What In Tarnation?!?!?

Halloween is just around the corner. The day that all sugar deprived kids dream of.

On of my favorite Halloween candies is Hershey’s Miniatures. All the tastey chocolate crammed into one tiny little bar. Even better you can choose from four yummy flavors: Milk Chocolate, Special Dark, Mr. Goodbar, and Krackel. All four have their plusses. All four are nummy but everyone have a favorite.

Think of your favorite miniature and then visit this site to tell you more about your personality.

Here is how mine rounds out:

K: Krackel
K-preferrers (”Krackel”) are indications of a happy, almost irreverent aspect of the personality. Strong K-preferrer indications are emotional lability, giggles or laughter when socially inappropriate, and making little toys out of the candy wrappers. Extreme K-preferer metrics may be indicative of a manic complex; poor impulse control and random-victim violence is associated with high Krackel preference. Conversely, K-refusers are associated with long-term depression and codependent self-image.

Secondary observations: Consumption mode
…”chew entire” (CE) mode, which is indicative of a loosening of control and an increase in the demand for instant gratification.

So which miniature is going to disappear from my bag first. Let me know by voting below.

By the way, the voting box seems to make some of the text above it disappear. To veiw the missing text just highlight.
____

So do you believe in ghosts? (Don’t worry it is not another poll.) I didn’t until I saw this. Press save to veiw this PowerPoint (you don’t need PowerPoint to view it) that has a size is 377,344 bytes. Get it now before I delete it off the server.

Class dismissed!

PS Points for the person who can name the Halloween classic movie from which this post gets its title. Let me know in the comments.

My whole class decided to take a mental vacation without telling me in advance so I could get a sub. It was pretty sad. No, that doesn’t completely describe the level that the class sunk to today.

In math we were learning about the problem solving strategy, guess and check, where student make a guess as to the answer and then check to see if it is correct and then make an educated guess based from the information of the first guess. Needless to say these problems have many steps to them. In other words, this is not a concept that should be taught on “Mental Vacation Day.” Here are some exciting excerpts from our discussion during the lesson:

Me: So we have decided that our guess shouldn’t be above 22. So what would be another guess based on the information that we have?

Student: [Stunned silence] Ummm… 31?

- - - -

Me: Alright, go ahead and make a guess.

Student: [Stunned silence] Ummm… but I don’t know the answer.

Me: Riiiight! That is why we need to make a guess.

Student: I don’t get it.

Me: Just pick a number.

Student: But if I don’t know the ans-…

Me: Any number…

Student: So, I just need to guess?

Me: YESSS! Just guess.

Student: But it won’t be right if I guess.

Me: That’s where the check part comes in, Guess and Check!

Student: I can’t think of one…

- - - -

Me: Whew! So we finally got to this step, what is nine plus five?

Student: [Stunned silence] Ummm… three?

Me: Wow. That was stunning.

It was around this point that I gave up and told them to put up their books. We will be revisiting this concept tomorrow.

- - - -

Later in the day we had a theme test in reading and language arts. In the section we did today they had to use information that they read to write the first two paragraphs of a research paper. I gave instructions and that is when the chaos and hilarity ensued. You should note that we spent TWO AND A HALF WEEKS on research papers. During that time we went over fact and opinion, introduction and conclusion, paragraph formatting, main idea, the list goes on. I had questions like: “What’s an introduction?” “How do I write an introduction?” “So we aren’t writing a whole research paper?” “What about the other questions I came up with? When do I answer those?” “It’s gonna be tough to cram a whole research paper into two paragraphs.”

I warned the science and social studies teacher that they were not all here today. When I picked up her class for math. I went through the same math lesson with the other class. Here are some samples from that discussion:

Student: This is easy!

- - - -

Student: Wow, I guessed the right number on the first time!

- - - -

Student: You don’t have to do another example!

When we switched back the science/social studies teacher had the nerve to tell me, “We had a really good discussion today. Very productive!”

That’s when it hit me! I accidentally spoke in Latin the whole morning, or that is the only explanation that I can come up with.

So folks, mark your calendars! I am taking a mental vacation on Friday, and it’s going to be fun! You can join me, we can make Friday both Halloween and Mental Vacation Day!

Discipulus dimitto!

8:02 pm: You should be watching the season premiere of 24 instead of reading this. Actually, right now is a half-hour commercial for Ford.

So much for commercial free.

Class dismissed!

8:04: It finally started. Looks like it may start with a bang.

8:06: The security guard was using a Dell, he is a bad guy.

8:08: I wonder what is going on over on Joe Schmo.

8:11: Oh to the throat! Nice! Am I supposed to remember this prisoner?

8:12: Ford product placement and a numonic something or other type III biological threat.

8:15: Jack is putting the peices together.

8:16: The president is still alive (but I knew that already).

8:17: The Pres. show some weakness, but only to the principal from Buffy, must be some advisor.

8:23: Starting to wish that I had cooked dinner earlier so I can pay more attention and read the subtitles when they speak in spanish.

8:25: His daughter is working at CTU! I hope they don’t have any bobcats in the building.

8:27: Is Jack feeling the effects of the radiation from last season?

8:29: Well the guy that Jack’s daughter is dating HAS to be a bad guy.

8:31: I’m glad I don’t live near LA. If it isn’t atomic bombs it is viral threats.

8:32: Is the viral infection going to be spread through illegal drugs?

8:35: Jack is working on a yummy PowerBook. According to my theory his is a good guy.

8:49: I just got the feeling that the Doc is evil and now the Doc is sucking face with the president. He doesn’t have a good record with the ladies.

8:52: The remote control lights are cool but Jacks attitude needs to change. And the drug habit probably isn’t a good thing.

8:54: Don’t do it Jack! Yeah that’s my boy. Oops, a little pity party.

8:55: And now for the rest of the silly commercial and a stupid one at that.

The updates were done in real time.

8:57: Preview for next week. And it looks like I might be right about the illegal drugs and the evil Doc. Maybe.

One of the few things that I watched on TV last week was I Love the 80’s Strikes Back.

While watching the 1981 episode I made a little quiz for you to test you listening comprehension. You may answer in the comments.

1. What is the name of Gargamel’s cat from the Smurfs?

2. Who sang Super Freak? Bonus: What is no fun to get in your eye?

3. The creators of Magnum P.I. went on to create what other great shows?

4. Who is a stunt man by day, bounty hunter by night, and stud all the time?

5. Who was the manservant on Hart to Hart?

6. What movie from ‘81 reminds us to be thankful for computer animation in movies?

7. What shoe fad hit the fashion world in ‘81 that caused blisters?
____

One quiz:

STAND UP: You are a natural stand-up comedian. You
watch the news with people, and when you give
your opinions, people start laughing. They are
not laughing at you, they are laughing because
what you say is so TRUE. The world is a very
funny place, full of natural comedy. All you do
is repeat various humorous things that you
notice from everyday life. Your unique
perspective on the world is what makes you so
funny. Of all the various comedy types, you may
be the funniest of them all!

How funny are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
_____

Read an interesting article concerning how political parties typically approach education and how that has changed with No Child Left Behind.
____

Jared has good taste in music.

Class dismissed!

A special thank you to the folks that kept WIT?!?!? fresh and tasty every day while I focused on my teacherly duties.

Bene Diction of Bene Diction Blogs On

Michael Morgan of Time to Believe

Sophorist of Sophoristically Speaking (who is pulling triple duty, while he is filling in for Tony as well)

Tim Butler of asisaid

Bryan McAnally of Clarity amidst Chaos

They were all great and it was interesting to see what each of them brought to What in Tarnation?!?!?

So again…

and

I have a text file of stuff to post as well as some thoughts on the conferences. All in good time, my friends, all in good time. Let’s not OD on my first post back!

Class dismissed!

It has been a delightful fall here in Missouri this year; crisp mornings usually around 50 degrees moving up to 60’s and 70’s later in the day. One day this week we had 90 degree weather! It looks like it might finally be wrapping up though — it is rainy and 53 today.

I have mixed feelings about that. I love it when you can go outside and not be hot or cold… although, at the same time, in a few weeks it won’t seem right it wasn’t a little brisk outside. I mean, once we get into November, I’ll be itching to put my Christmas trees up, but 70 degree weather and Christmas trees just don’t seem quite right together.

At any rate, a nice rainy day sometimes is a good thing — it always seems peaceful sitting inside listening to the rain.

Q. Who was the greatest financier in the Bible?
(more…)

Bryan here. One more quick rant about school. Kelli came home from the parent teacher conference to say that Kaylyn would still be receiving an email address there at the school. yeah…i pretty much put the ‘dad veto’ on this little endeavor. i don’t dig the concept of the teacher getting access to anything to my child that i as a parent do not. i’ve said i’ll go for it if i am forwarded copies of everything that she gets and sends.

overboard? perhaps. but let’s remember, she’s six. and i’m the dad. i make no apologies for any of this.