time and my height, build, and less-than-beautiful baritone will all work together to land the kind of role I would not get if they were looking for a tenor of average height and incredible dancing ability!

And now, concerning freshmen. I will get a batch of them tomorrow. To teach even. Tomorrow starts the second semester, and I will be teaching one section of freshmen, whom for the most part I don't know from Adam. It will be my chance to once again lay on the fear and trembling, work hard or you'll be toast, get to class on time or sit in detention, be good in class "or else" routine—while throwing in a bit of humor here and there along the way. It should be fun!

Are You Symbolic of Society's Degradation?

2008-01-19T22:12:00.000-05:00

I'm feeling like I'm in a prophetic mood. (No, I am NOT a prophet, nor am I making any claims that way!) That is to say, I'm feeling preachy, like putting things into black and white, and railing against the lack of integrity that has crept into our society. So if you don't want to risk possibly being included in the group at which the wrath in this post is directed, stop reading NOW.

Still reading? Ok, here goes. Picture this scenario: you are driving quite a bit faster than the posted speed limit, and as you are zipping along a car coming in the opposite direction flashes their lights at you, suggesting a cop is up ahead somewhere. Grateful for the warning, you slow down, and sure enough, you soon pass a police car on the side of the road. Wanting to follow the Golden Rule, and help out someone else like you have just been helped, after a bend in the road makes you invisible to the cop you flash your lights to warn cars about to drive into the speed trap.

Is this behavior really an appropriate application of the Golden Rule? Are you being Christlike to warn others to slow down? No. You are what is wrong with society. You are making it more difficult for the authorities in power to see that the rule of law is enforced. And you are wrong. It would be much better if no oncoming car had warned you, and that you had gotten a 300 dollar speeding ticket. You are a danger to society, and you are encouraging people to act dangerously. How can you live with acting that way? The rule of law ought to be upheld. Warning others is not following the golden rule, unless giving someone a tip about how they can rob a bank without getting caught is also following the golden rule. (In case you are wondering, it isn't!)

My thinking is based on the following facts.
1. Unless a law contradicts a biblical principal or command of God, either via general revelation or personal revelation, we ought to follow it.
2. If you are jamming on the brakes when warned about a police officer ahead, you are breaking the law. Your fear of getting caught proves that you know this. And since you know you are a law breaker, this is a spiritual problem as well as a threat to society. When the rule of law is not upheld, society will disintegrate. When you violate a law for no good reason, and knowlingly, you are disobeying the New Testament command to respect the law and lawful authorities.
3. Larger problems will develop within a society if disrespect for the law increases beyond "less significant" laws like obeying the posted speed limit.
4. Not only is this a social and spiritual problem, but you are posing a danger to others, and encouraging others in dangerous behavior. The risk of accident is much greater when you drive significantly over the speed limit. If you warn others to slow down simply because there is a cop about, their speed will only decrease as long as they think an officer is near.
5. It would be a very good thing for speeders to get caught. Isn't a speeding ticket more likely to significantly alter a pattern of dangerous driving (speeding)? If not that, then what? An accident that kills someone else?

Personally, I often wish that anyone who whizzes by me at 5 mph or faster than the speed I'm driving at will be pulled over and nailed for speeding. I practically yearn for the day when I will see every speeder at the side of the road with those lovely blue lights flashing. Part of this might be carnal, but I think part of it is healthy. It's simply wanting to see justice served, and the rule of law upheld. Why should I obey the law while others don't and get away with it? They shouldn't get away with it.

I wonder sometimes if those who speed badly justify their behavior for breaking the law by reasoning something like this: the speed limit isn't really practical. No one follows it. Those who advocate following it are hypocrites, for even they drive 5 mph over. It is just a matter of finding a comfortable speed over the limit, and sticking with that (whether it be 10, 12, 15, or 20 mph over). The roads are really designed for speeds higher than the posted limit, so I'm really not a danger to anyone to drive a bit faster. I'm not really THAT bad of a driver, for sometimes other cars drive by me. I'm much better than others. They are the real speeders. If I'm given a ticket, it won't be fair, for the cops missed several others who are worse.

I harken back to a great piece of advice from my FBI teacher, Mr. M. You should only drive at a speed that you won't alter a bit should you see a police officer. This does not always mean the speed limit. But it means that your conscience is clean, for you believe it is in keeping with the spirit of the law.

Flashing your lights to warn others of a police officer is not only promoting danger, lawbreaking, and probably even a sin. It is also a sign of a general "us versus authority" mentality that is all to present in our world today. I see it among high school students a lot, and it irritates me to no end. How many students will report cheating among their peers? Virtually no one. How many will report any "minor" rules violation of their peers? Virtually no one. Why not? It's because there's an unwritten code of behavior out there that "ratting" is a terrible sin. And promoting justice by reporting such violations is definitely "ratting." Makes me think about the Bible verse that says men will call evil good and good evil. It definitely applies here. The good that is helping to uphold law by volunteering information (at least when directly asked) is seen as gross misconduct, and liable sometimes to get you beat up. How sick is this?

Obviously there has to be a balance to this. I'm not suggesting we have a police state, where everyone is encouraged to be a tattletale and informant on their neighbor. But cheating is a good example of the kind of behavior that should be reported. At least if you are directly asked if you know of anyone who cheated.

It seems like I had some more thoughts to add on this, but now my momentum in writing this seems to be fizzling. I've probably said enough. Is speeding the worst social ill out there? No. Should we put cameras up everywhere to limit speeding? Probably not. I just wish that people's hearts were all in a place where they respected law enough to follow it even if no one is watching. After all, that's what character is, isn't it? I'm not surprised to see a lack of character in nonbelievers. But I hope it is not present in believers. If it is, I would suggest that those believers are also symbolic of society's degradation...

Why Do Students Have to Cheat?

2008-01-15T17:56:00.000-05:00

I'm so irritated/disappointed right now. I caught some of my favorite (most of my them are "favorites," so this is somewhat of a meaningless adjective, but useful anyway to qualify my pain) students cheating on a homework assignment today. I usually don't collect it, but did today, and found some more than coincidental identical answers on a portion of homework that should not have had identical answers. To put it another way, the odds of eight answers being virtually identical, even down to the slight modifications they made from the original text, are about as condemning as you can get (this was true in one case; in another case one student confessed, which made determining guilt easier).

I'm also irritated because I think I falsely accused one pair of students about cheating. I thought I picked up on it during class, confronted them at the end of class, and they denied it. I reexamined it, and though it is still fishy I am not 100 percent sure they did (this case is different from two other cases, which are slam dunk cheating). So now I'll have to sort out talking to the guilty parties and the perhaps not guilty parties tomorrow. Sigh. The sad thing is I know that I only catch probably 1 percent of the cheating that goes on. So when that 1 percent is caught, it really should not be overlooked. It doesn't make sense to just say "It's ok this time, but don't let me catch you again" when they will be able to cheat another 99 times before I do catch them again. What kind of message does that send? So I have to deal with what I've caught as a significant deal, with students I would naturally speaking like to get along with well. Do parents wonder if their children will ever love them again when they discipline them? Any parents out there feel free to chime in on this. If so, I'm feeling like a parent. But not like God. I don't think God is afraid His children won't love them again when He disciplines!

I'm also disturbed because I think most students tend to vehemently deny it when they are confronted with cheating. So I am faced with the prospect tomorrow that when I talk to several students each of them will deny it, which hurts even more when there is such overwhelming evidence and you like to think that your relationship with students is such that they don't lie to you every other minute. Maybe you can pray that confessions will occur and that repentance will be genuine. And that I'll have the grace to apologize to any I wrongly accused today...

A Few Quotables

2007-12-30T16:40:00.000-05:00

Here are a few quotes I think are worthy of passing along. Some of my thoughts about them might also be worth passing along, so I'll include a few of them. At some point I think I'll pontificate on what to do when the rule of law clashes (apparently) with the Golden Rule. Which do you follow? Is it possible that the Golden Rule should be "rejected" in favor of something else? But my thoughts on that will have to wait for another time (don't worry, I'm really not a heretic).

Now for the quotes:
1. "I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hand of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; -- but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead."--William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator, January 1, 1831

Pro-life people should be able to find inspiration from such language, and could appropriately appropriate it for their cause. Of course, for Garrison, the cause was ending slavery. I admire the guy for having the guts to stand up against the horrific system that slavery was in the American South, at a time when few people dared or cared to take such a radical stand as Garrison, who demanded the immediate abolition of slavery. Say what you want against Garrison for some of his other views, which may be less admirable. But he was a man who saw slavery for what it was, and sacrificed a lot to sound a clarion call against it, decades before a political party--the Republicans, who mostly just wanted to stop its expansion, and were not nearly as bold as Garrison--dared to adopt a plank that could lead to the institution's eventual extinction. (By the way, in case you missed the memo, slavery was a VERY EVIL institution in the American South, and as such very much corrupted the culture of the South. I will not digress too much here by detailing the overwhelming evidence that supports this claim. But any wannabe pro-South defenders will have to do better than to say that "slavery is in the Bible" or use ad hominem arguments such as "the North was corrupt too" to justify the slave system. But this is another topic, perhaps worthy of a very long post sometime, so I'll stop now.)

2. "Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive."—C.S. Lewis, in "The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment," in God in the Dock.
This could be good thought fodder in the classroom, when contemplating government intervention to improve people's lives.

3. "Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one's labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward." Ecclesiastes 5:18
I read this the other day, and was struck by how much it summarizes my vocation. Sometimes I can't believe I get paid to teach. My job is almost too good to be true! Of course, there is a warning label that should accompany the dose of sentiment of which you have just partaken.
Here it is:

Contextual warning--Readers should be aware of the fact that I am about 10 days removed from my most recent classroom experience, so time may have dulled the memories of frustration and exasperation that also frequently accompany my job.

Even so, I am glad to say that I enjoy myself in all my labor--er, at least most of it!

Baffled

2007-12-04T22:34:00.000-05:00

I am baffled, in addition to stressed, disturbed and emotionally drained. Why? To make a long story short, due to a meeting with a parent who wanted to defend their child's egregious plagiarism, who threatened to get my principal to "force" me to change the grade despite my decision to give the zeroes for the assignment (which is in keeping with official school policy, I might add--it's not like I'm going out on a limb to do this!). Oh, and apparently I don't really want to make this experience a "teaching tool" for their child because I decided to give zeroes. Because naturally you can't teach a student not to plagiarize by giving them a stiff academic penalty. You have to coddle them and try to imagine it was all a big mistake that multiple sections of an online source magically appeared in the student's paper. It's magic because the student claims to have never visited said source. And of course if the student says they didn't do this, and denies that they plagiarized, and is fearful for the academic consequence that will come with a zero, this student MUST be treated with care and given a chance to make up the assignment! Only then will this experience become a "teaching tool!" I'm suddenly not very enthusiastic about dealing with people in this sin-sick world. At least those that question my integrity. But regardless, I'll press on. Blame it on the Patriots if you want. My shorter night of sleep could be having an impact on my life's outlook right now!

I Love to Laugh

2007-12-01T00:14:00.000-05:00

"Some people laugh through their noses, sounding something like this..." Gotta love Mary Poppins and this classic song. And I'm glad I've had the chance to laugh a few times recently. Here are a few reasons:

The story a colleague related about a student in their class, when discussing Canada and how its laws are different than those in the United States. Deadly serious, the girl responded something like "I thought Canada was a part of the United States." She didn't know why there would be an issue with different laws, since they are all the same country. I'm sure Canadian friends will roll their eyes at that one!

A hard-working, sweet and intelligent, yet sometimes a little ditzy, flighty, and chatty girl in my U.S. History class and the way she occasionally laughs in class. She laughs quite a lot. But on occasion it comes out as a snort. Literally. I think it happens when she laughs more than the usual amount, or something. Her normal laugh is not a snort, but on occasion it suddenly shifts to that. It's REALLY funny. What adds to the humor is her horror at herself and how she sounds. She'll laugh, the laugh will turn into a snort, and then she'll clap her hand over her mouth in horror at what just escaped from her lips. I and students in the class have had occasion more than once to laugh at her for her laugh and reaction to it. It's one of those moments I wish I had a video camera to capture... Of course I occasionally sound as funny, when I'll be talking and suddenly my voice will crack and briefly turn high pitched. If I don't catch it quickly enough it will usually elicit a good laugh from my students, and a chance to laugh at myself.

Blurted and spontaneous comments another girl in U.S. History will make in reaction to things I say. I can only remember one big one right now. But she's the one who shows more than the average amount of interest in the subject, so will ask questions that involve a little more explanation, and sometimes lead to rabbit trails. Though on one hand I don't like students to blurt out comments when they interrupt me or others, on the other hand the spontaneity can be refreshing. Case in point: I told my students there was a real irony in that the worst grade I received in college was the same subject I was teaching them, U.S. History. Then I told them the grade: a B+. Of course this was devastating for me. The girl blurts out "Why are you a teacher? You could've been a chemist or something." Yup, once upon a time my life was at a fork in the road. One direction said "teaching," and the other was clearly flashing "chemistry." Chemistry would have been the only other option, of course, to one as "smart" as me. Forget law, medicine, engineering, or some other hard science. But for some reason I chose the not so smart route, and entered teaching. I was rather amused at the chemist proposal. I suspect it was the first occupation that popped into her head which she thought required some brains, and more brains than teaching.

Speaking of teaching, I'm a little scared at myself. I like it so much! I think something is wrong with me. In fact, over the last holiday weekend I had a workshop on Friday. Then we had Monday off. This meant four days away from students! I was so itching to get back into the classroom after those four days! It was a little weird to me that I wanted to get back so badly. Actually missing students seems kind of sad, but it happens. I think Thanksgiving break resulted in a similar angst for resuming teaching, though I don't remember feeling as ready to return. Part of it may have been that I've been doing some extra reading for a workshop that I recently participated in.

Shifting gears a bit, here's my new plot to change the world. Anyone who wants to join the plot can do so. I recently discovered that someone had rated my teaching abilities at ratemyteachers.com. It was an unfavorable rating, though the comment the student made showed that his reasons for disliking me were quite shallow (essentially "too weird," so that makes me a bad teacher--go figure). Well, I think that websites such as these are ridiculous in terms of their ability to accurately reflect a teacher's ability. After all, it's usually the students who hate a teacher who take the time to go to such a website and enter the ratings. Conversely, the teachers who are loved, usually for the wrong reasons (like being really easy and giving no homework, or showing movies all the time, or whatever), are favorably rated. One of the most incompetent teachers (since moved on from my school) I have known of all time (and pretty much universally recognized as such by my colleagues) has received very favorable ratings at this website. So based on it alone you would think this teacher is one of the best the school has to offer, as opposed to the worst. So anyway, I decided to participate in a nefarious scheme: rate myself. You can do so anonymously, so it's not like I made a claim to be some former student. I just made good comments about my intentions and my niceness, despite the hard work and challenge that my classes entailed. So anyone who wants to mess with an already wildly inaccurate reflection of a teacher's true abilities, please feel free to join the scheme!

I'm a little annoyed at myself that right now I can't remember other interesting things from work. There are always interesting things happening, which would be blogworthy material. Then I forget about them. Of course there was the sleeping substitute of mine when I was gone for the workshop a couple of weeks ago. He was also incompetent in some other ways. I left clear instructions asking him to do certain things, very basic stuff, such as distribute a sheet in each class for students to sign, to verify their attendance. He didn't do that after the first two classes, but apparently thought he knew better and would simply mark the students absent. Of course there were then several errors, students who claimed to be present who were marked absent, and vice versa. With no signatures as backup it was hard to straighten things out. And the students told me that he liked to talk. So rather than playing the very important video segments right away, which were timed to fit within the period so long as things were started right away, the sub told stories and started the film late! This meant there wasn't time to watch all that needed to be. Sigh. And students for a couple of classes said he was sleeping. He had his head in his hand, pretending to read the newspaper while sitting at my desk, but they could tell he slept! That's a first for me. The sub who slept. Apparently he was an older man...

It blesses me to have some students who are good, and then some. I give extra credit opportunities to help students who wish a grade boost to get one. Some of my best students also do the extra credit. Their work ethic has impressed me and won my heart. I will have to remember to praise them for it.

Amidst the humor, the roll your eyes moments, and the good things, there is pain. Like the obviously distraught girl in my class the day before Thanksgiving. I asked her what was wrong, and she basically melted into tears, and said it was too difficult to talk about. But I know her Dad has cancer, and that has to be weighing on her. I think her parents recently divorced as well. It makes me wonder how many other stories there are like that among my students. How many of them are dealing with unspeakable pain, and do not know the Person to turn to who can comfort them in that pain? It's a sobering thought, and gives me fresh reason to remember these kids in prayer. I live the words of Steve Green's song, "People Need the Lord," every day. Actually, I'm often a little blinder than the words of the song suggest. I don't see the needs every day, but I am occasionally reminded that they are there, and I am certainly amidst a huge amount of pain and need every day.

Lord Jesus, have mercy on us.

Anniversaries and Annals

2007-11-02T22:39:00.000-04:00

It's been awhile! Time for a new post. All that Red Sox watching just plum limited by time to blog. Actually, there's been much more going on in my life to keep me busy than just baseball...

I just celebrated my two year anniversary this last week. Since I bought and moved into my condo, that is. I can still remember the great excitement of first moving into a new place of my own, getting things set up, etc. I loved my place then, and I love it now (still, can you believe it?) God is so good for making such a thing possible. And I even have a decent condo mate, which also helps! :-)

I've been swamped with student papers recently. Sixty or so of them. It's quite a process correcting them. And I'm doing something new this time. Trying to improve the teaching process and all that. I'm offering extra credit for students who will come in before or after school and take part in a mini, five minute or so conference with me to discuss their paper, after I have corrected it. I'm really hoping this will help me determine whether they understand what it means to write a run-on sentence, or a sentence fragement, or why I have marked something as awkward or unclear, or the difference between it's and its, their and there, and why you never want to use the first person in a formal essay. And why you never use contractions in formal writing. And the worst: "I feel this or I feel that" used to buttress their position. It almost makes me want to barf and scrawl in big red letters next to such a statement: "No one cares what you feel, so stuff it. The reader wants to know what you think, what your argument is, and why you think it. Feelings are irrelevant, you byproduct of a warm and fuzzy feeling generation who has been told that whatever you feel is fine. Your feelings are not fine here. I don't care what they are. So save them for your shrink."

Ok, I just made most of that up as I was typing. I'm kind of impressed with my off the cuff creativity. I don't really think all those things. And it would take way too long to write that anyway. So I don't. But students do need to learn to avoid such statements in formal essay writing! Anyway, these conferences, once completed in conjunction with another short writing assignment, will allow students to earn points back on their essay. I haven't done conferences like this before. Now I'm thinking it would be a good idea, since I wonder whether most students actually take the time to read the comments I make on papers, and if they do read them whether they comprehend them and learn from their writing mistakes. This conference will help them to learn, I hope.

I'm also loving school. Despite its business (or is it busyness? See what reading poor spelling in papers does to your spelling skills! Aaaagh!) Three different preps is really a LOT of work. Andrea's schedule notwithstanding, where I am this is more than the norm and thus worthy of bellyaching long and loudly about. In reality, I'm not really complaining, but making an observation. And I am kind of hoping that next year I will be down to two preps, which would help.

But despite the three preps, I pretty much love my classes. And they're sooo different in makeup and personality. Here's a taste:

First period--often dead silence at the start of class. Everyone must be half asleep. What highschooler is really awake before 9:00 A.M. anyway? And we start at 7:45! If I had pins to drop, I'm sure they could be heard and all that.

On a side note, but related to this class: I am quite sure that this class is the one to which a student in a later class was referencing when she asked a question that went something like this: "Why are your earlier classes so boring? So many people say they are boring?" I think I thanked this girl for her question and told her she had so made my day by saying such a thing. Both of my comments had a good bit of sarcasm attached to them. In fairness to her, I think she did not intend to come across as negative, because she seems to enjoy the class, and her class is really lively, so I think she was a bit surprised that earlier classes were not the same way. To deal with this alleged boredom, a couple of days later I addressed the accusation in this earlier class. I told them if they thought class was boring, they hadn't seen anything yet. They were going to get an extremely boring class that day. I then proceeded to talk in a monotone for the next few minutes, which did get some students laughing (amazing as it was, those students making some sound before 8 in the morning!), before I finally got tired of it and stopped. But I believe they got the point. Not that they don't think class is boring anymore. But at least they know what it could be like!

Ok, back to describing my classes. The second class of the day is with the brightest group of kids. They are much more talkative. One girl is an avid Patriots fan, so she often wants to discuss the game, which we frequently do before class starts. Others are solid Sox fans, so we have had some good chats about that, and the late nights it has entailed for us. One girl is probably about as conscientious a student as I have ever taught, and VERY bright, I believe as a result of her painstakingly doing all of the work asked of her in a deliberate manner. She gets stressed out about some of the work in part because she is a slow reader, so handling twenty-five pages of text for my class in addition to her other assignments can be tough. But I expect her to ace the AP exam in May with a 5. At least I have high hopes for her that way. As I do with some others, particularly a couple of guys who are quite good. And this class has two of my students from last year. I admire them for voluntarily putting up with me for an entire second year! And they have won a warm place in my heart for doing so. And they have both asked me for college recommendations, along with it seems like a dozen or so other past students. That's another thing that's keeping me busy this time of year. All those college recs.

After my second class I have quite a break from teaching, as a couple of other duties, my prep period, and my lunch period all are grouped together before I teach my last three classes at the end of the day. The next U.S. History class is unique in its wide range of skill levels. I have one girl who probably belongs in a higher level class. Sweet, quiet, solid. I had her for a semester class last year, and I'm really happy she's in my class again. Then I have some guys in there who are at the other end of the spectrum, who are close to or are failing, and do not have much of a clue about many things. But they are nice. A quick, laugh out loud funny story follows. Funny in a "Oh my word, I can't believe it's that bad" sort of way.

We were looking at a diary entry of a person living in the 18th century (and the date was visible in the entry), and I asked them something about whether you can tell who wrote it based on the date. The eyes of one of these guys kind of grew large, he raised his hand, and with a bit of awe in his voice provided what he thought must be the answer: You wrote it!? (Did I blog about this before? If so, please forgive the repeat!) This was one of those die of laughter moments if it wasn't that the student was so serious. I mean, I may look old to these kids, but to be placed in the 18th century by one of them? And he was serious! I tried to contain myself and cracked a joke, wondering how old the student thought I was! Perhaps needless to say, this guy is not the quickest one in the class. It's probably a good idea he is transferring into a different level shortly...

The next class, also U.S. History, is one with some real live wires in it. Also some high achievers. And some really hard workers, who may not be as naturally intelligent as some of my students, but because they work hard I love them to death. And some lazy ones who do not work hard, and might fail, or barely pass. And at least one quiet one who is also a hard worker and doing well. They have a lot of energy. It's definitely a chore to keep them quiet sometimes, even when they are supposed to listen! This was the class with the student who asked why other classes are bored. If I had to pick a class for which it would be almost impossible for a student to claim it was boring, it would have to be this one. We laugh a bit more. They talk a LOT more. And I find myself often not getting through as much info as earlier classes of the same subject. I think this is partly because it is harder to settle them down. And I think it's because they ask more questions, which lead to extra pearls of wisdom spilling from my ever ready tongue. Ok, maybe not that. But I do go on side trails sometimes with them which I do not with other classes. I'm happy about the curiosity evident. Though it can slow things down, it is something that makes a teacher like myself quite happy.

The last class is my United Nations class. That is, it could be the UN, given the different countries represented by students in it. So it has its own unique flavor. A wide variety of academic levels too, which adds to the mix.

So that's a bit of my life. And now I'm running out of blogging momentum. So I shall shortly go and eat ice cream. Except I'll say I am very glad I no longer have the after school duties I had last year. It makes my schedule so much more manageable!

And This Week's Winners Are...

2007-10-03T17:21:00.000-04:00

I've been correcting U.S. History tests. I have two student answers that must be shared. At least one was laugh out loud funny, if you know anything about U.S. History. Students were supposed to write a brief explanation about various terms, identifying what they were and explaining their larger historical significance (why we should care about it).

One response, on the Temperance movement:
"The temperence movement was created in history trying to calm the people down because of war they had a bad temper. I am just kidding, yo, to be honest I don't know the answer but at least I did my best. You dig?" Um, yeah, I do "dig." Warm and fuzzy feelings for you for doing your "best." But buddy, your best here results in zero credit. It's also too bad you failed the test. This puts into question your claim that you did your "best."

Another student's response, on the Trail of Tears: "The trails of tears was a path that a group of troops marched I'm guessing that the trail wasn't very easy. It may have caused many of them to shed tears. However they did march it." Another winner. Hilarious, but also a little sad.

I suppose some people could think this is a reflection on my teaching, but I have reached the point where I hold such a view lightly, and place the blame squarely on the student's shoulders. Especially in cases such as these, when almost all of the other students were much better in explaining these two terms...

Matt Stamps is One of My Students and I Am a Genius (in my dreams)

2007-09-15T13:25:00.000-04:00

This came as a great surprise to me, as no doubt it does to you all. I mean, I thought the guy was married and in the Navy thousands of miles away or something. But apparently he has lost about eight years of age and returned to high school. And he's taking U.S. History as one of my students. Oh, and he's changed his name to make it sound like he is of Greek origin. I suppose he thinks this is a clever disguise, but I see right through it.

To his credit, I didn't realize he was in my class until yesterday, when I was carefully eyeing students taking a quiz. I was monitoring cheating and all that. I had to do several double takes looking at this student. But as he was taking the quiz I decided he was practically the spitting image of Stamps, at least as I remember him in the days when he was around my part of the country! Uncanny. Strange. And I believe it is the first time I have seen a reincarnation of someone outside of my teaching life placed into a school room context. Now I eagerly anticipate seeing other reincarnations of friends and family in my class! Who will be next, in years or months to come? Classmates from BS? Neighbors? Cousins?

In other news, I have decided that genius has evaded me, except in my dreams. I dream clever things. Last night it was a new scene from Mr. Bean. I have not watched Mr. Bean anytime recently, and little in general. But I dreamed of a very clever scene of Mr. Bean counting change he took from his pocket, then proceeding to eat a hard boiled egg, which he partially shared with another person (while trying to eat it). Now I'm wondering if I have seen a scene like this before, or if I should start to hire my services out to the Bean writers in exchange for very clever and hilarious scripts. Actually, I'm not sure how hilarious it was in my dream. It seemed a little gross...

This has not happened recently, but I also find my vocabulary is immensely expanded in my dreams. Again, it must be my inner genius bottled up, only to spill out when in dreamland. Each morning that I wake up to an alarm, I wake up to the radio. Don't like the annoying screeching sound. Much prefer some announcer or advertisement to bring me out of my sleep. Anyway, on past occasions, shortly before the alarm (radio) turns on, I have dreamed that I am hearing the radio and the morning news. It seems very real. Except in these news reports are various complex words that I never use in common language. It's the most amazing thing. It's like my verbal IQ is through the roof or something. Where do these words come from? And if I recall correctly, they are not gibberish. They make sense to me in my sleep.

Now I'm slightly irritated to think that I cannot share all of this inner intelligence with the rest of the world. Why does it elude me in my waking moments? Frustrating. If only my expansive intellect and creative genius were not confined to moments lying on my mattress...

Big Papi, He's the Man!!!

2007-09-12T22:49:00.000-04:00

Enough said. Go Sox!

In other news, I have students from Bosnia, the Ukraine, Egypt, Afghanistan, Iran (a student's parent is from there at least), and at least one more country that escapes my mind right now, all in my Mid East class. How cool is that?

It All Blew Over

2007-09-08T13:07:00.000-04:00

For anyone wondering how the meeting with the administrator I referenced in a previous post went, it ended up not being a big deal! I explained my case, explained how difficult it was to get as low a grade as the student had, explained how low the grade was one marking periods, and gave some whopping numbers on assignments that student missed over the semester, to explain the low grade (it was somewhere in the vicinity of 20, no joking!). I was not grilled or lectured to as I thought I might be. I was thankful.

In other news, the school year has started and is about to move into full gear. Or has already. I have what feels like mountains of work to correct already, as my AP class had a summer assignment due the first day. I was disappointed not to get some students I was really hoping might be in my classes, but am trusting that it will all work out for the best. Some movement in class makeup is quite likely in the next few days, though I'm not holding out a lot of hope there. What I am a little more concerned about are the small numbers signed up for my AP class. The roster was cut in half from the original signups, mostly due to scheduling conflicts. I'm not sure whether to blame this on school inefficiency (inability or lack of willingness to juggle teacher's schedules to accomodate the greatest number of students who want to take certain classes) or the fact that there is only one section of AP, so such scheduling issues are more likely to occur. I'm currently placing a little blame on both facotrs, though perhaps a little more on the former.

Anyway, because I have significantly smaller numbers to start the first semester (which is required for most of them in there), the current signups for the second semester (needed to prepare for the AP exam) are even smaller (the second semester is not a requirement). I've been told that, as is, the class probably will not continue second semester, so I should see about increasing signups. That I have been doing, both internally to the current class by pitching the AP curriculum and last year's success rate in desperate hopes that most of them will stay, and I've started to hunt for others currently not in the class who might be able to take it. And I am hoping that a couple more students whose schedule wouldn't allow it at first will be able to juggle things in order to get back into the course.

I see a tremendous irony in this kind of battle. While I love teaching AP, it is way more work than a typical class. My motives in keeping it are because I like working with brighter students, but also because I believe our school should be providing more AP offerings in the Social Studies. There are 6 or 8 AP exams in Social Studies, but only 2 courses besides my class are offered at my (very large) school. So it seems silly and a real shame that given our size we do not offer more challenging courses. Students benefit from such courses. And it gives them more options for classes that will increase their chances to impress and do well in future colleges to which they may apply. So I find myself fighting hard to give myself more work! Sometimes I am really attracted by the idea of just giving up on it and teaching a class that is much easier to prepare. I think the positives for ME would be more than the negatives for ME if such a thing happened. But I believe the negatives for students were that to happen would be greater. So I see great irony here. Why should I be the one to struggle with administration (or the system) to help students? But such is my state.

Airheadedness Gets You a TV Job

2007-09-07T22:37:00.000-04:00

I know it's not always the thing to do to criticize the hometown announcers, but sometimes I am astonished by the airheaded questions Tina Cervasio asks Red Sox players on NESN. And she gets paid to do this? Ok, maybe few of you actually watch NESN. Let me give you an example. After a recent Sox win, a question she asked Kevin Youkilis: "So, what do you think about Jon Lester's 7 inning shutout performance?" Duh. Is there any answer but to praise such a performance? Why ask a question if you already know the answer? The utter inanity of it all!

I wonder if TV interviewers for other home teams ask as stupid and airheaded questions? Probably. I guess they have to sometimes, because when you interview a player after every game some games may not have any exciting things to discuss. But that was not the case with this game. A more interesting question of Youkilis might have been something like "If a full fledged brawl had broken out after Cabrera beaned Pedroia, which Oriole would you have targeted and taken down first? Tejada? Or would you have targeted someone scrawnier, like maybe Brian Roberts? Who do you think Big Papi would have gone after? Would anyone have dared to take him on?" Now those kinds of questions would be worth tuning in to hear the answers to!

Any NESN viewers out there have similar thoughts on this? I get tired of drivel sometimes...

I'm So Happy and Here's the Reason Why

2007-09-01T00:28:00.000-04:00

I refuse to be unhappy despite the Sox recent skid, and despite a little unpleasantness I'll have to deal with next week (I'll explain later). My week was made recently and I am feeling happy! And we all know it's all about the feelings, right?

Why so happy? I'll explain. I went into school to work on getting a jump start on classroom setup, etc. Our official first day is a teacher day upcoming, when we'll have time to work on things like that. But I wanted to do a little prep work before prep day. So I go into school. And I check my mailbox. I get back to my classroom and take a closer look at the mail. One of the items was the sheet of AP World History (hereafter APWH) test scores my students earned on their May exam. My jaw dropped. I shouted in delight. I clapped. I practically danced. I could have hyperventilated. (It's a good thing I didn't, as I was alone on that floor!) ALL MY STUDENTS PASSED!!!

Whoop dee do, right? So they passed. You might think that any competent teacher should get all his students to pass. So what? If you are thinking these thoughts, you lack context on AP courses, and my particular situation. I'll give a little context to help.

1. Only 51 percent of all test takers in 2006 passed the APWH exam. No typos here: again, 51 percent. I don't know what the percentage nationwide was this year (figures aren't out yet), but the percentages have been trending downward over the last four years, as more and more students have enrolled in APWH and have taken the exam (instead of only the "smartest" taking the exam, thus lower average scores are to be expected). I'm guessing the percentage of those who passed this year will be 49 or 50 percent. So I was pretty happy with a 100 percent pass rate!

2. The APWH exam is considered by some teachers to be harder than at least one of the other AP history exams, that of U.S. History. Don't have any proof of this, but it sounds good to me! Even if it isn't more difficult, it is still a rather comprehensive exam. It literally covers highlights from the entire world over the last 10,000 years or so (emphasis on "or so." Feel free to be skeptical on the year range. But you get the point. It's a lot of stuff over a long period of time.)

3. While I encouraged my entire class to take the exam at least for the experience, I was very afraid at least two of them would not pass. It took some armbending to convince them to try and take the exam. So it was a small victory just to get my entire class to sign up for the exam.

4. We had no AP level textbook the entire year. It was the first time the school offered the course, and the first time I had taught it at that level. So no adequate textbook. I believe this was a serious obstacle the students and myself faced and had to overcome. I had to lecture a lot more than I would have preferred, to cover the material. And I had no training on how to do this. No workshops to help me. I joined a listserve with other WHAP teachers, which helped. Still, I was a greenhorn.

5. At least one student misidentified a section of the world when he was asked to write an essay on something. In case you want a taste of what kind of stuff you have to do on this exam, here was the essay question:
Analyze major changes and continuities in the formation of national identities in ONE of the regions listed below from 1914 to the present. Be sure to include evidence from specific countries in the region selected.
Middle East
Southeast Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa

Anyway, his mistake was to pick Southeast Asia as his region, and then talk about India. Big mistake. India is not in Southeast Asia. It's considered South Asia. Wrong region entirely. Vietnam would have been a good country to discuss if he had been correct in his geography. So I believe his score on that essay, which was one-sixth of the entire grade, was a zero.

6. I asked my students to email me their grades over the summer when they got them, so I would know. I only heard from one student. A bad sign I thought. I realized there could be a little laziness or forgetfulness going on with some, but I suspected it was also an indication of failure for some.

7. Though I could be wrong, I believe there are undercurrents in my school among some teachers, who think that teaching an AP class to sophomores (this class was primarily sophomores) is too early. Like they can't handle it. Like they shouldn't be challenged to take a course of this nature (college level work). And I think those undercurrents would have increased if the scores had been low. So I was dealing with this challenge in the back of my head along with everything else. Of course, I think such thinking is ridiculous. Statistics say so. Seventy-five percent of those who take the APWH exam are sophomores. But anyway, that's some of the ethos out there at my school (again, mostly impressionary).

Ok, enough context. I hope my happiness makes sense now. AP scores are given on a range of 1-5, with 3 and above being a passing grade. 3 is considered "qualified," 4 is "well-qualified," 5 is "extremely well-qualified." Half my class got 3's and the other half got 4's (including the student who wrote about India)! Imagine what might happen with a new textbook (which we're getting this next year)??

Ok, on to the unpleasantness. I also got a note in my mailbox from an administrator questioning why I failed a student, and asking me to see her/him, since that student passed the fourth quarter and the final exam, but failed the third. So next week I'll have to go and explain details. I already know the conversation is likely to run something like the following, so I'm dreading it:
Administrator: Why did you fail this person?
Me: The student failed to turn in numerous assignments, had a terribly low third quarter grade and a grade that wasn't strong enough in the fourth quarter to get him/her anywhere near passing.
Admin: What was the third quarter grade?
Me: (Insert very low number here.)
Admin: Why so low? I don't like it when teachers give zeros. Students then get into such a hole they can't dig themselves out. Don't you think you could give this student a break based on their performance in the fourth quarter and on the exam?
Me: I agree that a high failure grade should usually be given if a student hands in something of poor quality. In fact, it is very difficult for students to get lower than a sixty on any assignment they turn in on time. But the student has to give me something to work with, otherwise it will be a zero. The student earned multiple zeroes because they failed to turn in multiple assignments, including two worth two test grades. It wouldn't be fair to give the student a 50 or 60 for an assignment they never submitted when someone who does poor work and submits an assignment gets the same mark.
Admin: I'm just trying to see how we can bring up the number of passing grades in your class. X number of students earned an F in your class, and that's really too high.
Me: I agree that I would like more students to pass, but again I have to emphasize how difficult it is to fail my class. Students usually have to fail to turn in multiple assignments to fail. This was the case with this student.

If the conversation is any less unpleasant than this, I will be pleasantly surprised. But I'm fearing the worst. I'm also annoyed that I have to deal with this kind of questioning from administration. It is so easy to pass my classes! Why do they have to ask me about it, as if it is my fault? Maybe I have a character flaw in dealing with authority. I trust I'll have the grace to deal with this. I wish I had only read the first piece of mail and not the second! But despite it, I am too happy to let it get me down too much.

Ok, no more. Finis.

Procrastination in Action and Other Randomness

2007-08-28T09:53:00.000-04:00

Summer is winding down. This is the week (including the coming weekend) to get my ducks in order planning wise for the beginning of the school year. This includes revising/pulling together my syllabi, though for most of my classes the syllabus is not nitty-gritty in detail like you get in college. But they include the basics, including expectatations, grading policies, etc. I am planning on going the route of Rehoboam this year. Although the metaphor breaks down quickly, because I am also Solomon. I will be tougher than myself, in other words. How so? Homework. I used to penalize late work at ten percent a day, and only accept it late if we didn't cover the answers in class. Now I'm upping it to twenty percent a day, and no late work accepted after a week. This will save me from having to correct packets of ten homework assignments I occasionally get at the end of a marking period, from a slacker who has done little work and wants to do something about their grade last minute. In the past I have fudged a little on the ten percent a day bit and usually given some credit for work no matter how late it is submitted, even if it's only 2 points out of 10. But I decided I am tired of pandering to slackers like that anymore, at least in classes with college bound students. Let the grades drop if they will, I am not going to be a victim of my own leniency any more. This will also allow me to throw away piles of unused handouts much sooner than before, and keep my classroom a little cleaner.

I have work to do, but I am currently procrastinating by writing this. But it feels good. For these are still the leisure days of summer, where there is work to do but no immediate deadline to complete that work by. A very different story during the year. Lesson planning tends to have significant deadlines attached to it, like the next day when the bell rings and the class begins. You kind of have to have a product ready to go. This tends to suppress procrastination. But nothing is suppressing it right now. So I'm enjoying being a procrastinator just a little while longer...

Moving on to other random events/ideas in my life...

I saw a guy driving and clapping the other day. It was weird. I was driving one way, and he the other, so I didn't have time to stare for long. But it looked like he was driving solo in his car. And he definitely appeared to clap his hands a few times as he sat behind the wheel and drove nearer. What is that all about? Was he listening to a book on CD where the hero just came through in the clutch and stopped the bad guys? Was he listening to some music which called for claps in it? Was he out of his mind? Was he in love and celebrating the fact that the girl he just proposed to said yes? It's a mystery.

Another weird fact. There is a guy, probably in his mid twenties, who comes by my condo building at various times and carries on conversations with a girl, also twenty-something, two stories above my condo, on the third floor, via her window. He gets her attention by yelling/calling up to her. I'm pretty sure he does not live near here, but drives to see her. At least one conversation went something like this: "Hey _____ girl's name." Repeated girl's name because she didn't come at first. (I hear commotion and perk my ears to figure out what is going on.) Girl comes. Guy: "Hey, what's going on. Did I wake you up or something. Do you want to go and hang out?" Girl: "I'm not interested right now. Maybe tomorrow?" Ok, I embellished a bit, if it's possible to embellish a mundane conversation and make it still sound mundane. Anyway, multiple visits of this nature have made me wonder: what kind of relationship is this, or who in their twenties doesn't have a phone? It's obvious to me that the guy does not call over first. He just shows up and yells (really just calls loud enough for her to hear) until she comes to the window (a tiny bit like the guy who calls for the key from Maria in Life is Beautiful, for any who might remember that scene). Why doesn't he call and keep his conversations from being heard throughout the neighborhood? Does she not have a phone? Does she have a phone but hasn't given him her number because she is avoiding him? Whatever the case is, it's a little odd.

Ok, enough randomness for now. I do have things to do, so I'll stop. Gotta get things done before giving my life blood away today. Literally. (Some of it.)

Am I Thinking Like a Liberal?

2007-08-21T22:50:00.000-04:00

I am torn, confused, and worried. Doubts grip me. Is my thinking messed up? Am I embracing what I dislike? Am I going over to the dark side? I have been tormented by certain thoughts recently on a certain subject. I can see strengths to both sides of the argument. Yet I find myself leaning toward a side I would have rejected in earlier years. Why is my thinking shifting? Is it a sign of encroaching darkness? This is kind of scary. Perhaps someone will be able to rescue my poor wayward soul. If you think you can, make the attempt. Or just come over to the dark side with me, if you are convinced by my thinking.

My thoughts revolve around the issue of college scholarships. Specifically, who should get them? On what basis should they be distributed? Is there a system that is the most just? Obviously if someone has money they want to give away, they should be free to choose the criteria. So a better question should make it more personal. If I had a million dollars to set up a scholarship fund, how would I determine the criteria? Who are the most worthy candidates?

At the risk of mischaracterizing the classic positions, I will at least attempt to sketch what I perceive to be the classic conservative and liberal views. Perhaps my agony revolves around a misconception of these views. But this is roughly how I see them:

Conservative view: Scholarships should be awarded however the owner of the money wants them to be awarded. This could be controversial. Aid could target whites only, for example. But because things work best in a free market system, where competition thrives, scholarships are ideally awarded based on academic merit alone. This allows for the greatest amount of competition, and pushes people to achieve on their own. It does not preclude someone from aid simply because they are from a wealthy background, or simply because they are not black, or whatever. In short, individualism and personal achievement trumps the social state and efforts to target aid away from the wealthy and towards the lower class (i.e., wealth redistribution).

Liberal view: Aid should be targeted to the most needy. There is no need for scholarships based on merit alone, as those would allow the rich who can already afford college to take away aid that might go to help those who can't otherwise afford college. An assessment of one's ability to attend college without the applied for scholarship should be made with the application. Aid might target the bright but poor, or other groups traditionally underrepresented in academia.

My thoughts about scholarships were first stirred up in early June, when I attended a scholarship night at my school. That evening hundreds of thousands of dollars were given out to many worthy candidates. Most of the awards had multiple criteria. This was usually some sort of combination of two or more of the following: academic merit, community service, financial need, talent in some area, etc. etc. These are the usual kinds of things you expect to see in scholarships. One thing that stood out to me, however, was the awarding of some of the juiciest scholarships. There were a number of them for something like 5000 dollars each. What struck me was the parental occupations of many of these students. While each was certainly deserving academically, they mostly came from affluent backgrounds. That student's parent is a lawyer. Oh yeah, that student's parent is also a lawyer. Oh yeah, that student's parent is also a lawyer. Ok, that student's parents have their own business in town. Etc. I believe most of these scholarship recipients have parents making six figures or more.

So I thought some more about this. And I have started to think, why do it that way? Why give money to someone who doesn't need it?

Freeze for a moment. I will now play devil's advocate, and counter with the classic conservative view that would make the likes of Rush Limbaugh proud:

Who can really say that this student doesn't "need" it? Who are you to make such a judgment about someone else's life? And why is that relevant? The scholarship is based on academic achievement, not based on financial need. What the parents will do with the extra money in their pocket is their business.

Another thought, from the liberal side: gifted students are lucky. They've simply inherited the genes of their smart parents, who are in high paying jobs because of they're natural ability. So why should you award students for genetic inheritance, over which they had no control?

Limbaugh/other conservatives response: Genetic ability is irrelevant, because they still had to work hard and put their genes to good use and earn those good grades. It may or may not have been easier to achieve academic success, but you shouldn't punish them and deny a scholarship for things over which they have no control. Each person faces unique challenges in their life that they have to work hard to overcome. You shouldn't simply chalk up academic success to wealth.

Back to my thoughts. Could giving money based on financial need be more compassionate than giving it simply based on achievement? While theoretically I thought I was a strong proponent of having a level and open "playing field" on which everyone can participate and get scholarships, I recognize there are limits to this. Someone who is living in the state's care because they were sexually abused by a guardian (as has been the case with at least one of my students) is facing a greater uphill battle to achieve academic success than a student who has two parents in the home and a 2006 Ford Mustang convertible to drive themself to school (I also have had a student in this situation).

I also recognize that I can't stick to the "let everyone compete openly" philosophy too strongly without being a bit of a hypocrite. For I benefited greatly from getting a scholarship targeted on the basis of geographic location AND need. Many of the rich were essentially shut out. And I went to college!

So despite the strong argument that can be made for refraining from judging who "needs" a scholarship, I find myself returning to the thought that many of those students who got those scholarships shouldn't have. Or at least it would have been better if the scholarship had included need as a factor in judging who was awarded one. For the reality of the situation is that most of the recipients were going to whatever college they wanted to go to, regardless of the scholarship they won. They made their parents proud by getting it, but also happy because they could now spend that 5 grand on an extra mortgage payment for their vacation home in Bermuda. Put another way, it might have been a little payback for the 5 grand the parents spent on private music lessons so the student could earn that A in band. But either way, it wasn't something that enabled a student to attend college who couldn't otherwise afford it. And another student, who had a fractionally lower GPA, may now be saddled with that much more college debt they will struggle to pay for half of their adult life, because they lost out on a scholarship they desperately hoped to get. Isn't that a cheery thought?

There is a balance to this. I think that there is definitely a place for academic merit-only scholarships. Take colleges themselves, for example. It's in their best interest to attract the brightest and best to their school, so it makes sense for a college to provide some healthy scholarships to lure that bright student in, regardless of their financial background. But an individual who sets up their own scholarship fund? If I had that kind of money, I would prefer targeting it to those who might not be able to go to school without it. It seems a waste to do otherwise.

So am I thinking like a liberal? And should my thinking be corrected?

What if Heaven Lacks a Mansion with Your Name on It?

2007-08-19T20:07:00.001-04:00

This is not heresy, but possible reality. And it's biblically based. Now hear me out. Or rather, let me quote the relevant passage:
"In my father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." (John 14:2) [insert warning of possible "preachiness" in this post here; read at your own risk!]

Undeniably there are many mansions in heaven, and there are places set apart in heaven for everyone who is saved. But there is little evidence that there is a mansion per person. In fact--although I am not and make no claim to be a Greek scholar--the Greek word for "place" can be translated "spot," "generally in space but limited by occupancy," "room," and "quarter." It is especially interesting that the Greek word used in the passage is not a possible alternate one that could have been used, one which connotes a larger locality, and is similar to words like "location," and "home."

So picture this possibility: you get to heaven, and after all the joyful, tearless reunions you are shown a place to live. It is in a huge mansion built for 50,000 or so. Your room is a tiny spot, or hole in the wall, in that mansion. Your mansion sits in a row of 50,000 or so other mansions.

Are you depressed by this thought? I hope not. I've been pondering the possibility that if I, or anyone, is bummed out by this, then maybe my focus in wanting to go to heaven is wrong. Am I looking forward to heaven because of material riches that will be there? Or is the focus on who will be there? Seems to me like the latter is the most important.

I don't mean to be too critical of those great hymnwriters of the past who have written about mansions for everyone up in heaven, and all the great things there will be for people to enjoy. After all, the Bible is full of plenty of references to riches and gold streets and pretty luxurious stuff up there, in terms of material things. So it seems appropriate to revel in it to some degree. At the same time, I think some hymnwriters and some speakers have perpetuated what seems to be an extrabiblical idea: that is, that there really is a mansion with your own name on it in heaven, or maybe just your nuclear family's name on it. This could be, but the language used in the Bible doesn't suggest it. Whatever it is, it will be greater than we're able to imagine. But it might not include that TV and cushy chair you always hoped for, along with a huge dining room, a jacuzzi, or whatever else you were dreaming of for your own space...

This makes me wonder how it is that such a concept came to be an accepted part of church thinking. At least I have had this conception. From what I have observed in church, others do as well. So I expect it is an idea that many widely believe. When did such an idea start, especially if it is extrabiblical? My best guess is that it emerged sometime in the 19th century, about the same time that the wealthy decided to be conspicuous and display their wealth. Actually, that is somewhat of a stupid statement, for the wealthy have conspicuously displayed their wealth in America long before the 19th century. A better way of putting it might be that the 1800s is when an increasing number of people became wealthy enough to show their wealth, and were in such great numbers that they may have attracted more attention than the wealthy few had before. Or at least then people were starting to think that they might become as wealthy as the next guy, if they only worked for it, as opposed to back in the 17th century when it was pretty obvious that an indentured servant newly arrived in Maryland to work on a tobacco plantation was not ever going to be as wealthy as Landon Carter (a really rich guy, if you couldn't have guessed this!).

But I digress. So you have people thinking there is enough social mobility to become the next millionaire. After all, Andrew Carnegie did it, right? So why can't I? This context could have been what set the stage for preachers to see the material focus of their parishioners. So they decided to preach against a material focus. But how did they frame things? Focus on the spiritual and you will be rich in the next life! You'll even get your own mansion! Those millionaires flaunting their wealth have nothing on what heaven will be like! Warm and fuzzy feelings abounded. And the concept stuck in the Christian ethos. Heaven=mansions for all. Heaven=material blessings beyond what we will ever experience on earth, or should ever try to experience on earth.

Of course, this is highly speculative. I don't have evidence to support this. But I suggest there is room for some doctoral student in Christian history to look into this for a dissertation. "How Christian myths evolved" or something of the sort would be a good topic. So start digging, you wannabe scholar. Look into when sermons on "individual mansions for everyone in heaven" became popular, and then dig up reasons why preachers picked those kinds of sermons.

Lest anyone think I'm out in left field or something, I'm not against believing there will be wonderful things in heaven. Even wonderful material things. But I also believe that if this is the main reason you want to get there, and the main thing you talk about in the context of going there, there might be something missing. And if you're planning on a dream house, prepare for something way better than that (it can't be worse than you can imagine, right?): a hole in the wall! :-)

Night and Day, or Dark and Light; Or How Have you Flip-flopped Since Childhood?

2007-08-11T22:58:00.000-04:00

This is pretty deep. Prepare to be impressed. I was contemplating awhile back the intrigue in how tastes change. Specifically, mine. I was thinking about this as I tossed and turned one night, enduring another bout of insomnia. I often can't get to sleep at night, so I have plenty of time to think. And in my particular dorm room on a college campus in VA, it dawned on me how much my tastes have changed since childhood. For I was trying to sleep in a room that had quite a bit of ambient (I think that's the word I want) light in it, seeping in through the window--albeit shaded somewhat by a venetian blind. The streetlight or whatever it was outside that was so bright was making the room far brighter than I was comfortable with. In fact, I hated the brightness. It's a wonder I ever got to sleep during my stay there.

It occurred to me how different my sleeping tastes are now versus in my childhood. Now I like it to be pitch black in my room. Any light other than the digital clock is a nuisance. I can deal ok with a little bit coming from a window, but my tolerance level is really low. I like the dark. I like not being able to see my hand in front of my face. This is how I sleep the best nowadays.

But when I was a kid, I always had to have a night light. Don't know that I can say I was afraid of the dark like some kids are, but I certainly didn't like it to be pitch black. I always had to have a night light, there had to be just so much light coming into my room from the hall, etc. I think my sleeping habits changed a bit when I got my own room. If I recall correctly (though it's funny how little I do recall), I started to sleep with the door closed. Still, there was light from the hallway, so it wasn't completely dark.

I don't remember when exactly the change happened, and I became such a darkness addict. But it happened. I am interested how my tastes have changed so drastically. Can't quite say it's been a 180 degrees change, because it's not like I was sleeping with the light on in my room before. Still, things are very different.

This makes me curious about how other people's tastes may change drastically from childhood to adulthood. Anyone out there have a similar story? What preferences or tastes did you have as a young one that are now totally different?

Hmmm. This also makes me wonder if the amount of light in the room is a source of marital tension, or at least something that needs to be worked out between spouses? Any married persons out there experience conflict in their marriage over this? :-)

Teacher Nightmares

2007-08-06T17:12:00.000-04:00

Ever have a nightmare as a student, in which you dream you go to school and suddenly remember you forgot to even start a ten page term paper due that day? Or how about get a test for which you studied hard, only to find you don't know any of the questions? Ever wake up in a cold sweat over such dreams, and find relief that it is the middle of the summer?

I've had dreams like these. I think most students have. But now I've had one from the other side. A teacher nightmare. At least I think I did. This was one of those dreams that I only remembered some time after having it. Because of this, the details are rather fuzzy and vague. I may invent some just to make the story more interesting. But it was something like this:

It was the first day of school. And things went horribly. Specifically, I was totally unprepared for the students! I ran out of things to do with them. They just sat there with nothing to do. Everying fell flat the first day. And the first day is so important to get right! This was indeed a nightmare. Then I woke up and realized it was the middle of summer. What relief! I still have the chance to get things right on the first day! The new school year is not off to a terrible start after all!

By the way, despite being 30 days away from the first day with students, and enjoying the time off immensely, I still find myself plotting/scheming/thinking about how I can improve things in the classroom next year. How might I teach the Civil War differently? How will I teach note taking skills in a way that serves students better? What might I drop during the first days of school in order to be more efficient with the time and hit the road running? Is that exercise I loved using so much last year really beneficial for my classes? How might I grade research papers differently? Should I change my grading system entirely, and move from a category system (50 percent for tests, 25 percent for homework, etc.) and go to a points only system, so students can more easily keep track of their grades? Should this be done with AP students only, or other classes as well? Should I adjust my homework checking policy if I have the child of a school board member in my class, or should I stick to it because I believe it's the most efficient way to keep students honest about their work?

I believe I have given some thought to just about all of these questions so far. And there's plenty more time to think and plan! Such is the life of a teacher, even on vacation...

I Don't Get This

2007-08-03T08:32:00.000-04:00

Brace yourselves, folks. The recent dearth of posts may be about to change. Expect an explosion of posts on random topics I've been thinking about over the recent past. As long as I can remember them all, that is.

First, I don't get this survey. I think it speaks to the sad state of Americans' vocabulary these days. This article caught my attention awhile back:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/LearnToBudget/LittleSplurgesAreTheKillers.aspx

If you don't care to read it, basically it says that Americans splurge the most on dining out, and this may contribute to financial difficulties. It was based on a survey that asked respondents to identify the expense people splurge the most on. What baffled me was that these categories and percentages were included in the survey:
children and schooling--7 percent
bills and utilities--4 percent
medical--1 percent

I can see how some may splurge on children and get them things they don't need. But schooling? I guess it's a splurge if you send them to a private school, when you don't need to because they have other good options. Still, a little strange to have a category like that, I think.

But what's crazier is the other two categories. People splurge on bills and utilities? And medical expenses? These responses make me think some people do not even know what "splurge" means. It is "spend extravagantly," i.e., spend in a way that lacks restraint, or exceeding what is reasonable or appropriate. Can you picture Americans feeling the urge to spend more than they need to on bills/utilities because they are suddenly overcome with a desire to pay lots of money to their electric company? Is this because they usually don't pay their bills, so any time they pay in full it's seen as an extravagance? Or are they shelling out more than is due in a paroxysm of generosity?

This is either funny or sad or both. Funny because of the picture it conjures up. Sad because it seems that if/when you get to the point where surveys contain basic words that respondents don't understand, it shows a huge lack in education somewhere along the line... And how valid is a survey if those surveyed don't even understand the question?

I Can Soon Die a Happy Man

2007-07-26T20:17:00.000-04:00

I have decided I can die a happy man now. I'm back at my grad school working in the same program I've worked each summer for the past four summers now. And I made a Walmart strike. Twice actually. Both times I bought boxes of those impossible-to-come-by-back-home packaged peanut butter crackers. They are called Nekot cookies, and are manufactured by a company in NC. Perhaps their market has not expanded beyond states near where they are. As I previously posted about, I have not seen them in any Walmart back home. This is a tragedy. So now I have multiple boxes on hand to bring home, and feast upon there. If I'm really frugal I will be able to use them for some lunches once I start teaching again! Ahhhh. The thought brings happy feelings. I can now die in peace, now that my supply of these things is well-stocked. Well, hopefully my death won't come before this stock is fully enjoyed. But anyway, you get the point. My cup runneth over and all that...

Cold War Developing Again?

2007-07-16T10:54:00.000-04:00

Any alarmists out there will be happy to find this fodder for their tales of impending woe. But even non-alarmists might find some usefulness out of this article, which suggests Russia is a rising threat once again. It's at least some food for thought...

http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/features/44218/the-new-arms-race-is-deadly-because-russia-is-so-fragile.thtml

2007-07-09T12:28:00.000-04:00

For some reason blogger would not let me put a title to this post. Don't know what's up with that. But the title should be "Random facts and thoughts in my recent life."

1. I've been enjoying the summer immensely. I've been done teaching for two weeks now. It's a really strange feeling to get to 6 P.M. and not have anything to do in the evening to prepare for school next day. The free time has been splendiferous.

2. I recently figured that I have spent $1146 dollars in car repairs (labor, parts, etc.) in the last six months, including $362 today (to replace a mass air intake sensor, for those who care). This depresses me. If I had known 6 months ago that I would spend this much, I probably would have just bought a different car. After all, mine is almost as old as some of next year's students (1994--a very scary thought this is), and it has 161k miles on it. So it might be time for an upgrade. But now I feel like I'm at the point of no return. Having just invested this kind of money in it, it seems I should stick it out. Plus, having just spent so much, there's that much less money on hand to buy something different. Sigh. I'm sure most everyone who has a car could share similar car expense stories. So I commiserate with you if you will commiserate with me.

3. I am about to return to VA for my summer job, which has become an annual pilgrimage of sorts. 12 plus hours in the car on Wednesday. Please pray for safety, and as little traffic as possible (last years journey there was somewhat long and frustrating due to heavy traffic)!

4. I am mystified about how emergency personnel gain access to my and anyone else's condo or apartment building. How does this work? Do any emergency workers out there know? Each condo owner has a key to access the building. I just observed an ambulance come to my building, and the paramedic got a key out and proceeded to open the door to my building. So obviously she had some sort of master key. But multiply that by the dozens, and even perhaps hundreds of apartment/condo buildings in a city such as mine, and therein lies a logistical puzzle/mystery. How many master keys must emergency personnel have on hand? Is there an entire wall of key rings in their ambulance, fire truck or police cruiser, sorted by address, to grab as they drive down the street on which they are to stop? Or are there a few master keys out there which unlock every residential building in the city? If the latter, what kind of dream that must be for would be thieves, to get their hands on such a key! The security and logistical issues here intrigue me.

5. I just removed a roll of brand new, unopened Christmas wrapping paper from the back of my car. I think I bought it well over a year ago, maybe two, in one of those post-Christmas sales. It has rested there ever since. Now it will be relegated to storage somewhere else, out of sight of would-be thieves, who I'm sure could be enticed to break into my car should they see a brand new roll of Christmas wrapping paper to grab. (Hey, I promised randomness, didn't I?) :-)

Please Shoot Me Now

2007-06-20T20:37:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had students or children behave so horrendously, or show such lack of basic knowledge, that you wish someone would put a gun to your head and end your misery? That's what I was thinking as I recently corrected some final exams in U.S. History. My college bound juniors were asked to identify the date of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. History. Some responses:

November 11, 2001
September 9, 2001
September 11, 2000

And at least three students left it blank! I'm honestly not sure which is worse, not to have answered it at all or to have answered it incorrectly. Either way, it's pitiful.

You want me to say just kidding about now, right? But I kid you not. My generous side wants to say this can be chalked up to a long exam, hot weather, and it being near the end of the week of exams for these students. But these are all somewhat lame justifications for the blunders.

Does anyone feel inspired about the world being in the hands of these future leaders?

Another Criminal to Catch?

2007-06-07T22:33:00.000-04:00

Student x, beware. I am on to your scent. I smell your trail. I know your shenanigans. Prepare to be busted.

Yup, people, I am once again on the hunt for a potential cheater. Call it my mission in life if you will, to hunt down those who would cheat, until all students know it is unlikely you will get away with cheating in my class, so you simply should not try it. Actually, it's probably something else in this case. I don't think there's a need to teach this student that it is not worth it for him to cheat. He has failed the semester already, no matter what he does, and I believe he knows it. So I suspect he cheated just for the sake of doing it. Probably to see if he could get away with it just for the sake of it.

Here are the details. I gave a quiz at the beginning of class. I announced it would be given in the first two minutes of class the day before, so everyone there yesterday knew it was coming. Well, this student just leaves class at the beginning of the period and the quiz to use the restroom. No asking permission as is the procedure, he just leaves. So when he comes back I start to fill out a detention slip to give him a detention for being tardy (in my book, no checking out means you aren't officially there if the bell has rung and you aren't present). He comes back. I give some more time for the quiz. He somehow gets a quiz passed in with all the correct answers. This was an open note quiz, so those who had notes shouldn't have had a hard time with it. But the notes were on class material, and I have distinctly noted that this student has not been bothering to take notes. And the answers he gave, which contained some choice on one of them, were the exact same ones as the student sitting behind him. More specifically, they were asked to give 2 of 5 names. And the two he listed were the first and fourth ones on the list given in class, just like the kid sitting behind him. Hmmmm. Is this smelling like something rotten in the state of Denmark or what? How likely would both of them pick the first and fourth names?

To reemphasize, he has no notes to answer what are some tough questions to answer if you didn't take any notes on the material when it was presented (unless he took them from someone outside of class after hearing about the quiz, but this kid is so lazy that, were I a betting man, I would put 100 dollars against that happening). He's not there for a good part of the quiz. Then he turns in a quiz with all the right answers, identical to the person behind him. And I'm mad at myself for not being more attentive. If I had paid more attention, this whole issue could have been solved. I'm also irritated that students try to take advantage of me. I'm thinking he saw I was distracted with something else, so took the chance to steal answers from the student behind him when he passed forward the quiz.

Note to self: watch that student like a hawk from now on. He cannot be trusted.

And now for the trap. I didn't actually see this cheating, so what to do now?
My gameplan: My first option will be to try and hunt down a really nice and bright, hardworking, National Honor Society student who sits in the same corner, and ask her if she saw anything. I'm hoping she did, and will have the courage and character to tell me when I confront her about it. That will make things very easy. I'll then confront the cheater and tell him his cheating was witnessed and the evidence is overwhelming against him, so he takes the zero.

Option 2, if that doesn't work. Confront the student sitting behind the potential cheater, and ask him if the kid in front of him took answers from the quiz as he passed it forward. If he's in cahoots with him, of course he will deny it. But I think and hope this kid will also admit it. He's very quiet, so may not have felt the urge to tell me at first that he saw someone steal his answers. But hopefully he'll be willing to admit it if asked...

Option 3, if I can't get a witness. Ask the alleged cheater how he thought he could correctly answer a tough quiz when he hasn't been taking any notes and came to class late. If he insists he memorized them or something, give him a chance to produce his own notes and name 2 of the remaining three names he did not list.

Sometimes, amidst all this, I feel like giving up. I spend so much energy hunting down cheating, and said hunt usually happens whenever I have a huge suspicion someone has cheated. My instincts on this have been developed over my years of teaching (it feels weird to say years, but it has been that now), and are pretty good. But sometimes I think, is it worth it? My finely tuned sense of justice says yes, it is. Students who behave this way must be caught and punished. They must know that someone in their lives will hold them accountable for it, and some teachers are not so dumb that students can get away with it in their classroom. On the other hand, I get so tired of dealing with fallen nature. Sometimes I just want to bury my head in the sand and pretend it doesn't exist, and that I should not do anything about it because it's not my problem and I'm not the one who will ultimately suffer for behaving in such a manner. The verse about the saints being worn down comes to mind. Not that I'm much of a saint, but I still get tired of dealing with evil. And don't get me started on the whole issue of constantly confrontly girls who dress like harlots, and having to send them to a principal to be dealt with. That's another burdensome and tiresome issue, which seems to be a losing battle and sometimes not worth it. For your info, any parents who are reading this, there doesn't seem to be a lot of parenting going on in the public schools. Or even worse, there are plenty of parents who don't seem to mind, and perhaps even promote the idea of sending their girls to school dressed like some of those women mentioned in Proverbs. Sadly, I'm not talking about any Proverbs 31 woman either.

Ok, that's the end of my spiel and tirade. Time for me to get some rest before my daily struggle against the forces that be starts again.

Tagged

2007-06-03T15:53:00.000-04:00

Ok, I suspect that most anyone who has a blog and knows me has already been tagged. If not, I'm too lazy to tag anyone. But here are my random facts, along with the rules of this game, in case you care....

1. I eat Great Value spaghetti rings with meatballs about 3-4 lunches out of every 10. This is a cheap way to eat. I also attribute my ability to be living in my own condo to this cost-saving measure. Though it does get kind of boring sometimes.

2. I usually eat Cheezits with my spaghetti rings. I mix them with said spaghetti rings. It makes for a crunchier and tastier treat. I definitely need some way to get them down easier than just eating them on their own. I mean, wouldn't you need the same after having such a diet for the last two plus years?

3. I am irritated, because on several occasions recently when shopping at Walmart I have not found the above mentioned GV spaghetti rings w/ meatballs. They seem to be a hit or miss item. There are always plenty of GV spaghetti rings. And plenty of GV spaghetti rings with franks. But both of those are not worthy of serving even as a substitute for the delectable GV spaghetti rings with meatballs. So last time I found them I had to stock up big time on them. Then the last couple of shopping cycles they have been gone again. So now I am out, and am at a bit of a loss to know what I will eat for lunch this coming week. You would think that the law of supply and demand would mean this item would be in plentiful supply on the shelf. My purchases alone over the last two plus years should mean more of it there. But it hasn't happened. What gives?

4. I sometimes get tired of making my lunch, even if it is as easy as opening up a can of GV spaghetti rings with meatballs, putting some cheezits into a sandwich bag, and packing a yogurt and granola bar to supplement things. So I eat microwave popcorn instead as the main course for my lunch.

5. I think I might have ADD. Not because I can't focus, because I can (it's a misnomer to say that people with ADD can't focus, because they can.) But I get easily distracted. And my mind races a lot. Case in point on the distraction thing: while paying my electric bill online a few minutes ago, I got a sudden urge to empty trash cans, after spotting one of mine that was full of trash. So I went and emptied trash cans in the middle of paying my bill. This is just one example. At school it's way worse. There are about ten things I could be doing at any given time at school (I'm talking about during my prep mod or study hall, not when I'm teaching!) I often work on five of them before completing the one I started. Some might call that multitasking, and a good thing. But since I'm a guy, and guys aren't supposed to be able to multitask well, I think it must be ADD.

6. I sing for my students. Sometimes.

7. I take comfort in the fact that those with ADD have nothing to be ashamed of. It's not the same stigma as it used to be. In fact, those with ADD are usually above average in intelligence level.

8. And speaking of missing food items, I am really bothered that Walmarts where I live do not stock a particular kind of crackers and peanut butter that I could find when I went to school in Virginia. You know the packaged crackers you can get, with 8 or 12 packages per box? In VA I used to be able to find a kind that is sort of like a sweet graham cracker, with peanut butter in between. Here I have searched the packaged crackers section on multiple occasions, longing to once again taste the sweetness that those crackers are. But they are apparently not stocked in these parts, for some reason that mystifies me. I never knew that sweet crackers with peanut butter is something reserved for Virginians.

That's 8, which is above and beyond the call of duty, I do believe.

Each person tagged must list seven random facts about themselves, as well as the rules of the game on their blog. Then tag seven other people and write their names on your blog. You have to leave a comment on their blog so they know they've been tagged and have to read your blog.

Subway For Dogs

2007-05-19T23:27:00.000-04:00

Ok, I've been super busy, which is one of my excuses for not blogging much. I'm still busy. But I'll take the time to pass on this tidbit. Recently I was leaving a Subway, having just purchased my supper, when a lady comes into the store with a request I haven't heard before. It went something like this:
"Our dog is out in the car, is there any way we can buy just four meatballs and a dish?"

This amused me. I didn't stop to listen to the attendants response! How would you ring that one up? I doubt they have a "dog food takeout" button on their register!

And talk about some weird people. Or at least dog obsessed people. I mean, was poor Rover so hungry that he just had to have some Subway meatballs before they got home? Did they think that he deserved a little "treat" like that for being such a good doggie all day long while they went shopping at the mall or something? Who knows. But I though it a little bizarre...

Pearl Harbor the Movie Help

2007-04-30T18:18:00.000-04:00

Ok, I'm questioning my sanity and accuracy on something, since my regular challenge-everything-rudely (it's all about the attitude, people, keep that in mind!) student suggested today that I was out to lunch to say that the film "Pearl Harbor" portrays the use of Japanese kamikaze pilots. For some reason I really thought this was true. I thought I read it somewhere or something. Can anyone who has seen the movie help me out on this? Can you say that someone watching this film might get the (wrong) impression that kamikaze pilots were used at Pearl Harbor? Or am I the misinformed one? Someone who knows or remembers this film, please help. I really don't want to have to go find the movie and look at it to answer my nagging questions on this. Just tell me if I'm right or wrong.

What Kind of Plagiarism to Avoid

2007-04-25T23:16:00.000-04:00

Every year when I correct research papers I catch plagiarism. It still astonishes me that it continues to happen, despite my warnings to students. I have already caught two significant cases in grading papers recently. One case I caught last week, another today.

Now in case you don't know, there are differents kinds of plagiarists. Some, I think, are just sloppy or careless. They quote an entire paragraph or two of text and include the citation for it at the end, but neglect to put quotation marks around the passage. Since it is an exact quote and they didn't give proper credit, it's plagiarism. I caught one girl doing this last week. I was disappointed by it, and she got her zeroes as the consequence. Anyone who thinks this is harsh should be alerted to the fact that I have talked about avoiding plagiarism and reiterated what it is in class until all my students are sick and tired about hearing me mention it. So there really is no excuse at this point for not quoting huge chunks of the paper. And as often happens with excessively plagiarized work, it would have received a failing grade anyway, even if it was properly cited. This is an irony that plagiarists in my classes have not seemed to catch on to. It's really not worth cheating, because even if they don't get caught for it, they'll probably fail on the merit of the weak research and writing anyway!

Other kinds of plagiarism are equally sloppy. One kind includes plugging in citations in most of a paragraph, then tucking in more info at the end of it without a subsequent citation. While also careless, I tend to be a little more generous with this kind, provided it's the students own words. They paraphrased it and didn't give credit. This is wrong. It receives a penalty. Excessive mistakes this way receive a harsher penalty. When another draft is coming, I expect them to fix it the next time around, or else it won't be accepted. If it's a final draft, I'll likely refuse to give it a grade until it's fixed.

The worst kind of plagiarism, which I caught today, is blatantly devious in nature. It happens in such a way that I know the student is not just making a careless mistake. In fact, they construct their paper in such a way that, when I catch them, I know they have purposefully tried to make it look like it's not plagiarism, when it really is.

I'll try and do my best to illustrate this. A paper I graded today had multiple citations. So it looked like proper credit was being given. In fact, it cited a variety of different sources, which is something students need to do to score highly. It even had sections quoted with the proper quotation marks. On the surface it looked impressive. Problem was, the language did not sound like the student's, even in nonquoted passages. So I did a little googling... And she got nabbed.

I found entire sections of the paper word for word from several internet sources. Problem was, it was written as if the first paragraph was the student's own words, with one citation, then a block quote (indicating it's verbatim) with another citation from a second source, then the writing went back to paraphrasing of a third source. The problem? Though presented as two paraphrased sections and one direct quote, the entire section was verbatim from the same source! This pattern repeated itself throughout the paper. The student apparently cut and pasted huge chunks of writing from several different websites, then edited it to make it look like it came from various books and websites. I can imagine the fun she had "editing" this.

My imagination of her thought process: "Hmmm, let me see here. I think puting quotation marks around this line and saying it came from this book would be good. What page number should I attribute it to! How about 178, that's a number I've always loved. There, that's good. Now, I'll say the next three lines were paraphrased from this journal article. There, plug in that citation. I'm doing pretty well here. I'm citing multiple sources, which will make me look smart. Oh bother, my text ran out from this internet source. Let me just paste in another website here, so I can finish the paragraph. Good, that's done. Now I think I'll end the page with a block quote, and say it came from this book. I'll call it page 32 this time. And then I'll put a line in from this website..."

Talk about cheesy! I was flabbergasted to discover this kind of deceit.

What's also ridiculous, and a bit sad, is that this student does not speak or write English very well. It is not her first language. The pasting job was horrendous. The paper was a misery to read. It was almost literally gobbledygook. Imagine pasting several different websites together concerning the same general topic, and you get an idea of what this paper was like. I can only imagine what this student thought she was doing as she put this paper together. Maybe she thought she was sounding brilliant with her mastery of the English language. But I honestly don't think she understood about three-quarters of what she pasted in (remember I also have a decent idea of her reading comprehension skills.) I can only imagine what she thought I would think about it. I can't believe she didn't think I might question whether it was her own work. I mean, she used the world "curvilinear."

Picture my incredulity at reading this. "Curvilinear!!!!????????? You've got to be kidding me!" That was the gist of my reaction. I, who have a fairly good working knowledge of this girl's English language skills by now, was astounded to discover that she tried to pass "curvilinear" off as her own word!

What I said before about plagiarized work holds true here. If I had bothered to grade the paper, it would have received a failing grade on its own merits. But I stopped half way through after finding multiple blatant instances of plagiarism. I'm still shaking my head...

You wannabe plagiarists out there, please take note, you have to be more subtle than this!

Sophie Scholl

2007-04-24T23:44:00.000-04:00

Ok, it's movie recommendation time. I've watched a couple worth noting while on "break" this week. ("Break" because I have fifty 10-15 page papers to correct if I so choose. Because I'm a slacker and choose to spend some of my time doing things other than work, I'll be doing well to get forty of them done. The others will just have to wait!) Flags of Our Fathers is not worth seeing, in my estimation. It's just too gross and horrific in its violence. One reviewer was right in saying that Saving Private Ryan has nothing on this film. You might gain more appreciation for the sacrifices our men in uniform made while in the Pacific fighting the Japanese. But you don't need to see bodies scarred by unspeakable injuries to appreciate sacrifice. And you might be scarred for life if you look too closely at some of the footage (I was even careful not to look at it all, and I was still very disturbed by what I did see).

But a film I do recommend, one that's probably far off the beaten path for most of you and thus should be noted, is Sophie Scholl. It's a foreign film, in German. It's based on the true story of Sophie Scholl, a German student and anti-Nazi during World War II involved in distributing anti-Hitler literature on a university campus. While definitely the opposite of action packed (most of the story is driven by dialogue, so you really have to read the subtitles closely), it is really quite moving. The young woman, along with her brother, were both very courageous. What's also interesting is that despite this being a recent film and being nominated for an academy award, there is also a Christian flavor that comes through rather strongly. Maybe that's why it didn't win the award, because the religiosity in it is not avant garde enough. But I was impressed by the girl's faith as well as her example of one whose conscience and conviction did not cave in the face of hard circumstances. I won't say anything else so as not to spoil it. If you want a slow paced, bloodless and inspiring story from history, check it out sometime. Its unrated, but I think it would be PG if it was. So even parents might feel safe in allowing some of their children to see it.

A Lighter Moment: A.K.A. I Have Failed As a Teacher

2007-04-23T20:02:00.000-04:00

This was laugh out loud funny for me. I hope you enjoy.

The question on a test: "In what way was the concept of total war evident in both World Wars?"

One student's answer:

"In both World Wars, women were involved either by replacing the men's jobs or by being munitions or nurses... Even propaganda was being used to have men join, or encouraging women to be munitions, or telling people to use less food."

I couldn't help but laugh. And I guess I've totally failed as a teacher. I really don't recall talking about women being launched upon the enemy in an effort to inflict massive casualties, but if that's what the student got, something has been lost in translation...

When Your Car Gets Stolen, Do This

2007-04-15T17:00:00.000-04:00

Believe it or not, I do lead a busy life on the weekends in preparing for school the next week, in addition to correcting papers, tests, etc. That I am writing this on a Sunday afternoon may lead you to think otherwise. Rest assured, I only have about 40 ten to fifteen page papers to correct, with another 40 or so on the way this Thursday. So I should be otherwise occupied. But being a teacher means you can set your own deadline for getting things corrected (usually, unless the marking period is about to end, which it's not!), so I can give in to the sudden urge to report this story.

My car was stolen this last Friday. Yup, I had gone to the mall and made some very important purchases: Baseball Mogul 2008, which turns out to be a game with some serious flaws, but it's still entertaining; and my dinner, comprised of some Chinese food. I got out to the parking lot where I had parked my car. It was gone. I did a little double take, and looked for it again. It was still gone. I started to scan rows of cars that were next to the row I thought I had parked my car. It was still gone.

My brain began to race. "What is my license plate number? I'll need it to report a stolen vehicle." (Actually, I imagine they can look such things up on their system provided they have the make and registered owner, but I wasn't thinking too sharply in my semi-panicked state.) Thank goodness I had my cell phone on me to place the 911 call. I began to imagine the events that would unfold after calling 911. "I'm here to report a stolen vehicle." Some time later the police show up lights flashing, and an officer starts taking down vital info, such as when I left to enter Best Buy, when I came out, etc. Also in my thoughts: "Why would they steal MY car? It must be for the used parts or something." I know that Toyota Camry's or some such car get stolen a lot as used vehicles because their parts are fairly valuable. Must be a good black market for them. With that knowledge and my mind racing I contemplated the reason. And maybe because my teacher's bag was in sight? Maybe someone thought there were some valuables in it? Uh-oh, I'm going to have to tell some students to resubmit their research papers, because they were in that bag.

Ok, that's a semi-stream-of-consciousness recount of various thoughts I had. As time ticked by and it seemed more and more likely that my car had been stolen, as preposterous as it might seem (it's a Ford over ten years old with 150,000 plus miles on it!), I continued to scan the parking lot and look for my car, in case there was some outside chance I had missed it. It would be rather silly to call 911 before making absolutely sure that it wasn't there. But before I had begun a methodical walk up and down every single possible row that it could be in, I spotted it. There it was, right where I had left it. I don't know why I hadn't seen it before. I think maybe I saw it once but didn't recognize it, so went to the next row or two over. I dunno. But then I laughed out loud. For it was preposterous to think that someone would steal my car!! They'd have to be pretty desperate, that's for sure.

Has anyone else had a mall or other large parking lot incident where they couldn't find their car and begin to think it was stolen? I've had such incidents before, but none that I remember which went on as long as this one did. Though time slowed down a bit, I think it was probably a solid 2-3 minutes that I walked around and searched for my seemingly absent car. That's a LONG time when you think it's really stolen!

Lesson: When your car gets stolen, be very thorough and search everywhere in the parking lot before you report it! It will save some major embarrassment! I'm glad I waited a little before putting in a panicked (actually, I imagine myself being very calm and collected in reporting the theft of my car) 911 call, so that I never had to make the call!

Lessons My Teacher Taught Me: For What Good Are Irritating Students?

2007-04-06T21:27:00.000-04:00

I consider myself a very patient person. I don't know that I'm the most patient person of all the people I know, but I think I'm a good deal more patient than at least some people I know. And I think my job requires a fair amount of the quality, though perhaps having children would require more. At least Moms might like to claim so, though such claims are rather less scientific than they are impressionistic, and seeing as most Moms do not also teach in a public high school, I'm not sure they can really lay claim to being the most patient. Then again, seeing as I am not a Mom, nor likely to ever be one, I will be consistent and not suggest my occupation takes more patience either. Ok, that's digression number one for this post.

Back on track. Patience. I have to have it. It takes patience to deal with a class of 30 students who would much rather talk than listen to me ramble on about history, or their homework, or whatever. It takes patience filling out seemingly endless paperwork every day, or every other day, on the handful of students who continously cut my study hall or U.S. History class. It takes patience endlessly filling in bubble sheets eight (yes, that's right, eight!) times a year so a machine can read them and turn them into report cards and progress reports and canned comments, like "needs to work to capacity" (how many barely functionally literate students can even understand that comment??) or "displays good effort" or "needs to complete assignments" or "needs to improve test grades." It takes patience to deal with parents who can't understand why Johnny is failing and make comments like "He's working so hard" and "He's passing all his other classes," when Johnny has missed five of twenty homework assignments, has failed all but one of his tests, and does not open his mouth in class, even though participation is part of the student's grade. It takes patience working in a school district that does not provide staples for the copy machines, so that teachers are left to endlessly staple packets they prepare for their students in an effort to help them learn the topic, or perhaps become interested in some aspect of history. It takes patience dealing with the freshman in homeroom who has to be told to be quiet almost every day and stop talking, and to know how to respond to him when he claims it is his first amendment right, also stated in the school handbook, that students can say things even when they are unpopular or do not want to be heard.

(New paragraph just to break things up.) It takes patience working in a school district living in the dinosaur age. I only have an overhead projector--technology that is 30-40 years old?--only because it is on loan to me from a family member. And I only just got a screen upon which to adequately project the images from said projector, rather than using a wall with broken surfaces which makes it very difficult to read. This screen has been about 18 months in the coming since I first requested it. Need I say that sometimes people move slowly on requests where I work? I also got a computer in my classroom early in the year after having none for a year. Still working on a printer, but at least I can read email in my own classroom now...

It takes patience dealing with students who would cheat if they could by sharing answers about what will be on an upcoming test. It takes patience listening to students and their multitude of excuses for not turning in work on time. It takes patience dealing with students who think that Vietnam is near the Middle East, and who do not know how to write a sentence without making it a run-on and who obviously don't know much about grammar at all compared to the expert who knows everything about grammer and has never written a run-on sentence in his life despite the fact that he had a dictator for an English teacher in ninth grade but he survived. It takes patience dealing with students who do not seem to get the fact that whenever they write a research paper and use information not their own, they need to cite it. And whenever the write a research paper it would be helpful if they did more than summarized the textbook.

Did I mention plagiarism? Don't get me started on that...

Where am I? I think patience is the point. Yeah, I hope this doesn't sound like I'm extolling a virtuous life or something, because I'm not (you'll see soon). But I hope the point that patience is a key ingredient to doing my job has come across. So I was surprised recently to discover that I was really struggling to be patient with a couple of my students.

These students are both guys. They also are both lazy. One is failing the quarter due to not doing much work, the other might pass, but just barely. One of them especially likes to challenge me frequently in class. He claims I am wrong on various points I make. Furthermore, he often does it in a belligerent tone and interrupts my lecture without any warning. He's almost vitriolic in his approach. It's like I've done an offense against humanity in what I've said, and it's his mission to counter my assertions with both negativity and conviction sprinkled in his tone of voice. What's funny is that usually he is out to lunch. He watches the history channel a lot, and I have believe he thinks he knows more than I do when it comes to a lot of history we discuss. On one hand I think that's more than a little amusing, as I have immersed myself in more history in the past ten years than most of my students will in a lifetime. And even if he has watched a lot of TV, I still have quite a headstart on him when it comes to studying the topic. One example of his claims: once when I equated "conscription" as a synonym for "the draft" in the context of WWI, he contradicted me. (Remember I try to keep things relatively simple for these students). "No it's not" he blurted out. When I gave him a chance to explain himself he went on a spiel about how with the draft you could do certain things to get out of it, etc. I believe he was thinking of the draft during the Vietnam War. I had said nothing about details surrounding conscription, other than to say that militarism in Europe led to countries conscripting, or requirng all men to serve within their armies (Great Britain was an exeption to this, but I don't think I mentioned that). Yet I am quite sure this could include exceptions as well (I hardly think men without arms and legs, for example were required to serve!) As it turns out, conscription is basically the European equivalent of "draft." I don't know of any substantive difference between the two (any historians out there want to correct me, feel free to). And certainly if there is a difference, I do not think this student knew to what he was referring when he made the claim.

Anyway, this one example illustrates a general trend. This student will challenge me whenever he can, and is almost unceasingly belligerent about it. For some reason, good or not, this grates on me more than most any other behavior. It's probably an ego thing or something, though I don't think I really have that much of one, because I am generally quite open to students respectfully challenging me when they think I'm wrong, and I have freely admitted to being wrong in the past. So it's not that I think I'm perfect or anything. I think it's partly the laziness combined with the belligerence. It's kind of like "You barely ever crack open a book and do any work, and you're challenging me on little things like this??"

Ok, what's my point? My point is that this belligerence and irritation I have have recently seen mirrored elsewhere. Specifically, in me. For every time I sin in some way and displease God, I am essentially doing the same thing. I am telling Him I know better than He, that my way is better than His. That I know more about how I should live my life. As much as it must pain/irritate/hurt Him when I do contradict His plan by sinning, He still shows everlasting patience, kindness, and mercy with me. So God helping me I will do the same with these students. How can I do less for them, when God has shown so much leniency and forgiveness toward me? So chalk this one up to a less my Teacher has taught me. Irritating students show me what God feels like toward me when I stray.

Free (Pink) Lemonade Anyone?

2007-04-01T15:44:00.000-04:00

Just thought I'd let everyone know that if they want some free lemonade, you can have it at my expense. You just have to do a little hunting in a certain Walmart parking lot for a shopping cart with a case of lemonade on the bottom level. Actually, you're probably too late. I can picture someone making the discovery and it making their day. Kind of sick that someone's day would be made by discovering an item someone forgot as they loaded up their trunk with groceries. Maybe the grocery cart guy will discover it and consider it a tip or something. Grrrr. Now I feel really stupid, upset at throwing away the 2.61 I paid for it (to my delight, I discovered upon perusing my receipt that it was on sale!), and generally bitter at the world. And I feel like I have my Mom's genes or something to forget such a thing (sorry Mom, but it's a good thing too; you know I'm your son!) Sigh. And my next sip of lemonade will be delayed for weeks, probably.

Anyone with forgotten grocery stories feel free to tell yours and make me feel better. Or maybe I'm alone in the world with my stupidity. If so, don't say anything please, and let me suffer under the illusion that someone else has once shared my pain...

Not the 25th Amendment Again (More on 24)!!

2007-03-26T22:16:00.000-04:00

Come on, writers of 24! You've already used this angle in season 2. A vice-president questions the president's ability to rule and invokes the 25th amendment to remove him from his duties? I can see this coming next week based on the previews, and am not happy about it. It's just old! It happened in season 2, also with a Palmer in the presidency! Can't you be more creative than this? It also had to do with Palmer's unwillingness to attack what turned out to be an innocent country. Are the script writers stealing ideas from their own show?

Not to say I won't be watching with as much interest as ever. But some of these story lines are getting a little old. Just too repetitive. But I will give them credit for some new twists, enough to keep me watching. I sure can't predict the outcome, even if they do use the 25th amendment.

P.S. I'm really happy that mentally challenged brother didn't die. I was so afraid he would be taken down in the crossfire with Gredenko, or pulled into the vehicle and kidnapped or something. Having him die would have been really depressing...

P.P.S. I claim success in my prediction that Nadia couldn't be guilty. Though I was surprised that it was no one. (Watch, after all this it will probably be revealed in eight episodes that she really is a mole, working deep undercover for the bad guys or something... That would be an interesting twist!)

24 Analysis

2007-03-24T21:33:00.000-04:00

Don't read this if you're not watching the current season of 24 and don't want secrets spilled...

I'm curious to find out who the current mole in CTU is. But I'm pretty sure I know who it's not. It can't be the Muslim chick. Forit's a common motif in 24 to have someone put under the screws and interrogated because they think they are a bad guy, only to find out later that someone has set them up. So it would be too simple to have it be her. Then again, mayble they'll throw away previous patterns and make it her just to show us that on occasion finding the bad guy can be that simple. But I doubt it...

The second good reason has to do with political correctness that the producers seem to be obsessed with. I know, I know. How can a show with Arab terrorists really be PC? The show has taken some heat I think from the PC police, for reinforcing negative Muslim/Arab stereotypes. But have you noticed how they will never come out and say which Middle East country the president is planning on nuking? Which country are Assad and Fayid from? It's always "that country that sponsors terrorism" or some other vague reference, but NEVER have they specified. I find it ironic that they have no problem portraying bad guys from China and Russia. But heaven forbid that they come out and say a bad guy is from Syria, or Saudi Arabia, or Iran, or Egypt, or whatever other Middle East country you want to name. I think it must be vague for PC reasons. I mean, who wants to offend the Syrians? But it's fine to blast the Russians and Chinese!

Despite the "negative" stereotypes in the show, I think the writers are going to make the Muslim chick innocent because that would go too far in their minds. That would portray one too many bad Muslims for them. They have made some efforts to show peaceful and well-meaning Muslims who have simply been "misunderstood" or whatever. Call it counterbalancing the bad Muslims with some "good" Muslims if you will. So I'm predicting there is no way that she will actually be guilty. It will probably be some white American (and no doubt Republican), like Milo or that new field agent Milo hates. That's my guess.

Be Very Disturbed

2007-03-22T20:14:00.000-04:00

My friends, I hope you are disturbed by this website: http://www.customessaymeister.com/ I know I am.

Even if you aren't a teacher, ever on the lookout for students who may have plagiarized their work, this is disturbing. I've looked at websites before that advertise writing papers for you for a fee and all that. It's not that I'm naive about these kinds of services. But I was somewhat shocked by the elaborate lengths this one goes to cover up cheating. I think it tops them all in terms of how professional and appealing it would be for someone who wants to have someone else do their work for them and then call it their own. I mean, an industry based on cheating? And couched as such a wonderful enterprise? Complete with client testimonials? And touted because they don't hire foreigners to write papers cheaply, because they don't know English very well and many of them "plagiarize," whereas these papers are true custom-written papers by native speakers of English? And with a section dealing with plagiarism, in which they say they take it very seriously and make sure their writers do not plagiarize, because "clients" have the right to expect the product they purchase is not plagiarized, so they will not ever have to clean up the mess such a fact could produce, which would hurt the "innocent client"? This is sick.

I'm worried because I had thought I could usually catch plagiarists. This is what I tell students. It's really not that difficult if you've been reading their writing all year, then you suddenly get a paper that puts things in a different tone and with a much higher vocabulary level than they are prone to use. And google does wonders to detect plagiarists, as they are usually too lazy to plagiarize only from books. But with this kind of subterfuge--an original paper written for the student that allegedly can't be traced--I'm not sure I can catch these kids anymore. Not that I need to be obsessed with always catching them or anything. After all, I really believe they will get their punishment someday, even if I never figure out they cheated. But it's really sad that our society has come to this. Again, this website is presented as if it's an up and up legitimate business. And don't you love the disclaimer? It must be on there to keep them from getting in trouble with the law. Here it is, if you didn't look at the website:

"We provide custom essay and term paper writing services, inclusive of research material, for informational purposes only. This site does not promote cheating. Our custom term papers must be used with proper citing. Our services are officially sold by 2CheckOut.com, Inc., Ohio, USA. 2Checkout.com (2CO), a Better Business Bureau Member company."

Talk about bold-faced lies. Can you imagine a student paying big bucks for a custom paper, turning it in, and using "proper citing" to alert readers that he/she did not write it? You have to be kidding!
In case you're wondering how much these services cost, I got some price quotes. A 12 page research paper for high school will run around 250 dollars. A 190 page dissertation for a PhD will run around 6500 dollars.
The site claims these papers are written by graduate students. I'm disgusted to think there are those in academia with such a lack of conscience that they could even consider taking such work! Plagiarism is such a deadly sin in the academic world, and these "students" are getting paid to help someone else plagiarize? Where is your conscience America?

Happy Spring and Free Iced Coffee Day! But It's Never Really Free

2007-03-21T17:48:00.000-04:00

Today is a good day. At least it became a good day after I had my fourth free iced coffee from DD. Yup, one on the way to school, then I stopped by three different branches as I drove home (kind of a roundabout way home, but I did complete a couple of errands too, which provided a good excuse). :-)

Yet I felt chastened for my actions. In fact, things turned a bit sour once I realized a major goof I made. Maybe it was meant as a gentle lesson for me that getting four iced coffees in one day is not the best way to take care of my body. For amidst my caffeine/sugar euphoria, I suddenly realized my credit card bill was due today! I quickly went online to pay it, but alas, after 4 P.M. it posts to the next day! What to do?

Rather frenetically (after all, still high) and frantically I called customer service, and after making my way through multiple menus finally reached a live person (he sounded Indian to me; I bet he was talking from a service center in Bombay or something, though I didn't ask). While he wasn't mean about it, he informed me my only option to avoid the likelihood of a 39 dollar late fee was to cancel my payment, and go online and force a payment to post to my account today. The catch is that forcing the payment to post today, if after 4 P.M., costs a 14.95 service fee. Aaaargh!

So I paid (gulp) the extra fee to get my payment in on time. Better that than a late fee and the possibility of my credit score being damaged. I feel like such a loser about this. After all, I NEVER am late on my payments. I tend to look with disdain upon those who don't make their payments on time, or only pay the minimum balance and pay tremendous amounts of interest. I mean, how idiotic can I be? I once had an economics professor in college who flatly stated that anyone who is stupid enough not to pay the full balance on their credit card each month deserves to roast in hell forever! How's that for putting it bluntly? And now I'm almost in that category by missing the due date on a payment?

Not that I'm worried about the hellfire, but I do feel rather silly. Oh well. It's a lesson. Maybe some reader will learn from my mistake. Now I'm enrolled in auto payments so my forgetfulness will never get the better of me again. Thank goodness for machines that will cover for your stupidity... And I guess those iced coffees turned out not to be free after all. There truly is no such thing as a free lunch (or coffee). If I hadn't gotten them, I very well could have remembered to pay the bill in time.

Geography is Lacking Among Today's Students

2007-03-12T17:54:00.000-04:00

And here's proof. One of my juniors, in all seriousness today asked me "The Middle East, isn't that near Vietnam?" I held my tongue (pat on the back for being so professional and not laughing at students, though sorely tempted; I think this girl might have really been hurt if I had, so it's a good thing I didn't!)

To her credit, the Middle East is in the direction of Vietnam from here, you just need to keep going a few thousand miles more...

Mouth or Nose Breather?

2007-03-06T20:30:00.000-05:00

I went to the dentist yesterday. I managed to forget how much I dislike going to the dentist until the day of the appointment. But it wasn't as bad as it has been sometimes. The worst part was the whole measuring of the gums thing, to see how much they are recessed and all that. That was slightly uncomfortable, as she poked or dug her way to see how many millimeters her took would sink into the gums. But the dental hygienist turned out to be a graduate of my place of employment (do I call it "my high school," even though I didn't go there?), and within the last ten years, so we had some good conversation about that. Actually, it was a fairly one-sided conversation, with her doing most of the talking, given that my mouth was open most of the time!

During my visit the fact came out that my gums bleed sometimes when I floss, despite that I regularly floss. She was like "Do you sleep with your mouth open?" I had to think a little. (I mean, who thinks about this that much?) "I'm not sure, but I think I do." She was like "Sometimes people who breathe at night through their mouths instead of their noses have gums that bleed easier as a result. It's not a bad thing, but it helps to know this so we know your gums aren't bleeding because of a dental hygiene problem."

So last night I consciously noted how I breathe. Yup, sure enough, with my mouth open. But I never really thought about this being an unusual thing. In fact, when I tried breathing through my nose with my mouth closed it seemed so unnatural, so uncomfortable. How in the world do people do that? And no wonder people have snoring problems if they're silly enough to breathe through their noses! And isn't this a vocal no-no too? I seem to remember vocal teachers/experts saying you always should breathe through your mouth. But maybe that only applies to your waking moments, or at least your singing moments.

I think it's time for a poll. Are you a nightly nose breather or mouth breather? I won't ask you to tell me if your gums bleed when you floss. Am I in the minority on this? Please do tell!

Success

2007-03-04T22:46:00.000-05:00

My break has vanished, and so has the to-do list. I accomplished all but number 7 and 12, both of which have been partially vanquished. No matter that it's now 10:46 P.M. Sunday, and that tomorrow is looking like a coffee morning. I know it could be a long week when I'm starting in on coffee first thing, instead of being able to hold off until Thursday or Friday...

And I ended up going to an extra b-ball game to see my students play. And I'm actually looking forward to returning to school. Break has been good. But teaching is even better...I think. Maybe it's just the euphoria of finishing before midnight...we'll see...

Grade Tax Analogy

2007-03-02T12:45:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I've been grading a bunch of papers on Progressives, in which students are asked to give their opinion about their goals and accomplishments, whether they went too far, didn't go far enough, etc. Most all of my students have praised them. So I'm thinking that next week I'll announce the implementation of a grade tax on this last test, to be applied to everyone who approved of the progressive income tax. I'll suggest that anyone who approved of a progressive income tax should have no problem with also approving of redistributing grades and bumping down "overachievers" a little. Any student who scored over an 82 or so will have points deducted from their test, and those points will be added to student tests that didn't score as well. The higher the score above 82, the more points will be deducted. Maybe a 97 will become a 90, a 92 an 87, an 87 an 84, and an 84 an 83. Those who did very well will still do better than those who didn't, but the success of the "smart" will be limited, just as the wealthy were limited by the 16th amendment.

I'll be as straight-faced about this as possible, and maybe even assure students that I've checked this through with the principal and that he's fine with it. The point will be to get them to see the perspective of the wealthy regarding some Progressive ideas. None of my students seem to have taken the side of the wealthy in their papers (which I respect, as long as they are able to see both sides), so a little provocation that hits close to home might help. But I'm wondering about the flaws there might be in this analogy. In what ways would a progressive "grade tax" be different from the progressive income tax? So readers who care to (Isaac?), please point out where this comparison breaks down. I'm sure there are weaknesses to it, but I'm having a hard time seeing them. I suppose one would be if the highest possible grade is a 100 then there is already a grade limit in place, or the equivalent to a tax, whereas in theory one can accrue unlimited wealth. That's the best I can come up with right now.

Lest anyone fear I'm indoctrinating students against a progressive tax, have no worry. I try to challenge students to think about different perspectives on an issue, but am not expecting them to take one side over another.

Slogging Through Papers

2007-03-01T17:10:00.000-05:00

Correcting papers is such a drag when you're on vacation. My break is evaporating before my eyes, and I have so much still to correct. Arrrrrrgh!!!

On a possibly humorous note, I just corrected a student's "research" essay in which he had no citations in the text, and claimed that bird flu causes the head to swell until the "mind is pressured into submission." The two websites he listed on his bibliography page had absolutely nothing to do with the topic, though to his credit they were not broken links. I was a little afraid I might find something obscene when I looked them up. Thankfully, they were nothing like that. One of them was an ad for a home in Great Britain somewhere. I suppose he found this little trick amusing.

Possible thought process of his as he did this assignment:
1. "Heh, heh, stupid Mr. ______. He will never know that I didn't use any sources in my research, but made up things off the top of my head in my writing, and used false sources."
2. "I don' think Mr. ______ really grades these papers, but just assigns numbers based on student's average grades. So I'll say that the bird flu causes the mind to be pressured, and see if he catches that. And if he looks at my sources, he'll get a good laugh."

Whatever his thoughts, I hope he finds the score of zero attached to this essay as entertaining as the fun he must have had writing it. Sadly, knowing him, he might...

An Unanticipated Way I Spent My Vacation: A.K.A. Absolute Stupidity

2007-02-27T21:22:00.000-05:00

So far I have conquered the following numbers on my to-do list:
1, 3, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, and 18, and have done some of 6, 14, and 17, though more to do!

But there is a story that goes along with my efforts to be productive. In fact, I have to add a number to the list. I was doing pretty well in my productiveness today, had completed some paperwork (number 11 if you're counting), and had made good headway on writing the article for TOR (number 5). In fact, I was in the middle of it mid afternoon. I had also been doing some laundry. The laundry room is practically right across from one of my doors. My laundry was drying, and near the end of its drying cycle. I went to check on it, because if it isn't dried totally and you don't put in another quarter before the time expires, you can't just add one quarter, but have to start again with another four quarters and 56 minutes worth of drying. So I went to check on it. It wasn't quite close enough for me to stop and feel whether it was dry enough, so I zipped right back across the hall to my condo.

But the door was locked. Uh oh. At this point I had a bad feeling start to develop within me. I tried the door again. Yup, it sure was locked. And then I tried my second door. It too was locked. I had opened the door and forgotten to unlock it on my way out, or else had absent mindedly locked it behind me. I never do this! I am ALWAYS careful NOT to lock the door behind me as I leave, or to make sure I have my key on me. But this time, probably in my distracted state over the article I was writing, something had happened to break up my routine. I had no key to get back in, and the door was most definitely locked. AND I didn't have any shoes on, just socks (it is right across the hallway and within my building, so I'm pretty casual going to do laundry).

At this point I realized I was in for an unexpected major interruption to my plans for the day. It was only about 2:30, and there was no way I could get into my own house. I had no keys to anything, so could not trot out to my car and go somewhere. I had left my phone in the house, so there was no way I could call someone, unless I got really bold and asked a neighbor to borrow their phone. And my condomate (who shall remain anonymous for reasons of confidentiality!) was not due home from work for over an hour.

So I stood and sat in the laundry room. Grrrr. Here I was, being all holy and honorable for taking up the assignment of writing an article for TOR, and this had to happen! What gives? So much for my plans to get this and something else done today! Actually, my attitude wasn't really that negative, I don't think. It's just fun to be dramatic about it after the fact. I tried to spend the time profitably in thought, etc. And I folded my laundry in the laundry room once it dried. And I explained my predicament to the young woman who came in to retrieve her laundry with a 3-4 year old (I'm guessing) son in tow. She was back for the second time, and I knew she probably thought I was bonkers just sitting on the floor in there, my folded laundry next to me on a table. So I told her what had happened.

I also had fleeting thoughts about what would happen if my condomate didn't come back at his usual time. What if he did errands, then went straight to class and didn't return until 9? (Turns out he had no class tonight, so that wouldn't have happened.) I could wait for a little over an hour, but what about 6 plus hours? That would have been awful.

When he finally drove in, I was a very happy guy. I told him I was so happy to see him I could almost hug him (don't worry, I didn't!) If he didn't live with me, I guess I would have had to borrow a neighbor's phone and call a locksmith, which would have been far worse and more disruptive (at least to the wallet) than sitting around with nothing to do for an hour!

Moral of the story: avoid absolute stupidity and don't imitate me. Now I'm contemplating the possibility of keeping a spare key in my car, and a hideakey to access my car, to avoid this ever happening again. Or I could just remember to keep the door unlocked when I leave...

So number 20 to my vacation to-do list, now completed: spend over an hour hanging out in the laundry room, locked out of my own condo.

In Case You Were Wondering...

2007-02-26T15:01:00.000-05:00

Here are the results of my "dictator" personality quiz. Better than some, I think!

Which Dictator Are/Were You?

You are Napoléon Bonaparte.

You started as a successful general, and then led a military coup and took over control of France. Good Job! You were overall not a bad guy, but you had alot of height issues to deal with. Your official cause of death was Stomache Cancer, but it was actually arsenic poisoning, from a self administered Syphilis treatment. Feel that burning itch!

Click Here to Take This Quiz
Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Winter "Break" Is Here

2007-02-24T13:01:00.000-05:00

I think one of the themes I've emphasized in past posts, whenever I talk about school "breaks," is how much of a misnomer that is. Only summer time is really a break, and even then it's not because there's always so much to do/that could be done to prepare for next year's classes, etc.

I am now on winter "break." Here is a partial to-do list, which admittedly will involve some fun stuff, but also much work:

1. Go with siblings to see Mary Poppins in NYC. Hooray!
2. Attend part of my monthly condo board of directors meeting, then leave early to see girls b-ball tournament game. (Two students of mine play. They asked me yesterday if I was going, and I said yes. How can I not if it actually means something to them for me to be there?)
3. Correct one set of Civics tests (18 of them).
4. Correct three sets of U.S. History essays (total pages numbering anywhere from 240 to 480. This will be a chore!)
5. Write an article for TOR by the March 1st deadline.
6. Read a novel as part of my duties as drama director. We've been asked to do some dramatic readings from it, so I have to read it to figure out what that might include.
7. Read the script for Cheaper by the Dozen again, and maybe block it out, so I'll be ready to go when we hold auditions the week after break and get into rehearsals.
8. Correct one set of U.S. History bibliography quizzes (30 or so of them).
9. Correct 80 pages of U.S. History reports on something/someone from the 1920s.
10. Correct 1 set of World History questions on primary source docs.
11. Complete paperwork for my summer job, which I am taking in VA once again.
12. Read assigned readings for a history conference I'll be attending in two weeks on Espionage in the 20th century. This will be fun!
13. Complete my taxes, if a belated W-2 form I'm waiting on finally shows up. This will only be fun if I get a refund over 100 dollars, or something substantial. But I'm not counting on it...
14. Play some computer games. Yeah, this will likely jump to the top of the list!
15. Watch 24.
16. Watch Lost, even though I am somewhat disappointed so far with the new episodes (perhaps more on that in another post).
17. Sleep, if I have time.
18. Attend a boys b-ball game? Don't know for sure yet. Depends on how I feel.
19. Prepare lessons for the week after break.

I guess that's it for now.

One Night With the King

2007-02-09T22:38:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I normally don't blog about movies, and the impressions they make on me. Actually, I don't think I've ever said much about a movie on my blog. But I'm not going to look through all my archives to verify that. Anyway, I just watched One Night With the King, and I feel compelled to say something about it.

Wow. That's what I say about it! What a beautiful and inspiring story! I really enjoyed this one. It was very powerful. Not quite at the same level as The Passion of the Christ, but even so an impressive story that helped to bring a biblical story to life. It was very colorful, and I think helped to (rightly) destroy the images I created in my mind when I heard/read the story as a child. Namely, something along the lines of all the characters being white. Which of course is stupid, since it was Persia! The multiethnic flavor of the subjects was not an effort to be politically correct. Rather, it was an effort to be historically correct. Which is correct. And I approve. Persia encompassed a number of different ethnic groups, so it was neat to see that historical aspect of it portrayed. And it was good to have the images of my less developed brain replaced by more historically accurate ones.

I won't ever think of Hegai in the same way. His character in the movie was totally different than I imagined as well. Not that it doesn't work. It's just I didn't imagine a big huge black guy who talks strangely. But it was nice to see he had a tender side.

(Speaking of weird characters, it was strange to see a friend of Esther's played by a guy from 24 season 5, who worked in CTU. And it's strange to see two prominent Lord of the Rings characters in the same film together, John Rhys-Davies and the guy who played Saruman. But that's beside the point!)

I felt like I had an epiphany when the connection was made between Saul and the Agagites he was supposed to slay and then Haman as a survivor of that sin years later. The whole story about Haman being a survivor from that must be extra biblical, because I had never heard about it. Must be in the Jewish sources that aren't in the Bible. But it doesn't strike me as being anti-biblical, so it serves as a great lesson and fresh insight. Disobedience to God can result in many difficulties/ unpleasant consequences many years later.

I was pleasantly surprised by the well-developed and admirable character of Esther, which I guess is a good thing since the story does kind of revolve around her. Anyway, her grace, purity, intellect, innocence, courage, carefreeness, total lack of obsequiousness (what's the opposite of that?), soberness when the time required it, and faith, all of these qualities shone through and inspired me. It helped me to see a biblical hero made so alive, so human, and yet still so amazing. Methinks there's hope for us to achieve great things for God as well.

So if you haven't seen this film, check it out. At least if you're an adult. Parents might want to view it first to decide what to allow their kids to see. There are a few slight alterations from the biblical text. There isn't a three day fasting period before Esther goes in to the king, and there aren't two banquets she invites Haman and the king to, but these are literary licenses that I'm not too worried about, as long as you don't take the movie as the authoritative account! I could also find fault with the tension created in the relationship between the king and Esther, some of which didn't make much sense to me, but that would be quibbling over the small stuff.

Overall, I am inspired to be a part of God's plan, and carry on. "Perhaps you were appointed for such a day as this."

Overzealous Parents

2007-01-23T22:22:00.000-05:00

I will try to be rational about this. I really will. I know I can't know exactly what it's like to be a parent in this situation I'm about to describe. So I don't know for sure that I wouldn't act this way myself. But I really hope I wouldn't. It's ridiculous. It's rude. It's immature. And it's no wonder our society as we know it is crumbling, our culture is going to pot, etc.

To what do I refer? To what I hear when sitting among parents of children during their sports games. It's bad enough when the game is close and neither side is way ahead. It's downright ugly when the parents are watching their children get crushed by the opposition.

What's ugly? Their complaining. Especially about the referees. If it wasn't so immature, it might be funny. Despite the immaturity, part of it is still funny. Why? Because sometimes parents complain about some bad call that clearly wasn't a bad one. Like the player from my school who takes a charge in basketball, having clearly been set before being plowed under. But are the parents rational enough to see that? Of course not. "Aww, come on ref, he was moving!" somebody shouts from behind me. Or their team's player clobbers the opponent, and the parent screams that he barely touched him after the official whistles a foul. Those are examples. Then there are times when the ref made a bad call, or missed a call, and the parents go berserk. But do they display such anger when the bad call goes their way? Of course not. And despite the fact that officials miss calls (after all, they are human), I don't think it gives parents the right to shout refs down until hoarse.

Maybe parents aren't always this bad, but at the basketball game I attended this evening they were. Of course, in the interest of full disclosure, the rude parents have their children in a school that was a bit of a basketball rival of my high school, and which happened to crush my team twice when I played freshman basketball against them. So maybe I am subconciously bitter and prejudiced against anyone connected with this school. But I think not. Be that as it may, it's amazing how passionate parents get about their children's games these days. It's no wonder you've had incidents with parents beating up coaches or whoever after some game, because I have recently seen how emotions run very high in the bleachers. (The other night, at a hockey game, emotions were similarly high, though maybe parents were a little less rude.)

Another fact that makes parents' complaining humorous: sometimes they clearly display a lack of knowledge about the rules, and complain about something that wasn't called but was perfectly legal. (Note to self, and to all parents who cheer on their kids: make sure you know enough about the rules of a sport before you complain about a ref missing a call on something!)

I can understand passionately cheering on your child. That's natural and acceptable. But what is not so natural--or perhaps too much so, as the flaws in human nature are clearly seen when it happens--is the constant derision leveled against referees. It was pretty nasty tonight, as my school was dominating their opponent. I was around several supporters of the losing team, and the vitriol they poured out toward the officials was disturbing. (On a side note, one of the funniest responses I heard from a student fan from my school to a crowd of rowdy students from the other went something like this, when the score was something like 47-19: "You double your score, and you're still down by nine to us. What are you cheering about?" Points to that student for originality!)

Now that I am a teacher, I am much more aware about setting a good example as a fan in the bleachers. I can be a passionate fan, and in the past have been inclined to make comments myself about the officiating, etc. Now I keep my mouth shut (at least most of the time!). And now when I see parents around me setting such a poor example for students by complaining and yelling, etc., I think it's really sad. My thoughts, if only they could hear them and shape up: Can't you just grow up? What good is it going to do to yell at them, even if they are bad? What will this teach your children about the right way to behave when faced with adversity? What will it teach other teenagers about dealing with anger? It's more understandable to see a crowd of teenagers together act rude towards others (but certainly not acceptable). It's less comprehensible to me--and more disturbing--when I see parents act the same way.

Ugh

2007-01-21T22:26:00.000-05:00

What a way to begin the week! I am now officially depressed.

Thoughts on 24 and Language on Lying

2007-01-20T00:11:00.000-05:00

It's time to get somethings off my chest. (Spoiler warning: if you haven't watched the first four episodes of season six for 24, you might not want to read this first part, but skip to the bottom. Consider yourself warned.)

Specifically, they are thoughts regarding 24. I thought the recent season opener was interesting, to say the least. There's some more intense drama. Some pretty crazy stuff, too. Jack Bauer turned vampire? Now that's a little gross, I say. You have to hand it to the writers, however, for continuing to add unpredictable elements to the story. I didn't see that one coming.

Despite the fact that I am a big fan of the show and I think Jack Bauer rocks, there is something that is really starting to bother me about the show in general. That concerns the way it portrays moral choices. I have been aware for some time about the fact that the show doesn't excactly promote proper behavior in relation to authority. Authority figures are always wrong in this show, and they must always be disobeyed to save the day and beat the bad guys. People who go behind the back of their superiors or violate their orders are never ultimately wrong. They are always exonerated. Despite this flawed moral message, it has been easy to detect and identify as silly, stupid, wrong, etc. So I can still enjoy the show for the drama, even as I have identified the wrong message it sends about authority.

However, in the past season and the current one, it seems like this "end justifies the means" morality has taken a turn for the worse. It's now more subtle in some ways. While there's still plenty of defying authority, now authority figures are using "the end justifies the means" morality to justify their behavior. Presidents now choose to do/promote/allow evil. They aren't contradicting a higher authority in the show by doing so, because they are the highest. Maybe this has been present since the beginning of 24, and I just can't remember it. But at the least I am noticing it now. And it's bugging me.

The logic used to justify these choices is so terribly flawed. It goes something like this: bad guy threatens to do bad things if I don't do x (which is also bad). Though x is bad, if I don't do it then the bad guy will carry out his threat. So it will be my fault if bad guy does his bad thing, because I could stop it by being bad. So I'll do the bad, because it's my "only option," and I don't want to be held accountable for the bad actions of the terrorist.

Maybe it's political reality that a president will be held accountable for the actions of others, but it doesn't fit with moral law, which only holds individuals accountable for their own actions, and not that of others. So it kills me when a president chooses to allow Bauer to be murdered, for example, because a terrorist demands it, and the president thinks it is the only way to stop more terrorism from occuring. So wrong. And since when do you believe that a terrorist will honor his word? Such thinking kills me.

End of spoiler section

I'm afraid this "end result determines the morality of the previous action" mentality is too pervasive in society. At least it's present enough to fill the entire story line of a drama like 24. But I also see it in those who say "I lied" when something they said in the past turns out not to be true, even though they did not intend to be misleading at the time they said it. For example, if I say on Saturday that "I'm going to work on Monday," but then get sick Sunday night and do not go to work the next day, that is not a lie. But people commonly refer to this as a lie, because they only judge the statement by the end result, and do not take into account the motive/intent of the person when they made the original statement. It is, of course, silly to call this a lie, but many people do, and I think it's indicative of a larger trend toward Machiavellian morality. That is, people judge the merits of an action by its result, instead of its intent.

Closing thoughts on this. The next time you stop to help a little old lady with a flat tire, beware. If you fix her tire and get her going on her merry way, and then she is involved in an accident that kills her, you will be a murderer. You should have avoided murder by not helping her change her tire. Infallible logic, right?

How's that for a nice, light Friday evening post? :-)

Another Blonde Moment

2007-01-11T21:02:00.000-05:00

My blonde "Anne" is back in action. Of course that isn't her name, but hard core readers of my blog may recall some rather funny blonde moments this dyed-in-the-wool blonde girl (now a sophomore) has. This is the girl who played Anne in the Diary of Anne Frank, so I call her that here. Well, she's still in rare form.

This time, it had to do with cell phones. She and some others were rehearsing and using cell phones, which required them to make the phone ring. She has a Justin Timberlake tune for one of her rings. Yay (excessive sarcasm). So she was quite unimpressed when she heard that someone else's phone didn't have any downloaded, hip rings. Totally serious, she blurts out "You only have the normal ringtones? Come on, this is the 20th century! What's wrong with you?"

Um, I think there's something wrong with you, honey. Like maybe your ability to identify the correct century! I wasn't as biting as that, but I made sure to properly make fun of her on the spot for her gaff. Oh the deliciousness of such moments...

Es historia aburrido(a?)?

2007-01-07T21:00:00.000-05:00

I pride myself on recently passing a test. I am now a mature, experienced educator, able to handle with aplomb (what does that word mean anyway? I'm too lazy to look it up right now) anything that comes my way. Yup, I have moved beyond the ranks of those teachers who get the deer in the headlights, don't-know-what-to-do look, whenever a crisis presents itself. Now I react with deadly professionalism to anything that comes my way.

I wish. But recently I had an experience that shows me how I have developed as a teacher. This is what happened...

I found a student had left her textbook in my classroom. It happens, and no big deal, right? Except if they have homework to do from the book. I can't remember if that was the case this time. Anyway, I take a look at the brown paper bag cover over the text, to see it labeled as U.S. History. And in pen next to the course is scrawled "es my aburrido." I also discover this has been scrawled in the handwriting of a student who I like a lot. (She has a cool biblical name for one thing, so how can I not like her? But that's kind of off topic). Actually, I like most of my students a lot, so maybe I'm just droning on with irrelevant facts. Anyway, for those of you who don't know Spanish, "es muy aburrido" means "is very boring." Ouch!

"So that's how you feel about it, you loser!" I yelled to the empty classroom upon discovering her true feelings on the class. I then called her parents and vented to them about what a terribly disrespectful, crummy child they had raised, and told them she would fail the class. They promised to promptly spank her, and make her study history for the next three hours.

Actually, forget that last paragraph. It's fiction. So I was tempted to feel bad about this, and did a little I think. But I didn't let that get me down for long. The next day she came in and asked me if she had left her book in class. Yes, here it is. "Sabes que yo hablo espanol?" I asked her (Do you know that I speak Spanish? I don't think I used correct conjugations of some of my verbs, the form you're supposed to use in emotion/uncertainty situations, but Spanish speakers please forgive me, as I can't remember some of the correct tenses anymore.) "Estoy muy triste que piensas esta sobre mi clase. Comprendes?" (I'm very sad that you feel this way about my class. Do you understand?") She said she did. And boy was she embarrassed!

Later I tucked in a little reference to history and sarcastically/mockingly referred to it as boring, just for the fun of it. I think she got the point. I'm going to make fun of any attitude that puts down history! In using sarcasm I probably violated a cardinal rule of modern education methods. But I think it was acceptable under the circumstances

So there you have it. Lessons learned over the years? Don't take things personally, and embarrass students as much as possible. Okay, maybe not the last one. But at least make light of students boredom. If you feel badly about complaints or take them personally, your life as a teacher will be constantly depressed. But not mine. I love it. I still chuckle to myself as I think about the little secret she let me in on, probably because she didn't know I know a little espanol.

Incidentally, I think she may have used the incorrect form of the adjective. But I can't even remember what is correct myself, so don't know for sure. Is "historia" masculine or feminine?

Sally the Fashion Policewoman

2006-12-28T22:55:00.000-05:00

Ok, the time has come for more tales from the front. Or rather tales of students. I just saw this student play in a game recently, so she is fresh in my memory, and what better time to blog about her than over break?

I'll call this girl Sally. I have known Sally since her freshman year, when I was on caf duty. I didn't know much about her then, except that she was a friend of some students of mine in homeroom, and that she hung out with a bunch of freshman girls during lunch. She also made a regular visit to the snack or soda machine every day (I can't remember which it was). Pretty boring. She seemed to be a jock, as she played basketball and softball. I saw her in a softball game once, which I attended because I had another player in my class.

Last year Sally showed up in my study the second semester. She and another softball player were in the same class with me. They liked to talk. It was a struggle sometimes to get them to be quiet. Having said that, Sally was not as bad as some of the other students in that particular study. However, I learned she had no compunction about lying if she thought she could get away with it. One day when I was questioning another student about an absence, and I knew that student was not there, Sally insisted she was. From that point on I knew she shouldn't be taken at her word. Some students seem to have no problem trying to back up a fellow classmate in their cutting of a class by lying and claiming they were present. Sally is one of those. Unfortunately such students don't seem to think about the consequences (i.e., they can't be trusted) of such actions. They think they're being cool or whatever, but really are hurting themselves.

During this time in study Sally learned that I could juggle, as I showed students once what I could do. From then on she practically begged me every day--at least it seemed like it was--to juggle for her and the class. I guess she was really bored with study hall.
Near the end of the year, when students got their schedules, Sally informed me that she had me for U.S. History next year. I did my best to let her know how challenging and demanding it would be, but that didn't seem to faze her. Not that I really want to intimidate hard working and determined students that much. But I do want to communicate to students that my class is not for those who are academically faint of "heart."

So Sally has been in my U.S. History class from the beginning of the year. She has continued to ask me to juggle, though thankfully her requests are not daily. I finally obliged the day before break.

Another thing about Sally is her bluntness. She sometimes says the most random things, unrelated to class. One theme concerns my wardrobe, and personal appearance in general. She seems to have made it her mission to serve as my fashion police officer. One day when I was wearing brown shoes instead of my normal black ones, she informed me that my shoes didn't match. Another day when I forgot to wear a tie and made a joke about it being dress down day (didn't you get the memo?) she told me I should refrain from wearing a tie all the time, as I look better without it. Another day she told me (and the class) that my tie didn't match my shirt. If I do something different with my hair, she's sure to comment. And did I ask for someone to play surrogate mother/wife? I think not!

Hey, it just struck me! The next time she makes such a comment, I think this will be my reply: You want to marry me, Sally? Because you sure sound like a wife!

One might think that this girl lacks the social conditioning which typically, by age sixteen, has trained students not to make such comments about their teachers, in front of them and the rest of the class. My opinion is that this is her way to get attention. This is a little funny, given that she is also a talented basketball player, she just won the MVP award for the holiday tournament the team participated in, and she might play basketball at a Division I college someday. But sometimes it's the jocks who think they can play smart aleck and get away with it.

In case you think I'm really miffed with this girl, I'm not. She can be somewhat irritating, but mostly I think it's funny. Never a dull moment where I am!

Deeper Magic and More About Students

2006-12-20T21:40:00.000-05:00

Did you know that "xmas" should not be considered offensive by Christians? A lot of people, myself included, thought that "xmas" is an attempt to remove "Christ" from the equation. Makes sense, right? I suppose this is the intention of some people who use the term. However, if you are educated about the word usage, and use it intelligently, there should be nothing offensive about it. Because for hundreds of years "x" has simply served as a shorthand version of "Christ." This goes back to the Greek, I'm told. Something about the Greek letter that begins the word Christ being close to the x in English, or some such thing. Anyway, hundreds of years ago Christians themselves used the "x" as shorthand for Christ. Obviously they were not intending to be godless.

I found this to be amusing, because I know that some people do use "x" in an effort to secularize the holiday. It struck me today that it's like the deep and deeper magic of Narnia. The White Witch thought she was triumphing by killing Aslan, and removing him from the picture. But her efforts were futile. In a similar way it seems that those who have replaced "Christ" with "x" in an effort to remove religion from the equation have botched the job. Their best efforts have failed.

In other news, you know you are teaching in a public school when your conversation goes something like the following. I should preface this by saying this is one of the students I caught earlier in the year, who I don't believe has really had a change of heart in their behavior (allowing work to be copied, etc.) but is probably more careful now. Having said that, we have very good rapport in class. She's really a delightful person (on the surface), and I have fun teasing her. She's also fairly honest with me on some things, as the following will illustrate:

Her: Working at the food bank (or some such charity) is kind of fun. I think I want to volunteer there.
Me: Why are you working there in the first place?
Her: I'm doing community service.
Me: Oh yeah? Why is that?
Her: I got caught at a party last summer. But I wasn't even drinking.
Me: Ah, so has your punishment changed your behavior so you aren't going to parties anymore, or are you just being more careful?
Her: Just being more careful.

I guess behavior modification is not a very successful technique with her. If community service doesn't change one behavior, it's no wonder a lower grade hasn't changed her behavior with regards to sharing work in my class.

Second student story. I think this is the first year I've dealt with a student who is an excellent student, but is also a nervous wreck anytime she gets anything below a 90. She has burst into tears on multiple occasions now after approaching me about some project or assignment that has gone hard. How do you handle crying girls? This is a mystery I have not yet been able to figure out. I assure her that her grade is still very strong, (she has one of the strongest A grades in the class!), but it doesn't seem to help her mental state that much. Poor girl. It's like she's a total failure if she doesn't ace everything.

On that cheery note, merry Xmas everyone!

I Hate the Curse

2006-12-04T16:10:00.000-05:00

I really do. No, I'm not talking about the Red Sox. That curse has been buried forever. I'm talking about THE curse. The one that keeps us from living in a perfect world, and cultivating perfect relationships with everyone. The one that keeps us crying, sighing, and hurting. The one that keeps us from transparency with each other.

The curse has made me cynical. Or rather, seeing effects of the curse has made me cynical. What do I mean by that? Well, I mean there is now always a little seed of doubt in my mind about the sincerity of students in many of the interactions I have with them. Most of them seem like great people, and I want to believe that. I also want to think they would respect me enough not to try and deceive me, especially if it's for something really, really small, like getting an extra point or two on a test.

Examples? When I pass back tests and we go over them, on occasion students show me errors I made in correcting. Usually I give them the points, as it probably is my mistake. But I also usually scrutinize the test to make sure they haven't tried to doctor the answer in some way. After all, pencil can easily be erased, right? And I can't watch 30 students at once. So there is the possibility they might try to change an answer. This has happened before, where a student changes the answer and then claims I corrected it in error, so I know this kind of thing happens. Isn't that sad? Not only for what it says about kids, but for what it does to our relationship. Now I always have those seeds of doubt about whether it was my mistake, or the student was able to doctor an answer behind my back.

Today I was going over test answers with students, and could have sworn I saw a girl writing something down when I was giving the answer to something. Then she tells me later that I missed her (correct) answer. Sure enough, there it was squeezed onto the bottom of the page. I asked her if she was writing anything while we went over the tests, and she said no. Again, I really thought I saw her writing something. She seems to be a hard worker, has done extra credit work when few others have, and does well in the class. I really like the girl. But now I have this nagging thought in my head: is she a cheater? Is she trying to pull a fast one? I will give her the point, because it's not worth arguing over it. It also seems totally silly that she would try such a thing. I suspect some reading this right now think it silly that I suspect she may have cheated. But because of my past experience with cheaters (I've gotten "burned," so to speak) it is very difficult for me not to have questions. Again, the cynicism has developed because there have been students in my experience who try to cheat. Now it is difficult to separate them from the good, honest, hard-working ones. If you ever want an illustration for how sin negatively effects groups of people beyond just the sinner, this is one to use. The sin of a few has tarnished the perception of students as a group.

Dealing with fallen human nature has had its repercussions in correcting papers as well. If a student writes a paper that just sounds too good for their ability, I check to see it hasn't been plagiarized. Sometimes it has, I catch them, and they get busted. But last year I also had a student write an extremely good paper that had no evidence of plagiarism. I was sooo impressed, and I sang her praises in writing and to her face about it. Her performance on it was better than any of her other assignments. Though I think it was a legitimate paper, and I really want to believe that it was, I still have that question in the back of my head: was it copied somehow? Did she figure out a way to escape detection? I hate that I have these thoughts. Again, the curse at work.

Part of the problem may be that I have a highly tuned sense of justice and fairness, and work hard to see that applied to all of my students. I also want to think the best of them. These are conflicting forces, because while I like my students, the thought of someone getting the same grade by cheating as someone who works hard kills me. Figuratively, of course.

Of course, there is a permanent and temporary solution to my dilemma. The former is when the curse is ended, and all of us are honest in our dealings with each other. The temporary solution may be to consciously give up all doubts because of the fact that justice will be meted upon those who err, even if it's not me who administers the punishment or catches them in the act. Fortunately there are better eyes than mine watching over and waiting to deal with lawbreakers. Having said that, choosing to give up doubts is easier said than done.

Is It Lying?

2006-11-24T20:24:00.000-05:00

Question of the day: Is it wrong to mislead students in an effort to inspire them to achieve?

Scenario in question: I recently had my U.S. History students watch a video about the Civil War and then write an essay analyzing it as a tool to teach one about the Civil War. In other words, they could watch something like Glory (that was one of the movie choices), research its accuracy, then explain whether the film would be effective in teaching about the period. Right before passing back the essays, I showed students a sample essay on the overhead projector and critiqued it as I read it. I assured students that the author had given me permission to read it, but did not say who wrote it. I am careful not to say "The student who wrote this" but rather say "The person who wrote this" or "The author of this essay has given me permission to use it."

The essay was very well written, with only a few minor mistakes. It was a great model to show students what constitutes good writing. This is the kind of thing many of them need to see, as they tend to be lacking in the area of writing. The hope is that they will see good writing, note the kinds of things their current writing lacks, and work on making changes to improve. So what's the catch? I wrote the essay. Yup, I concocted it two years ago as a model of the types of things that should be done in a good piece of writing. I neglect to let my students know it was not written by one of them. Is this wrong? Is this a deception that is going over the edge? I hope not. I will not lie to students if they ask me who wrote it, or insist that it was really a student who wrote it. If they press for details, or are suspicious about its authenticity, I just tell them I will not give away any more information on the author, except to say that I have their permission to use it (I can give myself permission after all, can't I?).

So what say you? Is this kind of leaving out all the details about authorship acceptable, or sinful? :-)

Anniversaries and Taxes

2006-11-14T22:56:00.000-05:00

In my most recent news, I'm very busy these days. Could you have figured that out? I just finished acting in one show, I'm directing another this week, and I'll probably have a week off next week before starting in on another one.

In other news, I recently celebrated the one year anniversary on moving into my condo. Hooray! God is good. I still love living here and all that.

Though still "basking" in the anniversary glow, I received my new property tax bill today. Gulp. I got news that my taxes went up about 30 percent. Yup, you read it right. 30 percent! How crazy is that?

So I will crunch numbers in my budget, and drink less DD coffee, in hopes that I'll be able to pay the bill. On second thought, forget that, I can't stop the coffee habit when working on short nights of sleep and long days... But maybe next week...

We Shall Overcome

2006-11-07T22:40:00.000-05:00

It occurs to me that the strength of Christians ought to be and is their resiliency. This goes back to the early centuries, when there were sporadic efforts by the Romans to eradicate a religion they thought was impious because it refused to condone civic duty which involved offering sacrifices to the emperor. Romans killed Christians, but they didn't go away. In fact, they grew stronger through adversity, at least if the church "father" Tertullian is correct: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church."

I think the ability to persevere no matter how dark things look or will get is a trademark of Christians today. You pray one way, and things go the other. You ask for deliverance from accident, and you get into one. You ask for healing, and you stay sick. You pray for the Red Sox to win the world series, and they don't. You pray for ___ to be elected senator, and she isn't. Ought these things get us depressed? Naturally speaking, they could. But I'm thankful that God happens to be supernatural, bigger than circumstances and events that could tend to depress. We press on. Is God dead? I think not. Since He isn't, one must conclude that prayers are not unanswered, and circumstances are not out of His control. When our enemies would like to shout in triumph over us is the best time to show who we are and what we believe. Chins up, comrades, we know who wins.

The Intrigue of Mystery

2006-10-20T22:46:00.000-04:00

Prepare for some rambling. But it has been a long week and I'm not too concerned right now about style. Call it something close to James Joyce and "stream of consciousness" if you want.

I've decided that mysteries intrigue me. In fact, it's a hard time for me to stop thinking about them. Specifically, mysteries regarding the human psyche. For example, if a person has a legitimate reason to get out of a class, especially on test day, why not take that legitimate reason and go for it? They might want to get the test over with, in which case they put aside the excuse and just take it anyway. But that's not the mystery. The mystery in this case is that this student, while allegedly having a legitimate excuse for not attending class, made the unwise choice of simply skipping and not following proper procedure for getting excuse from the test.

This is a puzzle that defies logic. If I like ice cream, and an ice cream cone of my favorite size and flavor is offered me (and I'm hungry for ice cream), why would I deny that offer and steal the old lady's ice cream next to me instead of taking the gift? It could be chalked up to stupidity, or possible embarrassment at taking a gift, and maybe I think it's more manly to steal an ice cream cone rather than take what's offered for free.

Humans often act irrationally. That could be another explanation. This is a fact that has taken me a long time to accept, and even now it is an explanation I am reluctant to accept, except perhaps on the rarest of occasions. When I was studying history in undergrad I remember trying to reason out how people should have behaved in the past, based on the assumption that people do act rationally, will choose what's best for them if they know what it is, etc. But one of my professor's pointed out that this is not always the case. Food for thought, for sure, and I'm afraid he's right.

So irrational behavior COULD be the explanation. This is the explanation that a parent of this student has accepted. The girl just acted stupidly. She could have legitimately skipped the class, but did not.

This explanation should only be accepted if all others are exhausted. So what are other possibilities? Revisit the facts stated on ice cream. I do like ice cream. Is it possible I don't. (Very short pause.) Nope, it's true. Second thing to consider: is ice cream being offered me for free, or did I mistake the guy behind that ice cream cart, and he said "three" (dollars) instead of "free"? This should be reconsidered. Perhaps the ice cream is not free. Perhaps it really is three dollars. And I only have a dollar in my pocket. And he is not taking credit cards at his ice cream stand. So if I want ice cream but don't have the money, and then I see a little old lady walking by with a cone, and no one nearby to guard her, the temptation to steal that ice cream increases dramatically.

Translation: is it possible the alleged legitimate excuse this student had, and could have used to get out of the class, is not so legitimate after all? What's working against this conclusion? Anything?

Yes, there is. Specifically, the mother of the alleged student believes that her child did have a legitimate reason to skip class, but simply acted unwisely by not taking the correct steps.

The mystery is thus birthed. What can this mean? Who to believe? What other avenues to explore?

What reason do we have to believe the mother is correct? In her favor, she gave birth to the girl (I think). She has reason to know her very well. So it could be that we have a simple case of irrational behavior, and no lying.

Other possibilities? Yes. If the girl lies repeatedly to one authority figure (i.e., me), is there any reason to suspect she does the same with other authority figures (i.e., her mother), and maybe even tries to pit them against each other, using a web of lies and deception?

Quite possible. How can we explore this further? Are there any other sources that might be consulted on this?

There are. Leads, at least. Namely, possible witnesses who might be able to verify that said student was not in the location she claimed to be to support her story. If these witnesses can only be accessed, and convinced somehow to give an honest report about the location of the student in question, then the student can be proved to have lied once again, and confirm my suspicion that the excuse was not a legitimate one, but another lie to cover up a stack of previous lies.

Dilemma: What to do if witnesses do give evidence to "convict" this student? This would mean that not only has she lied to her teacher, but also her mother, and her mother has either bought the story, or even worse knows she is lying but mother pretends to believe her for the purpose of trying to get her off the hook? This is a tricky business. I'm not a parent, but imagine the shock of finding out that your child lied to you, you bought their story, and you defended them on the basis of this lie? Are there parents out there who have experienced this? What did you do in response? Would you want to know that your child has deceived you and you have wrongly leapt to their defense? I think I would, but I would be extremely disappointed with my child, and am not sure how I would react.

Another dilemma: if my suspicion that this is simply a web of lies is confirmed, and I am able to get a witness to tell me the truth, said witness will likely not be happy should I pass on the testimony to the student's mother. After all, they are friends, and there's a silly code among teenagers these days that says you should never say something that will get them in trouble, even if questioned and it's the truth. I guess their "friendships" get destroyed this way, which suggests to me they are not real quality friendships in the first place.

So as you can see, this is a tricky business. But it's also a fascinating one, for it is an unsolved mystery. Is this student a terrible liar? Does her mother know her very well, or has the mom been duped? Is the Mom stooping so low as to try and cover for her lying daughter? There is a possible witness. Can I convince this witness to tell me the truth? If the witness confirms the daugher has lied to her mother, do I tell the mother this? Or do I just keep my mouth shut and try to smooth things out, only playing the "ace in the hole" should the mother start to be demanding and put the blame on me for her daughter's academic troubles? I'm not interested in bearing the bad news to the mother that she has been deceived by her lying and conniving daughter (if this is the case), unless really necessary. This would not exactly be considered fun, nor part of the job description when I signed up here! However, I really do want to know for my own sake as to whether I have totally misjudged this student, and she did simply act irrationally (but not as connivingly as I have thought). That the mother seems to have bought the girl's story is an interesting twist to this continuing mystery.

Regarding getting this witness to testify to me and shed light on the mystery, there is a trump card I have to play that might help. Namely, I just caught this witness cheating again. When I confront this witness with this evidence, I may just be able to work out a "plea bargain," and squeeze the testimony out of him. One of those "shoot with me straight now and tell me the honest truth, and I might go a little more leniently on you" deals. We'll see if such "coercion" will work or not.

I'm thinking now I may be in the wrong career. Maybe criminal interrogation, or investigation, should have been my field of choice??

It's an unsolved mystery now, though I'm afraid I know what the truth is...

I Smell a Rat: Or Something is Rotten in the State of Denmark

2006-10-06T22:06:00.000-04:00

For some reason, I continue to be amazed by what students try to get away with. Honestly, I believe they think teachers are downright stupid. Or maybe they don't think too much about the likelihood of getting caught doing something wrong. Perhaps they have an aura of invincibility about them. Maybe they're just high stakes gamblers, willing to take a risk of significant consequences to get away with missing a class or two.

My tale is true. But it baffles me why it is. The depths to which kids will go to cover their poor choices, to put it kindly, is astounding. I won't go into all the specifics for fear of compromising something or other, but this is roughly what happened...

I gave a test. On the test day, two students were absent from my class, but were present in homeroom according to the records. This usually means one of three things: the homeroom teacher made an error and marked them present when they really were absent, nowhere to be found on any part of school grounds during any part of the school day; the student was in homeroom, but missed my class for some legitimate reason, such as getting dismissed for an athletic competition, a doctor or dentist appointment, sickness, etc; or the student was in homeroom but decided to take a break from my class just because they felt like it. This last category is called "cutting class," is generally frowned upon by teachers and administrators alike, and normally results in anything from detention(s) to suspension (if it happens often enough).

What made the absence of these students more interesting was the sighting of one of them later in the same school day. This student claimed they had left to see the doctor before the test, then had returned to school after the appointment. So I checked the official record, but found there was no evidence that either this or the other student had gotten dismissed before my class. Sure looked like cutting and then lying about it to me. Both are school offenses.

The next day when the students were in class I asked them if they had documentation to explain their absence. When a student gets dismissed, they get a special form from the office with a bunch of different canned categories and boxes to be checked, depending on the reason for the dismissal (things like "doctor's appointment," "personal business," etc.) Both students produced the official documentation. This was slightly puzzling. I had expected no documentation to support a dismissal, as the official computer record had nothing on their early departure. By now I was quite suspicious. Could this actually be what it seemed to be? Somehow, could these students have gone so far as to steal this documentation?

Up for the challenge of solving a little mystery, I employed my detective skills--finely-honed, I might add, in no small part due to devouring in my youth anything and everything by Arthur Conan Doyle on Sherlock Holmes--to sniff out this mystery. I needed to be absolutely sure this was not some clerical error in the office. It could be the secretary had failed to enter the dismissal information in the system. So I trotted over to administration and broached the subject with an administrator. They promised to look into it. One of their first reactions was to think what I was thinking: this could be a crime of dastardly proportions, a forgery or theft of school documentation, which is atypical for cutting class. I mean, what student is going to take the time to try and steal or forge school documentation? Don't they have better things to do, especially if they can't even take the time to come to your class? Most students who cut may try and lie to cover their tracks. They might even forge a note from a parent to explain what was really an illegitimate absence. But it is rare indeed to have a student steal or replicate what is an official school form! This is extra dirty, to be sure.

As things developed, it seemed more and more likely that I had uncovered a forgery or theft of some kind, of the school paperwork. As I continued to think about it, I realized that previous to these two students being gone I had had a third student who was absent under similar circumstances. Attuned now to the distinct possibility that this could be a widespread problem, I checked with the office on the record of this third student's dismissal. There was no record. Another forger/thief was thus uncovered.

Due to some good work on the part of administration, they found out that this third student was the one who had scanned and reproduced the forms, then passed them on to the other two students. Can you believe it? These are students in a college track class. They are sociable, "nice" kids, as far as anyone can see on the surface. But who knows how much they have cheated to get to where they are now. Since they went the second mile to cover up their cutting class, it also wouldn't surprise me if their system of ethics has allowed for any and all cheating they can get away with. And someday they will probably get college degrees--likely also cheating their way to them--and then serve as managers and adminstrators in various white collar jobs across America, where they will boss others around and be involved in making ethical choices concerning the future of them and many others. How scary is that? Calvinists, chalk this up as one in your column to support your argument. Humans are really and utterly depraved. This kind of conniving is absolutely ridiculous.

But for now, they are busted. I have yet to learn the consequence for their actions. I only hope that it will be just, and commensurate with the seriousness of their action.

Jack Bauer is a Rich Man

2006-09-28T22:25:00.000-04:00

Random fact of the day: Kiefer Sutherland makes 400,000 for every episode of 24. That computes to 9.6 million every season. Not a bad paycheck, I daresay.

Despite the money he makes--or maybe because of it--he's still the man. Though I suspect some senators (can anyone say John McCain?) would have serious issues with his interrogation methods...

Rosh Hashana Rap

2006-09-20T21:41:00.000-04:00

For those of you feeling the need of a little inspiration to celebrate Rosh Hashana, here is a link to a Rosh Hashana Rap that might just do the trick to rekindle the enthusiasm. Or maybe you'll just find it amusing, and insightful into the marketing techniques being employed these days to reach the younger Jewish generation...

http://www.aish.com/movies/raphigh.asp

And for those of you who are freaked out by this and think I've gone over the edge in my music tastes, don't worry. The link came to me as an email advertisement, and my curiosity got the better of me. It's not on my favorite ten list or anything...

Student Blooper?

2006-09-18T21:36:00.000-04:00

I had a laugh out loud moment correcting papers today. It's a good thing I was at home! I was grading some papers in which students had to write a biography based on limited information of a person. This was the assignment to which I alluded in a previous post. Here is one sentence from a dear girl, who I'm sure is unaware that her voluntarily returning to my classroom for a third semester is resulting in such fun at her expense: "He seems very neutering." I assume--even hope--that this is a spelling mistake, and she meant to say "nurturing"!

Another Week in the History Books

2006-09-15T22:59:00.000-04:00

School week two is done and gone, though not without some emotionally draining moments. One of them had to do with getting called into an administrator's office and being asked about comments I made in class the first day of class. I won't go into any detail about what I said, but I thought they were pretty harmless. They were intended to dispel certain rumors that have been known to circulate about me at school. But one girl claimed that what I said made her uncomfortable, so she went to her guidance counselor and asked to switch classes. Her counselor told her she needed a letter from a parent explaining the reason for the change, because generally the school does not allow lateral transfers (from one teacher to another teaching the same subject and level). It's a good thing, too, because if students had a choice of teacher for their required course, I probably wouldn't get a lot of signups, and that would make me look bad to some! After all, most teenagers would gravitate to the easier teachers if they had a choice.

Anyway, I digress. The parent wrote a letter, stating their daughter was uncomfortable having me as a teacher. So I get called in to an administrator, who wanted the story about my comments from me. I had to explain myself, which came across ok I think, though the administrator thought I could have avoided the situation by not saying anything in the first place. He also made it clear that I wasn't in trouble, which was nice to know, but that he simply wanted an explanation before he granted the transfer. I felt frustrated, as it seems that no matter what I do or don't do, nasty things result, be it rumors or upset parents. I think I'm slowly resigning myself to caring less and less about what people say about me behind my back, which is probably the healthiest solution to it all. The skin is getting thicker and thicker, in other words.

This is difficult, and a slow process, as naturally I tend to be a very sensitive soul, but thick skin is necessary for working in an environment with nasty teenagers, to put it bluntly. I already don't care that much if students talk about how difficult/demanding I am behind my back. That's a given. And since it's true, it doesn't make sense to be upset if they complain about it! :-) I can even feel positive about this type of complaining because I know that challenging students academically is a good thing for them in the long run. It's like I have a trump card over them, I know a secret that they don't, that some day they will realize the positive good that being made to work hard and achieve was. Since I can focus on that good, it is easier to put up with criticism.

The knowledge of attacks on my personal life is in a totally different category, and requires another measure of grace, I think. I have a harder time seeing the good in that. If it was an attack because of my faith or something along those lines, it would again be easier to take, because we're taught to rejoice about such things, and we know there is a reward for such suffering. But what about attacks of a personal nature, motivated no doubt from a dislike of you as a person or teacher, yet not apparently because of your faith? There seems to be no trump card here. You can't think to yourself "but someday they will be sorry for saying nasty things about me." Thick skin in these matters is something that, while thickening in me, is a little thinner right now that I'd like it to be.

Those of you who are not sensitive by nature would probably give some simple but unwise advice to this dilemma, with something along the lines of "You just need to have thicker skin!" But thick skin does not appear simply as the result of willpower. If it were that easy, we would all have it, and life would be much less agonizing. I suppose this is the same thing with healing. You can't just say "Get over it" and expect it to happen. Thick skin, healing, or whatever the need is often takes time. Would that I could be hardened right now to anything I hear said about me that is untrue! Maybe by next year?

Switching subjects abruptly, I lost several students out of my advanced class this week, including two seemingly bright girls who I think would have done very well in the class. However, they felt like they had too much on their plate, so they dropped it. The good news is that both of them are still planning on coming back next semester, so I know it isn't something personal against me. I also gained a student this week. Even so, the class has only 11 in it now, which makes me feel quite guilty because other teachers in the department have as many as 37 in one class! Yet it is a different subject and level, so there is solid justification for keeping my class, despite it being an elective that students do not have to take. And if I can put my guilt aside, it is a sweet situation for me, as it makes correcting the many papers I will have them write that much easier...

We only had four days of school this week. One day was free due to elections taking place. This was nice, as it gave me a chance to get some correcting done, and catch my breath a little. Starting the school year up with a 3 day week, then 4 day week before having a full week is a good idea. But next week things will be extremely busy, with a full week of school, the start of rehearsals for Fiddler, auditions and casting for the school play I'm directing, and the start of rehearsals for that. Whew! I'm so glad for a chance to rest now!

Acting Again

2006-09-13T16:17:00.000-04:00

The other day I auditioned for Fiddler on the Roof. Despite my busy schedule, I decided I like the show too much to pass up a shot at a good role in the show. After the audition, I was starting to get really afraid that they were going to offer me the role of Tevye. I was scared not because I wouldn't love to play that role sometime, but because I knew they would be getting mighty desperate to cast me in such a role! Then I thought about it more and decided it would be fun to play, but it still would be a sign of not such a great cast if they had to choose me to play the role. I was happy when they offered me the role of Motel, which was my first choice going into it all. So I will soon be back on stage, singing and acting like I love to do. So I'm pretty excited!

Because I am loathe to give away my location, I will not say more. Astute bloggers who know my circle of friends will be able to make some connections... How is that for cryptic?

And I know this entry will not win any awards for best writing style or anything, but I'm too busy to try and fix it now.

Various Aspects of the First Days--Ramblings, to Put it Another Way

2006-09-08T21:15:00.000-04:00

The first days of school have come and gone, and I'm still alive, rejuvenated in spirit though weary in body. I think the last time I got up this early was in mid June, the last time I was teaching! I've been close to exhausted by 4 o clock in the afternoon. That's sad.

The first day was all about introducing myself, giving a little autobiographical spiel, then telling those classes that needed to hear it how hard the course was going to be. I suppose this sounds like cruel and unusual punishment to some of you mercy-minded people, but it is really important to establish a tone of academic rigor and high expectations at the beginning of the year, so students know what they're getting into. And in case it makes you feel better, in addition to telling them horror stories about students that failed my class and are repeating it, I also told them that none of these students did much work. Moreover, if you do all of your homework, it is very easy to do well. Which is very true, in case any of you thought I am a terrible meany. I bend over backwards to ensure that students who put in significant effort to do well do. I also provide plenty of extra credit opportunities to help students who stumble on some things pull themselves up.

I could tell within the first five minutes of one class that they were going to be a rambunctious lot. I had to tell some of them to be quiet the first day, even in the first few minutes! That's unusual. Usually students are subdued enough the first day at least to listen up and hear what they're supposed to. Not some of these students. Fortunately, the next day the word of the day from my calendar was obstreperous, and being the kind of teacher who doesn't mind adjusting the day's plans on the fly, if necessary, I introduced the word to this rambunctious class, then used it in a sentence: "Obstreporous students do not do well in this class." We'll see if any of them got the message. It seemed to settle some of them down temporarily.

I also decided kind of last minute that teaching students how to make inferences would be a good thing to start the year with. After giving them a student interests and background survey to complete the first night, I wrote several inferences on the board, mostly about myself, and had the class evaluate each one.

Incidentally, I learned through this process that very few teenagers are interested in 24. This confirms a suspicion I had earlier that for whatever reason the show may attract the 20 somethings and up demographic instead of the teenagers. Out of 120 or so teenagers surveyed, probably five said they had interest in it. There was more interest in Lost, and even more interest in American Idol. As far as favorite movies they saw this last summer, I hadn't heard of most of them. And forget about it when it comes to knowing a thing about their favorite bands/music groups. I guess there are some things that even I won't get into in order to be able to relate better to these kids. It's one thing to go to their sports games or plays, but trying to learn anything about Kkdowdopkeifkxda?! Forget it.

This is the first year that I have younger siblings of students I have had in the past. I strongly suspected one girl was the younger sister of a girl I student-taught, based some on her looks but also on her smile. Weird. I asked her if she was her sister, and got confirmation. Then there are several siblings of students I taught two years ago. And there's a daughter of a professor I know from my undergrad. Also weird. A veteran teacher in the department told me at least I wasn't teaching the children of former students, as she had done several times. Very true. And she said she had heard that you know it's time to retire when you get grandchildren of former students in your class! That hasn't happened to her yet, and I can hardly fathom the day that might happen to me...

In my classes we have also played an icebreaker game so each student and I know something about everyone else. And I have reamed everyone out about the evils of plagiarism and cheating, and given them an exercise to help them learn about different kinds of plagiarism, since sometimes it can be accidental if you are not well-informed about what it includes. You have to emphasize that it includes not giving credit for IDEAS, as well as words of another. The fact that if you paraphrase and don't cite it is still plagiarism is something some high schoolers struggle with. But not my students anymore! (Said with some degree of anxiety, as I did this same exercise last year and STILL had students massively plagiarize, in some cases possibly accidentally!)

Today I sprang a "fun" (I put it in quotes because even though I am convinced that it is fun and interesting, I'm not sure I can convince all of my students to agree!) exercise on two of my five classes. The other three will get it on Monday. I showed them a video clip that focused on a person, and had them take notes on all details in the clip that might shed light on the character or background of that person. They are assigned to write a biography about him, making inferences based on what they see. Since the video is not all revealing, it makes for an interesting challenge to hash out a biography, but roughly replicates what it is like for the historian working with limited evidence from the past to try and create a narrative that makes sense. In other words, my students are becoming historians within the first week of class! I hope this challenge will excite them about history and enable them to continue to make inferences about things throughout the term, while at the same time limiting themselves to the evidence at hand.

My most advanced class is quite small, currently 14 in number, but I've heard that some of them are going to drop it when they have the chance (the window opens up next week). I've been worrying a little that I'm going to lose good students who if they stuck with it could take the AP exam and do well on it. It's interesting how obsessed I'm getting to be with seeing students of mine do well by passing the AP exam. I announced with confidence on the first day that they were all going to pass it when they take it in May. This may sound like a bold promise, but if I do my job, and they work hard (which I added as a condition to them passing it), I think it is doable. But I have my work cut out for me to bring them all up to speed with all of the demands of the AP course, which are significant. Some of these kids need a confidence boost desperately. Most of them are sophomores, and though they are really hard workers, I think most of them are not in the top 5 percent of their class. Maybe the top 15 percent. That means a little more of a challenge to get them where they need to be. If I can do it, however, it will be a small vindication to me, make me feel good, and provide justification for my teaching this course in a serious manner to all of the smartest sophomores next year. Currently, for some reason, there are basically no AP class options for sophomores. I guess some people think they're too young to handle the work, but I know from my experience interacting with smart high school kids from other parts of the country that there are a number of schools that have such options. So if we can get it into my school, all the better. And even though I have only had them for a few days, there is something great to be said about highly-motivated students!

I was very pleased to learn that one of the two seniors in the course, who had thought she was going to drop my class, told me after the second day that she had decided to stick with it. I guess I gave plenty of tricks the first two days to make her want to stay! Little does she know how I am going to stop being enthusiastic about the material as soon as the drop period for classes is over, leaving all of my students bored stiff by my monotone voice, which will be confined to monosyllabic grunts such as "work" and "quiet," forsooth!

My schedule has changed from what it has been the last two years with regard to my prep period. It used to be that I taught the first period, then had the next as a prep. No more. Now I teach two classes, have homeroom, a study hall (I got a study as a duty again, something that was not a given but for which I am very thankful, as it allows me to get some work done!), another class, lunch, then two more classes. Then I end the day with my prep mod. It makes for a long morning, but it's very nice to be done for the day by 1:44. Then I can get paperwork done, copies made, or whatever at the end of the day. In theory I might even be ready to go home by the time we're allowed to, instead of always having stuff to do that keeps me late. But in reality, because of the drama group I run, I will frequently be at school until 4:30 or 5.

And that, folks, ends my ramblings on the first week of school.

I May Have Jinxed The Boys

2006-09-04T00:34:00.000-04:00

I think I may have jinxed the boys this year. Shortly after I got my new computer in June, I set this as my background wallpaper. I thought it was pretty cool at the time. Little did I realize that it ended up being a description of the Red Sox season this year. Sigh. There's always next year...

Was Hannah's Promise Kept?

2006-09-03T16:02:00.000-04:00

Recently I read about the birth of Samuel, and Hannah's promise that he would be a Nazirite, with a razor never coming to touch his head. This has gotten me thinking about Samuel's hair. If her promise was kept, and Samuel never cut his hair, I figure he had a mighty amount of hair by the time he died.

I learned from a bit of research that the average hair growth is six inches a year. You figure Samuel lived eighty years, and that makes his hair forty feet long. Maybe less, since some of it probably fell out due to length. Even so, I think this gives new meaning to a full head of hair. And it puts Absalom's hair to shame. (After all, he cut it regularly, right?) In addition, it means any Sunday School type pictures out there depicting an elderly, or even a young Samuel, should be a little more dramatic than they are. Of course, it could cause some confusion among youngsters, who might mistake Sammy for a girl. But what young tyke wouldn't be fascinated by a picture with a guy whose hair is anywhere from ten to forty feet long?

On a more serious note, if you want to get something serious out of this post, consider the sight it was to see a Nazirite, a man wholly dedicated to the Lord. Though being a Nazirite probably isn't your calling, perhaps this is to be expected of all those who are completely committed to following God: they will stick out dramatically.

Clinging to the Summer Days

2006-08-30T20:15:00.000-04:00

It's very hard to explain my feelings on work and summer right now. It's like I'm torn between two worlds, both of which have their attraction. One world is summer, and the lack of any deadlines to get things done. I can read, watch TV, a movie, play computer, read blogs, or whatever at my own leisurely pace and with plenty of time to spend. The other is the oncoming school year. I'm looking forward to it a great deal. Yet at the same time I'm trying to squeeze out the last minutes of relaxation before the sudden storm descends...

Those who do not teach probably cannot relate to what I am talking about. But suffice it to say that once the school year starts, leisurely activities take very much of a back burner to the demanding schedule of a teacher. Not to mention my extracurricular activities and duties involving drama. Some weeks are busier than others, but I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the average work week is between 50 and 60 hours for me. I know that's not a big deal for many who are self-employed, but maybe it adds perspective for those of you used to an 8-4, 9-5, or whatever other job in which you usually work around 40 hours a week. Don't think I'm complaining, because I'm not. I love my job! I'm just stating a fact that might help you appreciate my torn feelings. It's because I'll have so little opportunity to enjoy the activities later that I'm trying to pile them all in at once. Like a drug fix or something.

Even as I try to relax, there's also plenty to be done to prepare for the year. That's another reason I don't want the summer to end. I want to spend more time preparing/finding lessons, taking notes on my World History text, finding sources, etc. It seems there is never enough time to reach the goals I set for myself when it comes to planning the perfect lessons, or what have you. It's quite a dilemma. Do you frantically work now and push aside relaxation time that you know will never come during the year? Or do you set aside prep work now because you know things can't get much more hectic than they already will be once the year starts, so you might as well just plan things then? You might sacrifice a little bit of quality, but at least you get some last minute vacation while you still have time to breathe...

I think I'll choose the latter... Until my conscience smites me and I stop watching a DVD or reading a book to return to classroom prep...

Sedation is a Beautiful Thing

2006-08-30T19:55:00.000-04:00

The surgery is over, and there are now five holes in my mouth. It's taking some getting used to. Fortunately, I've had little pain, though one side of my mouth has been a little sore. And I've been popping drugs here and there, which has probably helped keep things in check.

For the veterans who have been through multiple surgeries, it's probably not a big deal to get hooked up to all kinds of monitors and drugged to sleep. For me, it was a new experience. They put a monitor on a wrist and an ankle, and another on a finger before the surgery. I could then see my heart beating and the beats per minute registering on the little monitor. Pretty cool. Then the surgeon came in and after a few preliminaries told me they would give me some laughing gas to help me relax. They put a mask thing over my nose, but I didn't feel much different from it. They also hooked up another monitor for my breathing. Then they found a vein to plug the IV into, and started that.

It's amazing what that sedation did to me. I have no memory of falling asleep. The next thing I knew I felt something going on in my mouth, and I opened my eyes a little. I think the surgeon may have said to give me more, and I went back to sleep, or maybe they were just finishing up. I don't remember. But then my Mom was coming into the room and they were explaining things about post-surgery care and such. It's a good thing she was there to listen because I don't think much was registering in my brain, though I was conscious. Then I walked out, and it was all over but the recovery part. Some forty-five minutes of time were a complete blank on my memory.

We drove to the drugstore and got a prescription for Vicodin, which I started taking to keep the pain down. I think because I started it soon, the pain never really started. Some discomfort on one side of the mouth, where apparently the surgeon had to do a little more digging to get the teeth out. Other than that it was quite tolerable. I kept putting ice on and off at various times throughout the day to keep the swelling down.

I stopped taking Vicodin after only three doses, and have dialed back to less addictive drugs such as tylenol and excedrin. Apparently Vicodin is a pretty potent painkiller, but also potentially addictive. Coincidentally, I saw part of a Law and Order episode on Monday evening that talked about Hydrocodone as a pain killing drug that gives a high something akin to heroine. What do you suppose are the two ingredients in Vicodin? That's right, hydrocodone and acetaminophen. But I never felt high from taking the drug, so I don't know if Law and Order is off again, whether there's not enough of it in the dosage to get high, or whether the acetaminophen keeps things tame. Oh well. So much for feeling like a druggie.

Now I'm starting to crave more solid foods, as I haven't had any of that variety since before the surgery. Still taking things slowly. What compounds the difficulty in the return to normal eating is the stitch, or suture, that I have on the roof of my palate at the front and middle part of my mouth. This is practically in the exact spot your tongue tends to touch on the roof of your mouth when you talk and form certain letters. I'm sure those of you who have had your wisdom teeth out cannot relate to this, as it is where a lesion I had was removed and is unrelated to the wisdom teeth. This additional wound makes it very tricky to try and take solid nourishment when such nourishment tends to be rubbed right up against this spot. I'm leery of ripping the stitch out accidentally by too violent chewing, or whatever. So for now I've survived on things like pudding, yogurt, ice cream, shakes, soup, juice, a smoothie, and soggy crackers. I think it'll be awhile before I tackle the fried chicken...

Getting Drugged and Drilled and Meditation on Sleep

2006-08-27T21:19:00.000-04:00

The countdown to oblivion has begun. In less that 12 hours I expect to be getting drugged up a good bit. For tomorrow is the day that I undergo invasive oral surgery. So invasive that I expect there will be five bleeding wounds in my mouth before long. Ouch.

In case you haven't figured it out, I am getting my wisdom teeth out tomorrow. This has been something the experts have been advising for some time, but I have put it off. Why? For one, it's quite expensive. Those who think that teachers get great dental coverage can think again. At least it isn't the case in my school district. I will be paying hundreds of dollars out of pocket on this one, I'm afraid.

Scheduling has been the other factor in the delay. Who wants to get their wisdom teeth out in the middle of the school year? You do if you're a student, but not if you're a possessive teacher who likes their students enough to not want to plan an extended absence from them. Not to mention the work it would take to prepare lessons for some possibly incompetent sub... And earlier in the summer didn't work too well either, given various schedules. So it's happening eight days before I return to school!

So tomorrow I'm going under the drill, or knife, or whatever instruments they'll be using on my mouth. And since it was only a few bucks more, I'm opting for IV sedation, which will make me somewhat less aware of my surroundings than other anesthesia options. I was basically told it's the next best thing to getting knocked out (it's hard to do that with dental work because usually you have an oxygen mask on you when that happens, but that's difficult if the surgeon wants to work in the mouth!) Call me a baby, but I decided I wanted to be as unaware of what's going on as possible. Actually, part of it has to do with this phobia I have about swallowing when I'm not supposed to swallow. I seem to have a very sensitive, sometimes involuntary swallowing mechanism that tends to make things interesting whenever I go to the dentist and they poke around in my mouth for more than a minute without giving me a chance to rinse out. I really didn't want to be conscious enough to be swallowing at all sorts of complicated times, so I'm hoping I'll be knocked out enough not to bother the surgeon.

I've been wondering if this whole drug thing will be similar to taking illegal drugs and getting high, but I have a sneaking suspicion it won't be anything nearly as exciting. Of course, I will never know if it's AS exciting as illegal drugs. But will it be any exciting? Probably not. Oh well. At least I shouldn't feel anything during the surgery.

In case you're wondering about the fifth wound, I'm also having something removed from my mouth that's not supposed to be there. It's one of those possibly-cancerous-but-most-likely-not-but-we-might-as-well-get-it-out-of-there-to-test-it things. Since the surgeon will be digging in my mouth a fair amount on his quest for my teeth, it makes sense to have him remove the other thing at the same time.

Since I expect to be sleeping somewhat more than usual tomorrow, it makes sense to digress a little and give some thoughts on sleep. I've thought a bit about the reason why we need it. Have you ever wondered why it is that we've been designed to spend nearly a third of our lives in an unconscious state? At first it seems there might be a flaw in our bodily design. Wouldn't it have been much more efficient of God to have created humans without the need for sleep? I suspect He could have done it. In fact, we all could accomplish a lot more if we didn't have to sleep. If you rebell against such a thought, and think "But I love sleep! I'm so glad we need it!" consider this: you love it in part because you need it. If you didn't it would seem silly to spend time sleeping. Now don't get me wrong, I love sleep as much as the next person, probably even a little more. But it is a bodily function that seems inefficient.

That God didn't design us to operate 24 hours a day leads me to think there's a lesson in it somewhere. I've concluded that it's a daily reminder set in nature by the Creator that we are not as independent as we'd sometimes like to think ourselves to be. We can't be supermen. We're needy. We're so fragile that we'd quickly fall apart without constantly stopping for at least a few hours in every 24. Like the rainbow and its reminder concerning floodwaters, the need for sleep is like a big fat message emblazoned across the sky and given daily that says "You are dependent upon my design! No matter how smart you think you may be, no matter how much you may displace Me, the need for rest shows your intrinsic neediness!" Such dependence runs counter to the basic message of the serpent, and continues to be a warning against any who would be inclined to be proudful.

Another good thing about sleep, methinks, is the metaphor it provides for how we should trust God. You can't really do anything when you're sleeping. The work of bodily rejuvenation is not up to any conscious effort on your part. Similarly, we need to trust the Father with total reliance with whatever our needs may be. You are in a good spot if you have come to trust God so completely about something that it is as if the need itself has "gone to sleep." And if you are "asleep" to worrying about such need, so much the better.

The Vanity Plates that Make No Sense

2006-08-11T20:46:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I just don't get it. If you know me, you're not surprised. I can be slow. But even with factoring in my thick headedness, sometimes people are way too cryptic for their own good. Maybe someone can explain.

Specifically, I don't get vanity plates that make no sense. Why do people waste their money? Do they think they're cool? Because when I don't get it, and I think that most everyone else in the world doesn't understand either, I think it borders on stupid. Or at the least it is a waste of money and human resources. The prisoners that work on constructing the things could have been better employed.

If you have a vanity plate, don't take offense. And don't call me a hypocrite if you happen to recall the time when I had a vanity plate. I think there are plenty of legitimate uses for your own special plate. They include:
1. Clever uses of language that describe a person or family's condition, a nickname, or describe the vehicle, such as "fbigrad," "4our9," "4ian," "badguy," "eatdust."
2. An expression of your devotion to some hobby or interest, assuming that it is well known enough that a fair number of people will understand to what your license plate refers, even if many others are left in the dark. Examples include "soxfan," "patsfan," "rdsxnatn," "frodo," "24rocks," or "04wewon." Such expressions can engender feelings of love (or even hate) for the driver, as the plate expresses their personality in a meaningful (because it's comprehensible) way.
3. Some Bible verse or well known truism.

There are probably a few other categories under which a vanity plate can be effectively used. My belief is that it should make sense to a larger group than your circle of friends, as it seems a waste of money to buy something that 99.99 percent of all people who see it are left clueless as to its meaning.

One recent example of such apparent waste drove by me the other night as I returned from working my summer job: "5-4 us." What in the world does that mean? I puzzled over it, and am still wondering what it means. Possibilities include:

1. The couple that own this car are both 5 feet four inches tall.
2. It is commemorating some famous sports win in US Olympic history. But I have looked up the 1980 U.S. Hockey win over the Soviet Union, and that was not the score. They beat the Soviets 4-3, then Finland 4-2.
3. This is some code for the next planned terror attack on the US, and the driver is attempting to awake any sleeper cells who will see it that now is the time to act.
4. Someone is keeping track of the ideologies of the Supreme Court justices, and they think that a majority of them line up with their particular point of view.
5. It's the final score in some youth hockey game, or maybe little league baseball tournament, about which only a few know.

Beyond this, I am stumped. And I'm mystified as to why people waste their money this way. Why attempt to educate someone if your vocabulary is incomprehensible?

In the Know

2006-08-04T18:38:00.000-04:00

Have you ever watched a tv program or video where you know the writer has little knowledge or experience about an industry or work environment because you work in said environment and know it doesn't operate that way? You then feel smug because you know better. Or maybe you're angry because your vocation is misportrayed. Or maybe you just laugh because it's so ridiculous.

This doesn't happen to me often, probably because I've only worked in so many types of jobs and they aren't often mischaracterized. But the other day there was a glaring error on Law and Order. Yes, I'm afraid I've become a little bit of an addict to this crime detecting show while working this summer. Anyway, on the show there was a substitute teacher who was suspected of a horrible crime involving a student. The principal calls him in and is like "I've already initiated the process with the school board to have you fired," or words to that effect. That's ridiculous! To my knowledge there is no such hoop that needs to be jumped through to get a sub fired! They have fewer rights than a non-tenured teacher. The principal just says go home and don't come back and it's done. (There may be a more involved process for getting you off a school district's substitute list.) It was kind of ridiculous to think about a school board having to take time during their meeting to approve the firing of a substitute. In fact, it was almost laughable, at the same time it was apparent that at least one writer probably didn't do their homework on the intricacies of hiring and firing substitute teachers.

Ok. My rant (though it's not really a rant, as I'm not particularly bothered, only intrigued by the apparent ignorance out there) for the day is over. Consider yourselves educated on the lack of rights of substitute teachers. You are now in the know.

Cockroaches and Ghost Tours

2006-08-02T21:07:00.000-04:00

I've had some fun over the past week plus. I found a gullible student on my floor, whom I'll call Charlie. I was wrapping up some marshmallows Charlie had left on the counter, and decided to warn him about cockroaches. Charlie is from Colorado, and although he's a world traveler and has been to about 30 countries (and his family is renovating some really old place in Greece), he didn't know anything about cockroaches. I warned him that they are vicious. They go after food, and human blood. That worried him a little. I told him he should ask another one of the RA's about his story concerning cockroaches. So off Charlie went to get the scoop. Problem was the other RA was on the phone. So I decided to fill him in. I told him this guy had woken up in the middle of the night to feel something crawling over his leg. He turned on the light to find eight cockroaches sucking on his leg. It was really bad, too. Cockroaches are harder to get off than ticks. They had to saw them off, and they had sucked a pint of blood.
A little incredulous, Charlie nevertheless swallowed the story hook, line, and sinker. Next thing I know he's bringing all of his food from his room into the kitchen area, so it'll be away from him at night. He's telling me he's going to be checking under his bed for cockroaches. And he's warning his friends across the hall about the cockroaches around. He's so convincing that they're believing him. I could hardly believe he swallowed the whole story, as I couldn't keep a straight face part of the time I was telling it. I finally relented and told him I was just joking.

We had another ghost tour this year. I reprised my role as crazy man who jumps out of the woods at students walking a dark and scary path, and then told the same story as last year (see last year's post for more details). In the woods I had people falling to the ground in fright or because they were so startled. Screams abounded. I guess several girls cried they were so scared. One told me her life really did flash before her eyes, she thought she was going to die. She was petrified. Apparently I was so terrifying that someone decided to write on a whiteboard on one of the girls floors "[my name] is mean," or something to that effect. I had fun! And that's it.

Language and Contradictions

2006-08-02T20:46:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking recently about the tendency of some people to use language which contradicts their position. This should not be. You have the whole debate over whether some guy who blows himself up along with a bunch of Israelis, or Iraqis, is a suicide bomber or a homicide bomber. You also have a battle over how to describe people who believe abortion is murder. Whether you call them pro-life or anti-abortion often reveals your own perspective on the issue.

The point is not to argue the abortion issue. But regardless of your position, I am interested by the way people naturally describe the unborn. "I'm having a baby." "I'm having a boy or girl." "I have three children, with another on the way." "I'm expecting a baby/child."

While the anti-abortion/pro-life side is quick to point out the contradiction in pro-abortioners talking about an unborn child as a "baby" when it kicks or gurgles in the womb or whatever if it's only a fetus, I have heard little discussion about the contradictory language those who want to protect the unborn use. Why don't they classify the unborn among their children? It shouldn't be "I have three kids and am expecting another," but "I have four kids, one of whom is still inside me." It shouldn't be "I'm expecting another baby," but "I have another baby. You will see it in 7 months" (or whenever the due date is). Not using such language only plays into the hands of those who argue the unborn are worth less inside the womb than out. If those who believe that life begins at conception are to be consistent with their beliefs, their use of language in describing the unborn ought to change.

Funny Fact

2006-07-29T11:23:00.000-04:00

I was visiting a historic fort yesterday. As I was climbing up to the top of one of the walls, I noticed a placard with something about "French" and "retreat." Upon examining it more closely, I learned that the word retreat was first used/invented by the French! I laughed. How appropriate is that?

Battle of the Sexes: Are Women Smarter than Men?

2006-07-26T21:24:00.000-04:00

Warning: Statistical analysis involved in this post. Reader be warned!

Before you blurt out an answer to this post's title, based on some predetermined bias of yours, hear me out. Actually, I'm not sure it's possible to make a blanket answer, though I'm sure some men who want to please their wife, or have had a wife, might say "women" because they know they wouldn't be able to get along without her, and feel that she's infinitely superior and all that. (That doesn't prove intelligence, merely competence!) And some smug women might also cry out "women" just because they think they are naturally superior, or maybe their husband has told them they are and they believe it, or because they've felt downtrodden by men throughout history, and are all liberated now and feel free to dismiss those of the opposite sex as intellectual inferiors. (Come on ladies, don't the majority of you secretly think that your gender in general is smarter than those men folk?) Well, I have some empirical evidence to throw into the debate. Before you simply use it to support your preconceived bias, maybe it can be used to direct you to other ideas which you might not have considered.

I taught the same subject (U.S. History) to four different sections this past school year. With such a large sample of students you can use grades by gender to test the intelligence theory with a greater degree of accuracy than some studies involving smaller pools. For those who don't understand, picture this: a classroom of six students, four of them girls.
Say 2 girls get A's, one gets a B, and one gets a C+. One guy gets a B+, the other gets an F. Can you conclude from this that girls are smarter than guys? Not really. The small sample could be an anomaly, something out of the ordinary. Maybe one guy's grandmother died the night before the final, so he didn't study for it. Maybe one girl's mother is a history teacher, and was able to better prepare her for the final by reviewing with her. These anomalies tend to get made insignificant with larger samples. They balance each other out more. Thus, you get more valuable information with larger groups of information.

Enough on that. For my sample, I used marks of 55 women and 44 men. I threw out a couple of grades from this sample due to extraneous circumstances. The first fact, that more women than men were in an upper level history class, might indicate something about intelligence, or at least academic motivation. There is a significant difference.

Out of 99 students, 14 of them earned A's for the second semester. Eleven of those A's were earned by women. Here is the entire breakdown:
A=3 men, 11 women
B+=8 men, 15 women
B=16 men, 8 women
C+=3 men, 7 women
C=8 men, 3 women
D=1 man, 4 women
F=6 men, 6 women

These figures look like women far outperform men until you take the percentage of men and women that scored in each category. In other words, it makes sense that more women earned an A if there were more of them in the first place. Looking at the percentages gives a more accurate assessment:
A=3/44 men=7%, 11/55 women=20%
B+=18% men, 27% women
B= 36% men, 15% women
C+=7% men, 13% women
C=18% men, 5% women
D=2% men, 7% women
F=14% men, 11% women

Conclusions: women outperformed men at the highest level (an A grade) by almost a 3 to 1 margin. That margin shrinks but is still significant if you include the next highest grade, at almost 2 to 1. In other words, almost twice as many women earned a B+ or higher than men, AFTER taking into account the disproportionate number of women taking the class. However, when you include a B grade, men catch up significantly. Sixty-one percent of men and 62% of women earned a B or higher. Men jump ahead only once you factor in the C's. 85 percent of men earned a C or higher, compared to about 81% of women.

Are there any explanations for this difference in performance, other than natural intelligence? Unfortunately for those of you predisposed toward the ladies camp, there are. Here are some:
1. Women may respond better to the natural wit and charm of a male teacher, which leads to better academic achievement! :-)
2. Women at high school age tend to be more mature than their male counterparts. This leads to higher motivation and better concentration in accomplishing tasks necessary to earn a higher grade (e.g., completing homework assignments, following directions, etc.) Thus, while girls go the extra mile to earn the highest level grades, guys simply put in the basic work necessary to earn a passing, and decent grade, such as a B.
3. Due to less maturity, guys may tend to seek popularity in other ways besides academic success. They don't perceive being smart as being "cool."
4. I could be biased, and tend to grade women more favorably than men.

I won't offer any definitive opinion on which gender is "smarter." I think too many factors are in play to make a decision based on this data. However, these figures tend to back up my predisposition to teaching girls who want to learn over smart aleck guys who like to make wisecracks in class and thereby supposedly prove their manliness. Only a few students act this way, though far more guys than girls. And more guys do tend to be lazy, and not follow directions or do basic homework.

Maybe I should switch to an all girls school? Nah, guys also need positive male role models. I hope I'm at least that, even if I don't get them to achieve like those girls.

Life as an RA and General Life Lesson

2006-07-22T17:07:00.000-04:00

What exactly does life as an RA (or RPA) entail? I'll tell you. Basically it involves a lot of eating, sitting around, sleeping, and feeling like you're not getting anything done, because often there are a lot of administrative things to do.

Basic schedule. Get students up in the morning, making sure they are out half an hour before they go on their field trip, so they can get some breakfast. Then you go to breakfast yourself. If you desire to or are asked to go because they need a driver, you might go on a fieldtrip with the students. If not, you return to the dorm and do whatever you want until they get back for lunch. This includes reading, then feeling sleepy because you are in an airconditioned room and it's rather quiet. You might pop out to the rec center to get a little exercise in. You might also read email, surf online, etc.

Lunch comes, and you take turn with other RAs going to eat, so there's always someone in the dorm. Then you come back, and if on duty that afternoon you hang around and repeat the morning's activities. There are likely to be more students in and out in the afternoon, so you might supervise them. Then comes dinner, and once again you coordinate with other RAs. Then the evening, when all are on duty and you do whatever.

Doing whatever is punctuated by a number of administrative things, including checking the other floors to see that other RAs are there on duty and ensuring that girls aren't burning down the dorm, or engaging in some such reckless activity. Sometimes there's an evening program to attend. Sometimes there are activities to coordinate. Late at night you make sure the students follow curfew, and herd them into their rooms by 11 P.M., after which time you can settle down yourself for the night.

It's pretty basic work. What makes it interesting is the students. One male student, who was also here last year, cracks me up almost every time he opens his mouth. I'll call him Tony. At the start of the program we had a floor meeting with all of the guys, and played this icebreaker, get to know you kind of game. Each guy had to take some toilet paper from a bunch that was passed around, then say one interesting fact about themself for each square of toilet paper they had taken. Tony, I should preface this by saying, never pronounces his "r's." All of his "r's" usually come out as "ah," or something like it. This is not because he's from Boston. It really only resembles a Bostonian's accent. I think it is a speech impediment that causes his accent, not because he's from any given region. Sometimes it takes real concentration to process what he is saying, but other than that you can understand him fine.

Tony gives his facts: he went to an all boys boarding school for his four years of highschool. He has a sister (or some such fact, I don't remember). Then he informs us he is having invasive nasal surgery immediately after this program. I thought that was hilarious. What kind of kid picks that as an interesting fact to share among his high school peers? It's my kind of dry humor, and I love it.

Tony is going to Stanford. THE Stanford. He got waitlisted at Harvard, and he told me he was glad this happened. His mom really wanted him to go there, and he didn't, so he's happy that he didn't get accepted and then feel like he had to go there. At the same time he's glad for ego reasons that he didn't get turned down outright. At Stanford, he's getting a full tuition scholarship, plus a quarter of his room and board. Not a bad scholarship for a school that costs about 45 grand a year.

Tony is also one of the few guys so far to not be shy about going upstairs and hanging out in the lounge areas and talking with girls. I was up there the other night when he introduced himself to a girl he hadn't met, and it was hilarious listening to his conversation, complete with dry humor. It went something like this:
T: "I'm Tony. And you are?"
C: "Cindy."
T: "Hi Cindy, nice to meet you. Where are you from?"
C: "Pennsylvania."
T: (with totally straight face, no hint of joking): "Ah, have you recovered from the jetlag yet?"
C: (a little flustered, not sure what to say) "Um, yeah..."
T: "I'm from South Carolina. You know how bad the education is there? We're fifty-first in the nation, behind Puerto Rico. They don't even speak English in Puerto Rico. I don't know how we can be fifty-first when they don't even speak English in Puerto Rico, but we are. It's pretty bad."

Given that I knew Tony had gone to boarding school in Tennessee for his entire high school career, and that he is heading to Stanford in the fall, I thought it pretty hilarious that he was categorizing himself as coming from a poor educational background. But he didn't seem to care, and the girl seemed to have no clue that SC's education system had no influence on his recent education.

In other random news, I am amazed by the number of students here who go to private, single sex high schools. I've had some conversations with some of them about the pros and cons of such a school. Most of the students seem to love it. One pro that has emerged as a theme is the fact that they can get up five minutes or less before going out the door to school, and not have to worry about grooming, what they are wearing, etc. I think there's something to be said about that. One girl talked about the fact that high school boys tend to be immature, and you don't have to worry about their presence in the classroom. I concur with that. The immaturity in the classroom usually comes from the boys. I'm considering writing a book about the need for reform in the educational system. Perhaps single sex is the way to go? And uniforms, of course.

On another note, let me inform any who cares to know about the dangers of a certain kind of worm out there. This is not a worm that you can see, or that bites into fruit of some sort. It's a computer worm. It comes to you through instant messenger, from someone on your buddy list, with a message like "click on this link to see the video I made." If you ever get such a message, even if it's from one of your friends, DO NOT EVER CLICK ON IT! I got such a message recently, and was stupid enough to click on it. At this point some of you might be saying "How stupid of you, how could you ever do that?" I consider myself fairly savvy to the dangers of viruses and worms, etc., but this one caught me unawares, as the message came from a source I trusted. It was a computer worm that infected my computer and automatically sent similar messages to a number of friends on my buddy list. This happened despite the fact that I had good antivirus software up and running! I took my computer to the tech guys here, and they told me that the only way to get rid of this worm is to rebuild my operating system (i.e., reinstall it), which means that I will end up losing everything that is currently on my hard drive. Yes, everything! And until I get it fixed I cannot connect to the internet, as the worm does nasty stuff, trying to infect others, when it is connected. (I'm using a borrowed computer now.) So that's kind of a bummer. The good news is that the computer has not crashed, so I should be able to back up all critical files before I restore everything. And I don't have many critical files, if any, that haven't been backed up already. But I guess several years worth of emails will be erased. I am unaware of any way to back those up. So reader, learn from my errors if you are not already aware of these nasty worms.

Traveling South and Life as an RA

2006-07-19T20:50:00.000-04:00

Rambling, pedantic account ahead of my trip south. Reader beware!

I'm back in VA, having returned for a third summer to work as a residential assistant in a pre-collegiate history program for high school students. I first got a job in this program as a grad student, when I worked as a normal RA. Actually, it's much more intensive than the duties of a college RA, as these are high school students and they need more intense supervision. Last year I returned as the Head RA, which meant I had a little more responsibility and got 33 percent more money. Couldn't complain at that. This year I am back as the Head RA. In addition to serving as an RA, I coordinate and supervise all the other RA's, and liasion with the program director.

The trip down was a nightmare. I left my place at about 5:15. I cruised down to the Dunkin Donuts around the corner, and did something I've never done: ordered a turbo coffee. Yup, I've gone over to the dark side. While at the counter I resorted to brother-like, rather timid behavior. (Said brother will go unnamed, but he likes to blog.) I ordered an extra large turbo coffee and two breakfast sandwiches. I had a coupon for a dollar off any breakfast sandwich, and it said right on it "limit 2 per customer." So obviously the coupon meant you could get a dollar off each, right? Well, the lady rang it up and only gave me a dollar off of one! But rather than complaining about it, I just went on my merry way. Such brother-like behavior is unusual, but perhaps on the increase. These little acts of not complaining when I have a right to get my dollar back will probably add up to my failing to achieve millionaire status by age 30. Sigh. Such is life.

The coffee tasted more bitter than usual. If this is a consequence of the turbo shot (and I assume it is), then turbo is not worth the extra dough. Not unless you are really desperate for an extra high. But I didn't notice much of an extra kick either, in my alertness or whatever. So I think, for now, that turbo coffee is a big come on and a waste of money. Save yourselves the money, friends who have not experimented. It's not worth it. (Don't I sound like an ex user warning people from the dangers of drugs? Well, in case you're wondering, they're not worth it either...)

As I traveled, I plotted my trip to miss a major city during rush hour. I did, then got stuck in major traffic north of another major city. Then when I got to NYC, around ten (after rush hour--what gives?) I got stuck in more major traffic. What a pain! It took me three hours to go sixty miles, after going 200 in the first three. And my brother wasn't there to yell "everybody go home!" as he is wont to do when amidst lots of traffic. I was frustrated, especially since I had friends to meet at the other end by a certain time. As I rode, I educated myself a bit by listening to 1776 on CD. It's a recent history book by David McCullough on that famous year (yeah, it's nerdy, but call it professional development on the go!)

I finally got through NYC and into NJ. There I got off the highway to try and take back my EZ Pass tags to the customer service center in Newark. Big mistake. The directions I had from online were confusing, and before I knew it I was meandering down a road in the city that probably has seen its share of drug deals. But I was not mugged. Still, I failed to find the center, and after fruitless searching got back on the highway. Sigh.

South of the NJ turnpike I stop to get gas. 43.50 to fill up. Ouch. Then, as I head onto the highway, I open my 24 ounce bottle of Diet Pepsi, to fortify my caffeine levels and give me something to drink at the same time. As I opened the bottle in one hand while merging into traffic, this bottle fizzled up like a volcano, and proceeded to pour out into my lap a la Mt. Vesuvius. What's a guy to do in such a situation? I tried desperately to roll down the window and hold it outside to fizzle over, but that was hard to do with only two hands, while driving. So I got a good part, maybe 6 or 8 ounces worth of Pepsi spilled into my lap and onto the seat. I didn't think I needed to be cooled down, but it happened anyway. And it left a rather unpleasant stain after it dried, probably hours down the road.

I get to around Washington, and more traffic. Sigh. I finally get to my destination, meet up with friends, and have a nice rest of the evening. All told, my trip took around 14 hours. It could have been done in about 11 if there hadn't been traffic. Nevertheless, I was safe and sound, more educated than I might have been, and at my destination. Can't complain too much.

More on life as an RA in a later post. I've gotten distracted, and it's getting late.

Summer is Good

2006-07-07T23:33:00.000-04:00

Ever heard of James Joyce and "stream of consciousness"? Prepare for a taste of it here. Or at least in modified, sanitized form.

I have decided that I like the summertime. Not that I hate teaching or anything. In fact, sad to say, I already miss SOME of my students, and am already looking forward to reconnecting with old students and getting acquainted with new ones.

Why do I anticipate a new group of students? Simply put, I relish striking fear into young people's hearts, making them sweat bullets before each test because it's so hard, giving them nightmares over the grade they will receive on a paper, sending them home in tears after I rip them to shreds for their stupidity in front of their peers; it's all part of the game, and I love it.

Ok, if you are an administrator looking over my shoulder as I inch closer to the goal line known as tenure, please read this: I'M JUST KIDDING!!! If you know me very well, you know this already. But why is it that I look forward to a new year? And so soon after finishing the old one? I suspect maybe I'm crazy. But for some reason, thinking about being able to use all the old jokes and surprises with my new classes brings a smile to my face! Literally. What's wrong with a broken record if your audience is always new? There has to be something besides having fresh ears to hear old jokes/tricks that keeps me going. You wanna know what one of my favorite tricks is? The deadpan. I'm good at this, I think, although some family members think they know the trick (something to do with nose twitching). Yup, there's nothing like a good deadpan to get students worked up into a frenzy.

Example number one: A student nervously asks a question along these lines: "Mr. [my name], I heard we have to do a big research paper for this class. How long does it have to be?"

"You've heard about that, huh? Well, you don't really have to worry about it now. It's not until next semester. And it only has to be fifty pages long." [said with completely straight face, and utter nonchalance.]

Another good one, best used at the beginning of the year when students are not yet accustomed to the format of my tests. A student who really cares about getting a good grade--they seem to be few and far between, but believe it or not they do exist--asks "What exactly do we have to know for the test?" My reply: "Well, everything we've covered in class, all the outside of class homework readings. And look over the textbook chapter too. You should be ok if you memorize it." What's really fun is if you can get some of the gullible students to fall for this. After all, I tell my U.S. History juniors that this class will challenge them like none they have had to this point in high school. Junior year is the time to pick it up academically, and this course will help prepare them for college, etc. So I can get on occasion someone to start freaking out at my response.

These games are fun, but I don't think it's really why I want to return. Why is it? Simply put, I think maybe it is a gift from above. I've been given a passion for working with these kids. It's a field in which there is a lot of opportunity to have a positive influence on young minds. I think it's quite likely that I want my students to do better than about 95 percent of them want to themselves. The last five percent is really driven, and want at least as much I want them to do well.

This is kind of bizarre, isn't it. Is there a job like it? How many patients visit the doctor and don't want to be treated by him/her? How many customers take their car to a garage and don't want it repaired? How many consumers in general visit a place of business and don't want the help of the business, through goods or services. In my line of work, the service is often not wanted by the consumer, whether such service be good or not. What's the solution to this? I think it is to provide an opportunity for those who don't want the goods to leave the store. Permanently. You don't want to learn here? Go home. And don't come back. That would improve schools dramatically overnight, although it might create a lot of hassle for police officers on the streets, who would then have to deal with hooligans in broad daylight during school hours, and not just at night. Call us highly paid baby sitters if you want. That's what we are with those who don't want to learn.

But I digress. Why do I like summer? There are so many things to fill it up with! And I love my house. Did you know that? It's so nice to be able to hang out in a place I can call my own, toodling away at my various projects. What are those projects, you may ask? Here is an updated list of some ways I have spent my time so far, and hope to spend more time doing this summer:

1. Reading! I don't get enough time to do this during the year. Currently in the pot. From Beirut to Jerusalem. A highly entertaining book so far. Laugh out loud funny in spots, the antics of some of the characters in these allegedly true to life stories are so ridiculous. Radicalism of the American Revolution is another book I started. It won a Pulitzer prize for history, so it is supposed to be good. Basically the thesis is that the Revolution radically changed the way Americans thought and behaved. Gordon Wood wrote it. He's good, if you ever want to read some history a little less basic than David McCullough or Stephen Ambrose. History of the Middle East. Finished the other day. Good thing too. I thought I was going to use it for teaching my Middle East class, but it's way too complicated for some of my students. It would have been a waste of money to put my students through this, but it was helpful background reading for my own knowledge base, which is why I am reading all of the other books as well (some guy on leadership a group of us learned about extolled the virtues of expanding your knowledge in your field by reading more. I'm attempting, believe me!) O Jerusalem! I read it long ago in the days of B.S., but it needs to be read again as background for my class. And I'll probably have all my students read it. Truman by David McCullough. But that's on the backburner, I doubt I'll have time this summer. I'll also be needing to take a close look at a World History textbook or two, and take detailed notes on much of it in preparation for teaching the honors class next year. You wanna know how much I know about Chinese dynasties in the 3rd century B.C.? Next to nothing. Thus I read!

2. Playing video games! I almost forgot how fun this can be! Especially now that I have a new computer, I can now play games that are currently sold in the store, rather than looking at them wistfully only to put them back on the shelf after seeing that the requirements are more than my ancient machine could handle. But no more. I've enjoyed Civilization IV, which is also World History oriented, so can be justified playing! And I've been engrossed in Rome:Total War, also history oriented and loads of fun. Nothing quite like ordering around hundreds of Romans to smash the Gauls!

3. Transcribing the diary. I have a lot of work to do on this, as I head toward the goal of eventual publication, if the right doors open up. But it's a work of love, as one of my fellow teachers reminded me when I talked about the work I had to do with it. I have now printed off the 280 plus pages from the microfilm, and have begun to actually transcribe it word for word. I'm up to about page 5. And as I transcribe I have plenty of editorial decisions to make, with the help of a couple of books on the subject of editing historical documents. For example, what do you do with an 18th century manuscript that doesn't use standard spelling? Or what if you can't tell if a word is capitalized or not? And what if there is little to no punctuation? Or you can't read a word? Or it has been crossed out, should you put that in a footnote or indicate this in the text? There are certain rules and standards that fortunately have been set for me, but it's a process to pick which one I want to go with and then attempt to scrupulously follow it.

4. Reading/ordering/distributing scripts for my theater organization. I realized about ten days ago that I really need to get things going this summer as far as having my theater board read scripts and start thinking about what shows to do next year, as we need to make decisions quickly once the year starts. So I ordered several scripts, have read some, and am in the process of distributing them to various students. It helps to be so close to school so I can do this.

5. Attend events in which my school's students are involved. I have attended two plays this past week, both of which had students of mine in them. I like to do this to bless them, to get a taste of various shows and artistic ideas for future products I will direct, etc., as well as to scout out talent that is at my school, so I can direct my recruiting efforts if necessary. Of course, some people are basically out of reach. One student at my school has been in numerous professional productions already, and will probably be famous someday. Besides plays, I also went to a baseball game this week, in which one of my students pitched five innings in relief, gave up only one run, and earned a win. Pretty sweet.

6. Plot and plan for my upcoming trip South to work once again in the history program I've been involved with for two summers now.

7. Watch Red Sox baseball on occasion, though time is pressing.

Guess that's it. I won't bother to go back again and correct mistakes, so forgive the rambling nature of this post. But I have a video game that beckons, and there are only twenty four hours in the day. Summer is good, if too short. But on the other hand, I will enjoy immensely getting back into the classroom. So it's all good.

If You Want a Good Laugh

2006-07-04T23:20:00.000-04:00

If you want a good laugh, google my first and last name in quotation marks. You'll find I have made it onto the "ratemyteacher" website. I must claim this is a rare feat. Of the hundred and fifty or so teachers at my school, I think only about twenty of them have any ratings. And another of my students has posted a caricature of me online, complete with one of my favorite phrases. The website is on the second page of the google results. I was amused...

Reflections on the Year and Extant Coverings: Not to Be Confused with Textiles Produced and Exported from Persia to Europe in the Sixteenth Century

2006-06-26T22:11:00.000-04:00

In case you're wondering, I've been filling my brain with Middle East history the last couple of days, in an effort to prepare myself for the course I'll be teaching come September. And I was consumed with a desire to create a really long blog title, just to see if it could be done and what it would look like. Plus I think some of the erudition to which I have been exposed is rubbing off on me, so I have to show it by creating a long title worthy of a dissertation. But I digress.

The school year is over. The last exam has been corrected, the last grade verified and turned in, the last book stored away. They await another crop of eager, fresh-faced students, soon to be weirded out by my enthusiasm for history, overwhelmed by my high expectations, yet inspired by my natural charisma, which will push them to succeed beyond their wildest dreams (hey, it never hurts to set high goals as a teacher, even if I'm not there yet!). Despite various trials and tribulations, the year has been a very good one. It was better than the first, and the first wasn't even all that bad. But I enjoyed this year much better. And I think I like the second year's crop of students even better than the first (though don't tell them I said that!) I worked graduation again this year, and it was nice to be able to go around and extend good wishes to students I had in class the year before. Next year there will be about twice as many students in that category, many more of whom I think I have bonded with better than the first year.

I learned from some of my rookie mistakes, too. The first year I gave an end of the year survey shortly after three significant assignments had been turned in, within about a month's time. The survey was anonymous, and asked questions like "If you could change one thing about this class, what would it be?" and "Any other comments about this class." This set the stage for trouble. Those who were enraged with my grading, the workload, or whatever, often felt emboldened to complain vociferously about the class, and think they were anonymous in doing so. (They weren't really, as I had writing samples to match them up with if I cared to do so.) Comments included things like "I'd change the teacher," "The grading wasn't fair, I got marked down for things I wasn't told about," and "You don't get a good grade if you're smart, only if you work hard." Though all were not harsh, I wasn't particularly encouraged reading these surveys. It was somewhat depressing.

I did put parts of them to good use. I selected pieces of advice given for future classes and provided it as a handout to next year's class on the first day of school. Advice included things like "Do all your homework, it's hell to pull yourself back up if you get behind," "Don't mess with [my name]," "Don't believe all the rumors about [my name]," "Do your work and you'll be fine," etc. I then used it as a wakeup call to students to let them know that if they wanted to survive they would have to work. Most got the message, though a few of them will be taking the same course next year, and perhaps wishing they had listened a little closer the first time around.

Remembering that disheartening episode, I planned for a much different outcome this time around. This time I made one of the three assignments optional. It was an extra credit opportunity for those who wanted to help themselves. Then I planned a party for the classes to celebrate the hard work they had done. Then I gave them the surveys on the same day as the party, as or after they were all stuffing their faces with food and drink. Smart, huh? I think so! I took to heart a comment of a more experienced teacher who suggested that the current state of mind of a student had a lot to do with the feedback they would give. This time, the state of mind was a little better.

I also changed the survey to discourage those cowards who might want to take cheap shots in anonymity. I had them put their name on the survey. I narrowed the scope and content of the questions. I eliminated the "What would you change?" question and focused on the positive, such as subjects they enjoyed, things they liked about the class, etc. I still gave opportunity for them to advise future students. A few took cheap shots, like "take a higher level class, it'll be easier," or "get a different teacher." However, this time I'm accustomed to dealing with such immaturity, so it's not as big a deal. The kicker question was the last one. "Other comments to make [my name] happy, or convince him that he has taught a group of diligent, hard-working and mature students this year."

How's that for using a little psychological warfare? Brilliant, or what? I then told students that the survey was not designed for them to spout about how they hated the class. After all, if they did, I probably knew that already. Instead I told them it was an opportunity to provide constructive feedback.

The results were significantly different from last year. I also hope and have reason to think they were genuine. There was little reason for students to say nice things just because they wanted to make me happy. They knew it wouldn't change their academic standing. Some paraphrased comments:
"Before I thought history was boring, but you made it interesting."
"Thanks for believing in me" [from a student who had been lazy early on, but I had challenged her to maximize her potential, which is significant, and she picked things up admirably the rest of the year]
"I'm thankful to have a class where we actually learned something"
"This was one of the best classes I have had for how it prepared me for college"
"Despite what people say, you're an awesome teacher"
"Although at times I didn't enjoy it and complained, it was gratifying to earn a good grade, because I worked hard for it"
"Overall I enjoyed the class"
"Although at times the class was challenging and you graded hard, I enjoyed it"

These comments served as the kind of instant gratification for teaching that teachers aren't supposed to get. Students aren't supposed to say these things, until they are old and show up at your funeral, or if you're lucky at their school's fortieth anniversary or something.

Now to the covering part. After feeling very good about the whole year, on the last work day I went to a faculty shindig to socialize a bit, and got into a conversation with an English teacher. She expressed concern, because some of our mutual students came to her and expressed a fear that they didn't know how to write, because they got a bad grade on their research paper in my class. They were too scared to come and talk to me about it, thought I wouldn't care anyway, felt they were failures, etc. (This from one of the students who enjoyed the class overall!) Uh oh. The teacher encouraged the students to talk to me about their paper. But they never did. I was not surprised to hear of one of the student's worries, but was that another who I have a really good relationship with (in fact, she signed up to take another class with me) felt that way. Either it was a temporary feeling that was assuaged by later comments I made to her to build her up, or there's a serious lack of understanding about how I feel about my students, including her.

I think two things should be learned from this:

1. There's a great need to emphasize my care and concern for each student and their success, and to plead with them to talk to me about any grading they don't understand. I have done this a lot already, so was surprised to hear they were still scared/thought I didn't care. But maybe it needs to be repeated more. Or maybe I should try and speak to all students who get a poor grade, if I think they care.

2. That phenomenon referred to by some as the "covering." Generally the covering is spoken of as preventing people from seeing the reality of the things of God. But I have concluded that it can include veiling those who are bearing testimony to the character of God. This would certainly include compassion, concern, desire to see people do well, etc. I suspect the covering is a barrier--fortunately not insuperable--that has to be dealt with before students can clearly see and understand how I might feel toward them. If they could, they might know more about how God feels about them as well.

Prayer Helps

2006-06-09T17:03:00.000-04:00

For those of you who read my last post and were provoked to pray, a hearty thank you. Prayer helps, that's for sure. Although this situation is not fully resolved, and has left some unpleasant feelings about some students and how it has all played out, it has not made me hate my job or anything that drastic. And I don't think I'm permanently damaged. Grace has been granted to me. I'm learning that amidst the pleasure associated with working with teenagers comes occasional bouts of pain, such as I recently experienced. These bouts can leave scars, but are also learning experiences. I remind myself that I am working with fallen individuals who also lack a great deal of maturity. Remembering this gives perspective to everything, even if situations are not easy.

And there is so much positive involved in working with students that it is silly to dwell on the negative for more than short periods of time. One of my hispanic students in World History who failed the first semester and third quarter has turned himself totally around. He is now doing his work diligently and really trying on tests. He should pass the semester. This is a blessing, especially when so many others who fail to start with tend to continue in that pattern. I think for this student there is external motivation at work besides my natural charisma (which should be enough, but what can I say?), such as wanting to become a sophomore or avoid the wrath of parents. Nevertheless, it is nice to see positive change. I also have a bunch of diligent U.S. History students who have been pushed hard all year long, and continue to excel. I know some of them probably complain behind my back at the heavy work load. I am not an easy teacher for those looking to get a good grade without doing a lot of work. But I am proud of many of them. This includes those who have enough talent that they should be earning an A, and are, as well as students who do not have as much natural intelligence, but nevertheless work really hard and earn a B or B+. These types of students are a joy to teach.

Then there's also summer to look forward to, as well as next year's classes. I'm already anticipating a new crop of fresh minds to shape (like putty in my hand, heh, heh), as well as the return of students who like me enough that they have signed up for another class with me! I'm learning that for the professional teacher, the job never really ends. For those of you who think teachers "get their summers off," think again. Maybe this will ring true after years of experience, but for now I have a fairly large amount of work to do to prepare for next year's classes. Ever try to teach or prepare an honors level class for Ivy League bound students (and other "smart" kids) in a subject you are not very familiar with without a level-appropriate textbook? That's one of my jobs this summer! As a teacher I feel I should bring my "A" game to the classroom. This means staying ahead of the students, especially those with sharp minds who will eat you alive (or at least complain to their parents that you're an idiot) if they sense you are not well versed in the subject.

The honors class is only one of the new courses I have to prep. The other is a brand new class (History of the Middle East) that I have to design. And given the current budget situation in my town, I don't know if I'll even have a text to offer students to use. That's right, no text! This adds to the fun/challenge of teaching. But give me a roomful ("roomful" is not really a word, but it should be, so I'm using it as if it is) of students who want to learn the material--or at least pass the course--and teaching is a lot easier than dealing with a class where half of the students don't care what their grade is. Middle East should fall under the former category. Suffice it to say that summer will provide a nice change of pace, although it will be full of stuff to do. Bring on the reading list, transcribing, and learning/supervising those who are learning more history.

Your Worldview Helps

2006-06-01T20:13:00.000-04:00

Times are a wee bit hard right now. But it helps to have a worldview that expects opposition when you are doing good, wherever that may be. This was about the first response that came to mind when one of my co-workers asked me today how it is that I am not considering quitting my job right now. It's bad enough that I suppose some may consider leaving were they in my shoes. But since I believe I'm supposed to be here, I'm simply digging in for the long haul, hanging on for the ride, doing my best to not let it get the better of me, etc.

I won't go into the nitty-gritty, but it revolves around a student creating a myspace account in my name, with my picture, and saying nasty stuff about me on it. For those of you who don't know, some say this constitutes identify fraud (as opposed to theft). Fraud is a felony in my state, but I doubt the police will take the time or money to prosecute this one. The craziest thing is that the student, who has been nabbed, is someone I don't know from Adam. I can understand a vengeful student a little better than being targeted for some other reason. It seems to be motivated by homophobia. I suspect he went after me based on perceived sexual orientation. That's pretty ironic, I think, especially if you know me. Now don't accuse me of going off the deep end or anything, but I'm pretty much persuaded now that homophobia in the public schools is a serious issue. Not that I needed to be convinced any after an experience I had last year. But that's another story. Life goes on, I hang on.

Over the Hill and Punk Popes

2006-05-16T21:49:00.000-04:00

I guess I'm officially over the hill now. I got a letter in the mail awhile ago from AARP. It begins: Dear [my name], our records show that you haven't yet registered for the benefits of AARP membership, even though you are fully eligible... As a member, you'll have the resources and information you need to get the most out of life over 50."

What is this? I want to know, do they send this form letter out to everyone, and assume that anyone under 50 will simply discard it? Has anyone else nowhere near 50 gotten a letter like this? Or do they really have their records messed up somehow, and I'm in their system as a balding/greying man who is closer to retirement than his first year as a teacher? I'm tempted to sign up. Can you imagine cashier's reactions, were I to try to use an AARP card anywhere it is accepted? "I'll take that ten percent discount, please. Here's my card," I'll calmly state as I flash the pass. Or I might attempt to adopt a little croak in my voice, and use this line: "It's senior citizen discount day, isn't it? Pardon me, but I'm suffering from a rare disease that makes me look about twenty-five years younger than I really am. It's a pity more people don't have it. Ever hear of Ponce de Leon, sonny boy? I think I've found what he never did. Here's my AARP card, if you don't really believe I'm eligible." If I talk fast enough, maybe they'll believe me...

In other news, I learned something new about the pope today. Quoting a student's research paper on hippies: "There are Goths who prefer heavy-metal music and black, baggy cloths, there are also the skater punks who listen to a more popish version of the original punk music and wear tighter clothing than Goths." (Don't ask me how Goths relate to hippies; they don't, and he lost major points in the staying on topic category.) I didn't know that Goths wore baggy "cloths." And I didn't know that the pope has his brand of punk music. I bet that's something the cardinals didn't know about Benedict when they elected him to succeed John Paul II...

Fan Competitions and Facial Hair

2006-05-10T16:22:00.000-04:00

Even though I'm exhausted, and have many papers to correct and lots stuff to do (not to mention try and watch some of The Big Game tonight--the score is Red Sox 2, Yankees 0 so far, as I proudly posted on my chalkboard late in the day), I decided I have to share some random happenings in my school life.

One: Plagiarism is an awful issue to deal with. I'm having to deal with it in multiple cases with a major research paper I assigned to my students. Then I saw some news item about how its rampant, so one teacher's solution was to have most of the writing done in class. How lame is that? How can a student go through the important process of learning to do a research paper by writing it in class? I think the answer is they can't. So apparently some teachers are caving in to the moral depravity of mankind by having the writing take place in front of them. At the same time they're depriving them of a valuable learning experience. As for me and my class, students will write major research papers. And I suppose until the word gets around that I probably will catch you if you plagiarize, I do not tolerate it, and you could fail my class for doing so, students will continue to cheat this way. The hardest part has been confronting students for whom I have a lot of respect because of how well they have done to date. It's hard when students you have felt good about because of their past performance in your class get caught doing this. Sigh.

In other news, I decided to start a competition between my classes on a fund raiser. No, we're not raising money to cure AIDS, or end world hunger. We're raising money to buy 1, maybe 2 oscillating fans. For my classroom. I told my students it's going to get warm in the room shortly. 60 bucks will buy a sweet oscillating fan that is advertised as being quiet. (Quietness is key; I'm not putting a fan in the room that I have to yell over to be heard, thereby killing my voice in about one day's time.) As nice a guy as I am, I'm not going to spring that money myself. So we will raise it. It's purely voluntary, but the class that gives the most money will be able to eat and drink in class for a week. And we'll all be cooler. My sophomores and freshmen have given very little, but my four junior classes have put in about 45 dollars so far. And the campaign just started yesterday! I'm optimistic that come June a cooling, artificial breeze will be my constant companion in a potentially stuffy classroom. And I'm thinking about future drives for other items: a quiet, quality electric pencil sharpener ($35); an overhead projector ($300-400ish); a movie projector ($1000ish); ok, maybe not.

One thing I found really amusing was the negotiating tactic one class took while talking about this competiton. While all the classes wanted to barter for a better prize, one student suggested I should wear "the sweater" as a reward for them. (See previous post, from months ago for more info.) It has been referred to before in this class, but apparently the baggy sweater that made me look fat made quite an impression on my students. Now I can refer to it as "the sweater," and they all know what I am talking about. I wore it to school once. They still remember it, and are greatly amused by the memory of my wearing it, whenever the topic comes up. So I asked my class how many of them would be better motivated to give money if they knew I would wear "The Sweater" one more time. Hands shot up all over the room. So I promised them to wear it once, if they win. Right now they are ahead of everyone else!

Other fun. I decided to give a gift extra credit question on the test my U.S. History students took. This was it:
What should [my name] do with his facial hair?
A. Shave it off
B. Grow a full beard
C. Grow out the moustache, then curl it and wax it to fit his dictatorial persona
D. Keep it as it is, it's hot
E. I didn't notice [my name] had any facial hair

Many of them answered "C," and I'm wondering if they knew this question was a joke! I guess the joke's on me. Reaction to this question has amused me. One student thought the question was "sick." I think he doesn't have my sense of humor and realize it's a joke. Someone else asked if they were allowed to say answer D. (I didn't know calling a teacher's beard "hot" is a rule infraction). I cautioned some of my students to get the right answer, and expressed a hope with others that they had picked the correct choice. This caused some consternation, as some apparently thought that I was going to give them credit no matter what answer they gave (actually, I probably will, but it was more fun to play it along a little bit). At least one student didn't answer the question (what, too "cool" to answer a silly question? Too bad, no two extra points for you!) "Matt" (again, see previous post) elaborated on his answer, discussing about five different possibilities not listed, such as growing sideburns (which, according to him, would really make me "hot"), or dying it pink, then chose two answers. Haven't decided yet how to score that one.

Mexican Mormons

2006-05-02T16:48:00.000-04:00

At the expense of my one my students, I have to pass this along. (Little inspiration or being otherwise occupied will keep this short.) I justify my making fun of her by the fact that I also have great affection for her, so it's all in good humor. On second thought, I'd probably also make fun of any student I disliked, if given the chance. But suffice it to say that this one is not in that category...

It has to do with something that is common with high school students: a tendency not to use quite the right word in any given sentence. The poor word choices pop up rather unexpectedly in any given paper, and sometimes to my great amusement. Case in point: her paper on Mormonism included something like this: "Most Mormons live on the outskirts of America." I suspect she meant "outside" of America, as in Africa or somewhere. Nevertheless, in light of the recent hot news topic regarding (illegal) immigration, this conjures up a rather funny picture in my mind: Mexican Mormons lurking around the U.S. border, just waiting for their chance to hop the line and enter the country. Or maybe they just sit contentedly south of the border, singing hymns and reading the Book of Mormon...

Getting Sworn At, Mean Cop, and Laughs

2006-04-13T20:24:00.000-04:00

I think the only way I maintain my sanity is humor. That and a good dose of help from above. This is the second day in a row that I have been sworn at by a student. Maybe I should consider it to be some sort of hitting streak or something. Move over, Joe DiMaggio. I wonder what will happen tomorrow? To be honest, I really hope I don't have as eventful days for the next fifty-six. It could be a long spring.

The stories: yesterday a student exploded at me in my study hall after I told him for about the fifth time to take his assigned seat. "_______ you, are you happy now?" he exclaimed as he finally went to his seat. He'll probably get suspended (at least I hope he does, swearing at a teacher is kind of like a big no no that usually results in harsh repercussions. Or at least I think it should be.) Then today, as I was breaking up what was the makings of a fight between a couple of guys outside during my lunch, I told one of them to come with me, and he responded with something like "No way, you _____" and refused to comply. Too bad for him that someone else in the courtyard knew his name. I learned it, and reported it to the proper authorities. Three days suspension for him, whittled down from five because he gave the name of the student who he was going to fight. This nameless guy had refused to surrender his name, despite my request. So now it will be a suspension for him as well, as refusal to give your name to a teacher is an automatic one day vacation minimum.

Then a student comes to me after school today and practically begs for some way to bring up his third quarter grade from an F. The quarter ended last week. If he had made an effort to make up things before, when he had plenty of opportunity to do so, I would have been glad to help him. But now it's too little, too late. Unfortunately for him, this means he's academically ineligible to play baseball. He's on the varsity team. So now I guess I'm a mean cop for breaking up fights and failing varsity athletes. I feel slightly bad for my student, as I usually lean toward mercy when it comes to allowing makeup work, but you have to draw a line somewhere, and this student went significantly beyond it.

On the lighter side, I had my students peer edit their major research papers. Students were instructed to make comments and do editing however it was needed. It was anonymous, so they had some freedom to cast off inhibition, though they were not supposed to be mean. I don't know if this editor realized I would read the comment he/she put or not, but I laughed long and hard after seeing it in the margin of a paper: "Oh oh. Oh boy. ________'s [my last name] going to ream you out like a stack of papers! Where's your citation!? It's not common knowledge! Fix it & redeem yourself!" Apparently my message regarding plagiarism has sunk into the skull of at least one student. Small victories, that's what teaching is all about...

The Typical Teenage Mind

2006-04-11T20:36:00.000-04:00

A recent comment made by one of my students gives insight into the way I think most teenagers' minds operate.

The context: I'm planning on showing part of a war film in class, that, while unrated, deserves an R rating for its content, so I am requiring parents sign a permission form before I show their children the film.

The comment by a seventeenish girl, upon hearing about the permission form: "Oh, I love films that need permission forms. That means they're good."

See what I deal with on a daily basis? Ya gotta love it.

David and the Cyclops

2006-04-06T22:10:00.000-04:00

This is too good not to share. I don't have the exact words in front of me, but a freshman in my World History class wrote a description along these lines on a recent test:

"Michelangelo's David was a sculpture of the David in the Bible who defeated the giant cyclops." I guess the cyclops part was one of those things my Sunday School teacher overlooked in her lesson. It's too bad I missed that part, it kind of adds a nice touch to the story.

The Butt of Jokes

2006-03-24T22:19:00.000-05:00

Do you ever have the experience where you approach a group of people, and immediately one of them bursts into laughter, or they were all laughing and suddenly clam up? Either way, the suspicion is always there in the back of your head that they have just been talking/laughing about you, so your sudden presence causes them to alter their behavior. This happens to me on occasion with students. It's a pretty common phenomenon. Heh, heh, it probably has something to do with the fact that I'm such a lightning rod of a figure, everyone either loves me or hates me, so either way they're always talking about me when they see me around. (I can just imagine what those who hate me say: "There goes Mr. ___, that fat blankety blankety blank. I'll bet he's gonna come by and say something about U.S. History!") In fact, today I approached a group of students in the library at a table. Interestingly enough, all of them were either current or former students of mine. I say hi to one of them, and another girl bursts into spontaneous laughter, and tells the others "That's the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life." "Huh?" Obviously I'm missing something, so I ask her what she means. She doesn't care to elaborate, and doesn't. I'm left in the dark to shrug it off or ponder what it means.

If I was a peer of these students, I'd obsess over it a lot more than I am. Probably I'd have some major issue over whether they think I'm weird or something. Thankfully I'm mostly above that with students, though naturally I'm curious. (I mean, after all, why worry much about the opinions of teenagers who pay big bucks to buy jeans with rips in them? In case you didn't know, this "ripped jean" look is the rage these days, and can be purchased for a mere 90 bucks at Abercrombie and Fitch, or some such type store I think. So I don't have much confidence in their value judgments.) But as a teacher these types of things come up quite often, so you learn generally to ignore it. Actually, most of the time such things are over something totally unrelated to the teacher. And given what things most students find funny, it's probably just as well that I don't know. Based on Claire's recently revealed ability to imagine things about Omar, maybe she could come up with some possible explanation of this incident. It's just another part of being a teacher: you learn to ignore some quirkiness in students, even while mocking them at whatever chance you get.

Yes, I'm Alive, and Entering "The Ring"

2006-03-22T20:49:00.000-05:00

For my avid South African fans out there, who have been worriedly gnawing their fingernails over my lack of blogging, wondering whether I have dropped off the face of the earth, or just been sick, have no fear. Yes, I was sick, but I am alive and kicking. Just haven't felt like blogging recently. There's also the time issue, although that's not any real excuse, as I had a week of vacation since the last post, so could have written if I felt like it.

Things are busy, but here's some general news.

Matt update: he also picks his nose in class. Yes enthusiastically making comments about how he loves me, and picking his nose in class. I had kind of seen it before, so wasn't terribly surprised when I saw him doing it today, but it was still pretty gross. I guess it shows you that some inhibitions are a good thing once in a while.

On acting: I'm directing another show now, this time a comedy. It's The Importance of Being Earnest. Should be a good one. We'll probably be spending a couple of thousand to make this a memorable performance. It has some serious set demands, which are a little scary to contemplate, but I suspect it will all come together.
I was cast in Beauty and the Beast, but not as anything significant. I'm in the adult ensemble, non-dancing. So basically I'm in three songs, I collect my paycheck, and go home. Or something like that. Actually, I'll also eat plenty of free pizza at the restaurant down the street from the theater, before going home. (It's an establishment that loves the shows where I'm performing, so gives the actors free pizza afterwards. It's a nice perk.)

In other news, I have officially begun my political career. Yes folks, you can expect to see me in a run for the presidency in 2032. But right now you can call me director S. For today I was appointed as one of the board of directors for my condo association. I went to the yearly meeting to be involved as an association member, and it turns out they needed someone else to serve on the board. After the meeting they asked me if I was interested, I asked some questions, found out it was not a huge commitment, so said they could put my name down for consideration. The board met for about three minutes while I waited outside, then let me in as the newest board member. I will be involved in the financial decision making process for association business. We actually decide quite a few things. Should be a good learning experience. And it's pretty much a huge springboard toward taking over one of our senator's seats in 2014. So expect great things from me in the political ring.